Virginia Beach Vacation

We had a great time on our vacation. We went to Virginia Beach with Pete and Jami Manternach and their two kids, Tyler and Carson. Pete and Jami are great friends of ours from our Army days. Pete (my Pete) went to school with both of them. It was about an eight hour drive for us. We were a bit nervous about how the drive would go, but it went very well. In fact, it went so well that we are actually considering driving home for Thanksgiving! I was also a bit nervous about being at at the beach with the kids for a whole week. Especially since we were not at a resort with a ton of other things to do. But the kids did fantastic. It was awesome to see them enjoy themselves so much. And vacationing with our friends was great. Tori was always referring to Pete M. as "the other Pete- not the one your married to". It was so cute.

We rented a house that was right across the street from the beach entrance. Location was key.....there were a lot of bathroom trips! The house was.....er, not so great. But it worked and we really did not spend a ton of time in the house. Our daily schedule was as follows:

* Wake up

* Eat breakfast

* Get sun screen and suits on

* Go to the beach for hours

* Back to the house for lunch

* Back to the beach for a few more hours.

* Back to the house

* Shower children outside

* Make and eat dinner

* Put the kids to bed

* Drink margaritas and play cards

* Go to bed

Yep, that pretty much wraps up our vacation! We did not do a whole lot more than hang on the beach! And that is my kind of vacation!

We did manage to exercise on a few days.

We adults got one night out! Pete and Jami go to VA Beach every year so they have a babysitter there.

The kids also had a couple of nights out. We let them ride their bikes down the boardwalk to get some ice cream one night. On our last night, we went to a little carnival type amusement park. And, of course, we spent some time in those overpriced souvenir shops!

Here are a few pictures from this past week.

Pete caught a little sting ray.

Alli and Carson are mermaids. They had a lot of fun together.

Tori spent hours building sand castles and decorating them with sea shells.

Run Katie Run! Katie loved to run into the water. She would lay down and splash around for about a minute, get back up and run back to me. She would tell me how cold it was and then turn around and repeat this- over and over again.

Tyler is really good at boogie boarding. Next year he gets a surf board!

Pete had a great beard by the end of the week.

What a nice way to end our vacation- Go-Cart racing!

Pete V. vs Pete M.

Vacations are always learning experiences. I am always leaving a vacation and saying next time we should do this or next time we wont do this. As always, I learned a few things from this vacation:

1.  Ultimate Margarita Mix must be refrigerated after opening......major intestinal problems will result if it is not refrigerated.

2.  Kids can be entertained for hours upon hours on the beach with nothing more than buckets and shovels.

3.  You can never have enough snacks for a day at the beach.

4.  Kids will still eat their snacks even if it has sand in it.

5.  No matter how long you leave windows and doors open, you can never really get rid of the moth ball smell.

6.  Never do all your laundry before leaving a rent house that smells like moth balls. When you return home and open up your suitcase, all the clean clothes will smell like moth balls and need to be rewashed.

7.  The sand is never completely gone.

8.  While going to the beach with your kids there is no need to bring a book........unless your name is Pete.

9.  Digging holes in the sand is considered a workout when you are on vacation.

10. Not all kids will pee in the water.