Summer Vacation Days ~7-9~ VB and Home

We spent 3 more days at VB and we had lots of fun every day we were there.

We spent most of our time in the ocean water splashing in the waves.

Katie and Zach both have boogie boards so they got to be pretty good at riding the waves by the time we left.













Aaron does not like to get his face wet so he spent most of his time holding onto someone when he was in the water.

Everyone was having a blast wading in the water but the waves were pretty strong and all of us were taken out by them at one time.
             

Aaron spent most of his time playing in the sand and loved every minute of it.  It also made my job easier because I knew where he was and most of the time it wasn't in the water.

A few blocks down from our hotel they had this really cool fishing pier but it coat quite a bit of money to walk out onto it so we just walked around it for a while.

Our second night there we walked down the street where they have a carnival area and we all rode on the big ferris wheel.  My mom really wanted us all to go so even though John and Katie were scared of going so high in the air they were good sports and came along anyway. None of my kids or John had ever been on before so it was fun to be with them for their first ride.  Aaron is my brave one and loved every minute of it, while I had to pry off Katie and John's hands off when the ride was done.

Our last day we rented this 4 person bike and we rode it up and down the bike path that is along the beach.  They have all of these statues in between the hotels so we took advantage while riding our bike to stop and take some pictures.

The last 2 nights we were there we walked down the board walk and saw a bunch of circus acts and of course had ice cream.

 

We had a great time and loved being able to spend time at the ocean but we were very sandy and ready to go home.  It was a great vacation spent doing many fun things.  We loved that we were able to see my family and that we were able to spend time with my parents as well.  We had a long 11 hour drive home and of course we got stuck in NYC traffic so we were very excited when we pulled into our driveway late that night! Except that we were met by a skunk in our driveway and when he saw our lights he ran right to our front porch.  Being very tired and wanting to get out of the car I bravely got out and tried and scare him away which didn't work so the kids all ran around to the back door and luckily he was gone in the morning.  Not such a great way to end our trip but we were very happy to be home again.

Summer Vacation ~Day 6~ Virignia Beach

 Monday we woke up very early to get a good start on the day for our 9 hour drive to Virgina Beach.

 We made really good time driving but as we were getting closer we ended up driving through a huge rain storm. We made it safely to our hotel and were so excited to see the view from our room.  We have never been able to stay right on the beach like this so it was so cool to be able to hear and see the ocean from our room.

 My parents came along with us so we meet up with them for some lunch.

 After lunch we couldn't wait to head out to the beach so we had a nice short walk to get to the ocean.

 It was warm out but still very cloudy but that didn't stop us from wanting to go right out into out into the warm ocean water.

The kids were having a blast and even my dad didn't want to wait to get in so he jumped in clothes and all.

We all had fun in the water but the waves were pretty big so we couldn't go out very far.  The kids have never been in big waves like this before so they were having a blast.

The storm we drove through to get there came through and the life guards cleared the beach because of the lightning.  Se we all went inside to get changed and rest from our long drive.  Its amazing how fast a full beach can be cleared it was amazing.  It was fun to watch the storm roll over and the lightning out in the water.  Even though our first day was cut short it was a great way to start our second half of our vacation.

Summer Vacation ~Day 5~ Relaxing with the Family

 Sunday was a day spent chilling out on the couch and spending time together.

Ben had a flight to catch in the morning and Susan and Nick needed to get on the road to be home in time for Nick to be back to work Monday morning so we hung out with them and all took turns holding William one last time.

While we were all saying goodbye, William was hanging out with Uncle John for a few more minutes and helped him out with some work he needed to catch up on.

 

The rest of the family that was still around got together for dinner and we all helped out to get the food ready and to clean up after.

After dinner all of the cousins got together and played a bunch of board games for a few hours, they all got along really well and they had a great time. While the kids played the adults had time to visit and catch up and it was so nice to just be together for a while.  Near the end of the evening the cousins were all sitting at the table playing apples to apples. They were so funny with their answers we couldn't stop laughing.  It was a great way to have them spend the day together before everyone went back home.  It was a very busy, but a very fun weekend spent together as a whole family. It was fun while it lasted but we all had to go our separate ways in the morning and it was very sad to say goodbye again.

Summer Vacation ~Night 4~ Reception

We had a nice ride to TN and met everyone at my sister Cathy's house to rest a while before changing and going to Emily and Spencer's reception.

 

 We helped finish setting up and getting the food out for the reception. We were able to talk with the wedding party before the bigger crowd came.

 After we got something to eat and sat around to chat with our family they started some music and Katie was very excited to get up and dance.  He cousin Josh was more than willing to have some fun with her so they went out on the dance floor so sweet! Katie also was able to dance with her dad and they had a good time.

 

 It was nice to see my parents get up to dance as well.  My mom was a little tired but looked great that night.

Toward the end of the night we all got up to do the Chacha slide we all had so much fun and it was a great way to end the night.

The night was winding down and everyone was saying goodbye to Emily.  It was a great day very busy but still lots of fun.  We were so happy to be here for Emily's Wedding and the kids had a blast hanging out with their cousins again.  We are so happy for Emily and Spencer and wish them all the best.  It was a great night but we were very tired and ready to get some sleep.

Summer Vacation ~Day 4~ Wedding Day

 Saturday we all got up early and got ready for Emily's wedding. We had to pack the car and be dressed which was hard after getting in so late the night before but we all made it and everyone was looking good.   Emily and Spencer were married in our LDS Temple so the kids could not come in so they all waited outside while the couple was married. It was wonderful that John and I were able to sit with my parents and siblings for this special day. 

Katie and her cousin Amanda were the flower girls in Emily's wedding party and they both looked so cute together and they loved being able to help out on this special day.

 After the wedding and pictures were done well all went inside to have some lunch and hang out together and cool down after being out in the hot weather.

After lunch was done all of the families changed and the kids had fun running around and hanging out together. Its hard for our kids to get to know there cousins since we all live so far apart so its a special time that they all get some time to be together.

We took advantage of us all being together and had a family photo taken.  It has been over 11 years since we have all been together so it was a perfect time to have it done.  We were missing my one older brother and his wife but other than them we were all together.

 

Each family had a color and of course we chose red and I think our picture turned out really good.

 Each family had there individual pictures taken then we had all the cousins get together for a picture and it turned out great. This is the first time we have been able to get a picture of them in about 4 years so I was so glad to have us all together.

After a very busy first half of our day we had to climb into our very full car and drive about 3 hours back up to TN and then get ready for Emily's reception that night.  It has been great spending time with our family and now we are heading back into the car for a fun party later.

Summer Vacation ~Day 3~ Hanging with our Cousins

 After our much needed restful night of sleep we went out to meet with my sister Jennifer's kids.

We meet up at an old Civil War Battle Field.  My dad came along and had a blast hanging out with 8 of his 13 Grand kids. 

 We drove to the top of this hill where there were old cannons all around where they would shoot at the enemy below.

 The kids had a good time time hanging out together and climbing on the rocks.  It was neat to look out on the city below.

We all went out to lunch together and had a great time catching up.  From there all the kids went back to the hotel where we meet up with Susan, nick, and William. All the kids went swimming with Ben, Susan and Nick in charge while the rest of us adults went with Emily to the Atlanta Temple.
Once we were done at the Temple we had a family dinner put on by Emily's Husband to bes family, but our kids were not invited so John and Jennifer's husband Jeremy stayed behind with the kids.  It ended up being a long night and we didn't get our food till very late but that gave us a chance to spend time together.  It was a fun day but the real craziness was to come in the morning so we all got some much needed rest for the big day a head.

Summer Vacation ~Day 2~ Atlanta

After driving all night we were able to get into our hotel room early and get cleaned up before we headed out to meet my dad and brother.

Atlanta is the HQ for Coca Cola and they have a World of Coca Cola museum so of course we had to make sure we made it there. This is were we meet my dad and youngest brother Ben who we have not seen in years.

  We had to wait in a line outside in 100 degree weather it was really humid out I don't know how people live down south I was dying just walking to the building.

They had some really cool things to see inside like these huge bottles.

They had this huge touch screen to learn about the company around the world.  They had this really cool 4D movie where the seats moved it was really fun.

We walked around looking at all the cool things and information they had. They have an area where you can taste different soda from around the world and most were pretty awful but we did find a few that were really good.

They had the Coca Cola Bear so we had our family picture taken, but Aaron didn't want anything to do with him.

We had a great time and saw many cool things but everyone was tired from driving all night so we headed back to our hotel to take a quick swim and head to bed early.