Beach Day One and Two-a fraction of the pictures

We arrived! After a detour at the zoo in Norfolk, VA, we arrived at the condo. The girls changed into suits and were at the beach within 5 minutes.

View from our condo deck:

Macy's first trip into the ocean with Bobby:

Kaylin's first trip into the ocean with Bobby:

After a fun afternoon and evening, we went for a walk along the beach. The kids started dry, and ended up completely soaked, of course. This is the view Rod, Julie, Bobby and I saw the whole walk"





Sweet Kaylin has had sand all over her body:

How I have spent my time:


Lovely shot from the bottom of our stairs:

Sleeping arrangements for the kids:

Popsicles after dinner, before the nightly walk

This afternoon we had a rousing game of ladderball, which I still continue to suck at:


No real stories to tell; just lots of sand, sea and play. The water is cold, but hasn't held them back much. The air temperature is a little chilly too, but that hasn't held them back much either. And I've already taken about 200 photos. :)

Day two: Louisville to Williamsburg

Day Two: Head out. Drove through the remaining part of Kentucky, then enter the Wild and Wonderful West Virginia.

This drive changed my mind as what West Virginia looked like. I imagined coal mines and hillbillies--stereotypical, I know. But it was really pretty! Lots of rolling hills, tons of dark green trees. All these were taken from the car window while driving, hence the power lines and street poles. :)




Enter Virginia! Last state of the day. Lots of yelling and cheering, from all four.

Kaylin got bored and colored on herself with a highlighter and pen, and gave herself tattoos.


I got bored and took a picture of my eye with sunglasses on.

This drive was very pretty too...more of the hills, some bigger as we went through the Shenondoah and Blue Ridge Mountains.





Macy passed us a note...

They found a caterpillar and tried to feed it a cheeto


Loved this shot at the last rest stop.


I remember when my brother first moved to Atlanta and then came back for a visit, he said "where did all the trees go!" I thought, "how strange, doesn't he see all the trees?" Next time I went to Atlanta, I saw what he meant. Trees all over the place!!!!

Virginia (or what we have seen of it) is the same way. Driving down the highway, it's wall to wall trees. You can't see any of the town you just drove by, or what is at the bottom of the exit ramp, or even the other side of the highway! It's almost suffocating for someone with a touch of claustrophobia. Very, very pretty though!

Day One: KC to Louisville

All set to go...movies in DVD player, no one is yelling yet... they were sad to leave the dogs, though.


Picnic lunch in Concordia...

Oh so excited about this familiar sight...

Crossing our first state line...

Can't tell you much about what happened across the great state of Illnois. I finished a book, they got in trouble, and so forth and so on. Over and over, with views of cornfields and soybeans.

Pulled in for dinner at a rest stop...wait a minute, is that what I think it is?

It was! A park, complete with tire swing. This helped run off any extra energy and made everyone very happy.








Final state for the day.

Crossing the huge Ohio river

Kaylin finally gave in, and crashed out on her armrest. She snored. It was cute!


We stayed right by the University of Louisville. Rolled in at 8:50, and the pool closed at 9. I convinced the front desk lady to let us swim until 9:30, so all was well. Had we not been able to swim, it would not have been pretty.

Today was hard. I think because Missour and Illnois are boring states, and we seen the scenery so much!

We're off!

Two long days of driving ahead...

We have plenty of movies and books.

I wish we could afford to fly, but this way the girls will get to see the country, right? :) And we don't have to pack in small suitcases. We can fill the entire back of our car with beach toys, like we've done.

Because I'm cool, and because everywhere has wireless, I'll be updating my blog. I want this blog to serve as a memory base for the girls as they get older, so I will update with pics and stories.

Happy Friday!

Random Wednesday...

Too bad there's not some catchy alliteration I could use for Random Wednesday--this will just have to work!

Yesterday, I stopped to properly look both ways before I backed out of the driveway. It was raining to the west of our driveway, but not the east. I guess our driveway was the cut off point. Never seen that before!

I wonder how many times I am going to turn on the light switch in my shower, forgetting the light is burned out. Or maybe one of us could actually change the light bulb...

Every day after the girls get on the bus, I walk/run the 4 mile trail by our house. I've been seeing the same people every morning. No conversation more than a "Good Morning" or a head nod has transpired between us, but I will miss these people next week while we're gone. I've given them nicknames:

Man with Brown Poodle
K-State Man (always has a different K-State shirt)
Tiny Vietnamese Lady
Man on Bike with Weird Eyebrows
Fast Walking Lady with Stopwatch

That makes me wonder, have they given me a nickname? Here might be some choices:

Face Gets Really Red
Looks like She's Going to Die
Breaths Heavily
Runs Slowly

That's enough random thoughts for me today. I'm off to get my hair cut, do more laundry, take a nap and read. Such exciting plans.

Not Me Monday

I did not bribe my children with a bouncy ball from Walmart if they went down a water slide. Nope, I never bribe my children. They do everything for the joy of it.

And the week before? I did not push my child down a water slide as she was crying. Nope, I would never do that to a child! (For the record, she looooooovvvveeed it and did it about 35 times in a row after that.)

I did not put Kaylin to sleep in her clothes just so I wouldn't have to get her dressed in the morning. Nope, my kids always sleep in proper pj's.

I have not totally enjoyed both kids being in summer school this week. I have not enjoyed taking naps, going to Oceans of Fun, reading THREE books in one week! Nope, I was not a total lazy bum this week!

I did not watch two episodes of Wizards of Waverly Place and one Hannah Montana tonight after my children were already in bed. Nope, I would never watch shoes on the Disney Channel as an adult.

And I am not counting the minutes until our beach vacation. I can feel the sand between my toes!!!

Time on my hands

I have a new career path in life.

I'm going to be a stay-at-home mom whose kids are in school.

This week has been great! After I put the kids on the bus, I've been able to:

walk 4 miles every day
go to Walmart and Target by myself
take a nap
wash dishes
do laundry
take lunch to them
hang out at Oceans of Fun by myself, while reading a book and getting some sun
get new tires put on
read blogs, Facebook as much as I want.
take naps (oh, did I already mention that one?)

Then when the girls get home, I am rested and can really enjoy them because I've done everything during the day while they've been gone!

Truthfully, I would last about a month before I would go crazy. But it sure is nice right now! I don't ever want to hear from stay-at-home mom's (with all their kids in school, not the ones who still have little ones at home) about how they don't have time to do something. They have all the time in the world, and I am going to be so jealous when I have to go back to work this fall!