June 2-14, 2009 Trip to VA

Not long after the final school bell rang, we left Hannah to care for the house, and headed south to drop off the 3 younger kids at Josh's house and head to the airport for Virginia . It was the best feeling in the world when we landed and could feel the immediate heat and humidity of Virginia. Even better, we made it just in time for a week of severe thunder storms! I love those storms! We slept like babies throughout the storms! Unfortunately, that first night we were there, two local boys were struck by lightening and one was killed.

I really should break this up into 3 different blog posts, but you'll just have to plan on a lot of time for this one!


We started off the trip at Jean's house. Always a fun and comfortable place to hang out! When the weekend hit, I and a few of my best VA friends headed to Williamsburg for girl's night at the condo. We ate out and then hit the hot tub inside the condo. It was hilarious when all 6 of us well-endowed women got into the tub and immediately overflowed the water! Thanks to Marcia for bailing us out!

We stopped at Rita's (about 5 times throughout the trip) for some Gelati. YUMMY! It has ruined ice cream for me! Then, being the frugal shoppers we are, we hit some yard sales! I found a Rainbow vacuum attachment that made my heart sing! Then we were off to the potter outlet for some very scary shopping. It was so much fun spending that kind of really close time with my friends!





Jean's flashy ring she got at the yard sale. I was able to get souvenirs for the kids from the yard sales!

We spent a lot of time going to Busch Gardens. We went ahead and got fun cards and went about 5 times!

Alex got picked out of the crowd to dance with this sweet little Dutch girl in Oktoberfest.

James and I had some much needed us time at the condo. We went to a movie Wolverine, and at at Captain Georges all you can eat Seafood Buffet, and just relaxed and ate banana splits in the condo. We really enjoyed ourselves!

Captain Georges! We had the waiter demo how to eat everything.

We ended the trip by going to Virginia Beach. It started pouring rain, but as we drove closer and closer to the beach, we saw this beautiful rainbow and by the time we hit the beach, it had cleared completely up! We ate a ton of seafood and had just the BEST time ever! My hair and nails and skin were great. I really miss that, but I miss the people most of all!

We found this sandcastle that some kids had made earlier and James and Alex spent the next hour watching the tide wash it away.

Ahh, texting on the beach!
The food was the best in VA. Here we are at Rudees on the Pier.

Special thanks goes out for those we left behind: the kids, my brother and sister in law who took the kids for several days, my parents who took the kids for a week, and the Adams who kept Hannah happy. Also all of those people who "would have" mowed our lawn for us if it had stopped raining in ID for more than a few hours!

Also, special thanks to Mandy for letting us use her van, and Jean for letting us stay free of charge, Marcia for arranging everything and the Pugmires for taking us to dinner!

It makes me teary eyed to think of all that was done for us and how much we'll miss everyone. Hopefully we'll take the entire clan back next summer for a visit!