Vacation 2013: Days 4-10. The Beach.

This is my fourth and final post on our 2013 vacation. (Click to read Day 1, Day 2 or Day 3). When looking back over the pictures to write this post, one thing is certain: we spent a lot of time just enjoying the beach. The majority of the time, definitely. The days just run together in my mind, except for a few specifics.

The highlights of Saturday were the traditional run from the van down to the water as soon as we got to the house (yes, I videotaped that!), getting settled in to the house and having a pizza dinner. The older girls and Heather and I went to the grocery late that night for the mega-shopping trip. This is always exhausting, but fun. We usually top it off with some special treat. The girls had chocolate milk, I had a Frosty, and Heather had roasted red peppers. You read that right. :-)

As we were settling in, we noticed a handwritten note on the refrigerator from the previous renters. They had lost an onyx ring in the house the week before we were there and were offering a $500 reward. Yes, we did spend some time searching for the ring … only because we wanted to do a good deed, of course. ;-) At one point, somebody heard something rattling around in one of the couches, so the guys actually did a thorough check underneath but found nothing.

On Sunday, we went to church with our Virginia Beach family, which we enjoyed very much. We made it in just before the service began and trickled into the sanctuary, causing several people to keep sliding over to make room.  A little bit more. Then a little bit more, etc. It was a little embarrassing, but all was met with smiles from the congregation.

On Monday, our first full day, our beloved, trusty camera broke. As in, this was the result I’d get:

Unfortunately, I had to make do with Mick’s iPhone camera for the rest of vacation. It actually did a pretty decent job as long as I didn’t zoom in for a shot. I learned that the hard way.

The weather was absolutely phenomenal – mid 80s and sunny almost every day, very summerlike. We were told by several locals that we lucked out. We’ve definitely had our share of chilly, rainy Virginia Beach days in late September/early October. We always managed to get generally nice weather, but there is usually one or two days of rain. This time we had mostly clear skies. The first day or two we got there it was windy and cooler, but it was sunny. Trust me – we took full advantage of it.

Kate and her assistants made some pretty amazing sand sculptures.

Caleb is so flexible!

I don’t even think I got pictures of all of them, but this is a good sample.

Evenings were fun, too. Sometimes the kids watched Gilligan’s Island or Adam-12, sometimes we gathered in the living room and told funny stories. One night, we took turns telling a story, making it up as we went along.

Mick and Ron did a lot of fishing. Dad did some, too. A couple of the girls tried their hand at it. Between the huge lunker Ron caught and several smaller ones, we had a very tasty fish fry one night.

Pretty nice view at breakfast.

 

The guys often started and ended their days on the deck.

On our last night, we had our Virginia Beach family over for another visit. While we were sitting around the table, Trent came walking in carrying his milk in a very special glass.  It seems he asked Uncle Ron for a drink and this is what he gave him!  :-)

I was so worried he’d drop it and spill the milk or break the cup – or both! But thankfully, he safely drank it. :-)  I don’t suppose I look too worried here, but I guess this is my vacation worried look.

This was also the year poor Brooke got some kind of a bug and spent 2 days sick. Mercifully, it did not hit anybody else. I still can’t believe that!  In spite of that, even Brooke would agree it was a wonderful vacation and although we were glad to get back home, we’re so glad we have more sweet memories of time spent with our family at the beach.

 

(Thanks to the Bruces for sharing their camera and some of their pictures that were taken while we were in the Dark Ages of our vacation photo-journaling.)