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.)

1 week

For 51 weeks of the year, we enjoy this Red Maple tree: the overall shape – even without leaves, its shade, the swing underneath it. And then for one glorious week each year, it completely outdoes itself.

This is its peak week. I can see it clearly from our schoolroom window when I’m standing at the board and it’s really hard to stay focused on explaining polynomials, dividing fractions, or dividing a circle into eighths, with those brilliant red leaves on display right at the window. I stop and look at it when I’m running out to the pole barn to get something out of the freezer. We watch it when we’re pulling out of the driveway and when we’re coming back home. On sunny days, it’s almost too bright to look at directly. On cloudy days, it practically illuminates our yard.

I blogged about this tree last year, about my mission to get a good picture of it. I’m still trying.

The FedEx guy made a delivery a couple of days ago and after I took the package from him, he started back down our path, glanced over at it, and then just stopped and stared. “That is a stunner,” he said.

You really should drive by just to see it; this picture doesn’t do it justice.

A million thanks to whoever planted this tree decades ago.

How much longer?

 

I wonder how much longer will Grant come down the stairs in the morning holding onto his stuffed animals? For a long time, I hope. But I took a picture this morning just in case I’m wrong. (While I was taking this, Rachel wondered if I would take of picture of her if she came down holding her stuffed animals. Absolutely! Just try me!  ;-)

For the record, their names (from L to R) are:  Fuzzy Wuzzy, Whiskers, Gingery and Friend.

Vacation 2013: Day 3. A Trip to the U.S. Capitol

We had a 10:30 appointment for a tour of the Capitol by a staff member of Senator Dan Coats’ office. I had concerns – how in the world would we get there in time??  We left around 8:40 expecting the worst and were pleasantly surprised to have a very smooth trip into D.C. Traffic got heavier the closer we got to the city, but it still wasn’t bad.

We might’ve been feeling a little over-confident by our quick trip; we were parking our 2 big vans at 9:45 – 45 minutes before our 10:30 meeting time at Senator Dan Coats’ office. We thought we’d be there in plenty of time, but sometimes we forget how long it takes to move this many people around. In spite of feeling a little rushed, it was still thrilling to walk toward this amazing building we’ve so many time in pictures.

After a couple of attempts to enter what ended up being the wrong entrance, we found out we weren’t even in the right building. Senator Coats’ office was across the street in the Russell Senate office Building.

After a few more wrong entrances, we finally found ourselves at the right spot.

By this time, it was getting very close to 10:30 and we still needed to go through a metal detector. All 20 of us! There was a clock prominently displayed right next to the entrance that read 10:25.

Mick got a call from a staffer at Senator Coats’ office wondering how close we were. “We’re in the building!” We were all scurrying by this time, throwing jewelry, loose change, cell phones, belts, etc. onto the conveyor belt and several of us making numerous attempts to get through the detector without lights and sirens.

Once we all got through, we were able to move quickly and made it just past 10:30.

The tour ended up being about an hour and a half long. It was all so interesting and amazing. I took way more pictures than I’m posting on this blog. I’ll just post a couple of my favorites.

These were taken in the Rotunda. The amazing painting behind us is called “The Baptism of Pocahantas.” It was even more spectacular in person. The Rotunda was filled with mammoth paintings of historic events just like this one.

This next picture was at the very top of the Rotunda. I zoomed in as much as I could and got a pretty clear shot of George Washington.

This is the famous painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Our guide told us that although Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were allies in their later years, there was a lot of animosity between them at this point. The artist demonstrated that by painting Jefferson stepping on Adams’s foot.

These pictures were taken in the room which was the original location of the Supreme Court. Much of the furniture is authentic, some is reproduction. It was a beautiful room and the pictures turned out surprisingly well, in spite of how dark the room was.

Here are a few pictures of most of us sitting in the Rotunda. It was very crowded and there was a bit of a wait at times.

We ended up finishing the tour right around noon, about 20 minutes before a historic vote in the Senate. We walked right past the line of people waiting to go in and watch the results. It was tempting to go in, but we had a lot of tired, hungry kids, so we ended up leaving.

The kids enjoyed relaxing back at the Ramseys for the rest of the afternoon.

Waiting for some momentum

Here’s Brooke yesterday all decked out. She just needs some water to pull her out!  :-) 

This is how I feel about my blog right now: I have all the necessary equipment (pictures, videos, stories) to blog about our amazing vacation. Now I’m just waiting for a wave of opportunity called TIME to gather it all and start blogging. We’re planning on shoving off tomorrow morning at about 5:00 am, and then there’s the 12-hour drive (not counting a few dozen bathroom breaks). I’m really hoping to work on some of it in the car!