{"id":626,"date":"2010-08-03T20:54:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-04T00:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/tuesday-august-3-2010\/"},"modified":"2010-08-03T20:54:00","modified_gmt":"2010-08-04T00:54:00","slug":"tuesday-august-3-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/tuesday-august-3-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday August 3, 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"
Living on love, iced tea, and a little vacation
aka Virgina Beach, Part I<\/div>\n


How is it that my xanga subscriptions nearly go into hibernation mode until I leave for six days and now I can’t catch up and I want to read every single one so badly?<\/span>

How is it that my brain composed thirty-seven posts in the last two weeks and not one of them made it to the computer?  <\/span>

How is it that now that the boys are outside with their dad and the house is quiet, my brain is strangely quiet, too?<\/span>

How is it that six days of vacation can fly by more quickly than one afternoon nap for the boys?<\/span>

How is it that vacuuming sand out of the car can make me feel so much closer to the beach?<\/span>

I wish I knew.<\/span>

We’ve been talking about vacation since last summer.  A real vacation where you just go have fun in a fun place as opposed to the go have fun visiting family kind.  Last summer got lost in the tsunami of food allergies and fussiness and stay at home try to get betterness.<\/span>

Then it was winter and who wants to go on vacation in the winter?  Not me.  Unless you can afford to travel way down south.  We couldn’t.<\/span>

I wanted to use the money I made on my children’s books to do something fun or buy something special with the boys and vacation seemed like the best option.<\/span>
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Then it was summer again so we were talking again.  But for awhile it seemed that was all that was going to happen.  On the last Sunday in July David said, “You know, we really need to schedule our vacation.”  We looked at dates, checked the weather, looked for hotels and decided to leave that Friday.  We’d spend the weekend with our good friends, Jonathan and Heather, and then head to the beach for a three night stay.  <\/span>

Monday morning when I checked weather again, the forecast had drastically changed and all three days we’d spend on the beach looked like rain.  I called David, fully expecting to put it off for another week.  He called back a few minutes later and said, “Can we be ready to go in 24 hours?”  Gulp.  But why not?  We’re getting really close to running into school time and I did. not. want to get to the end of the summer and say, “Oh, bummer.  We never got to go.”<\/span>

Suddenly I was frantically searching for a hotel, calling Heather to make arrangements, and desperately trying to fix enough food for Liam since his freezer stash disappeared during my earlier weekends away.  The boys and I packed, did laundry, fixed food, got groceries, went to the library, packaged books, and packed some more.  And in a little over 24 hours we were gone.  That is so not like us.<\/span>

The boys loved, loved, loved the beach.  It was nearly 8 Tuesday evening before we’d grabbed some food, hauled in all our luggage, and stashed the food in the frig so the pictures are dark and a little blurred from the slow shutter speed.  But I love the delight on their faces.  <\/span>
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I lived in safe mode and mostly used my small point and shoot.  After I got home and downloaded them I was a little sad to have the best week of the year fall a little flat, but it was worth it not to have to worry about my other camera get damaged or worse yet, walk away in the crowd.  So when I see pixels and flat images, in my mind’s eye I also see me letting go and having fun with the boys.<\/span>

Let me tell you, going on vacation with these two boys completely redefined the meaning of vacation.  The last time we went on vacation three years ago, Adam was three.  He sweetly went to bed a little late, slept til after 8 in the morning, and took nice naps in the afternoon while we lounged on the deck.  This time sleeping in was a joke.  Both boys were up before 7:00 every. single. morning.  They bounced off the walls in excitement.  How did they manage to completely avoid my capable-of-sleeping-til-noon genes?  The redemptive factor in all of that was that we were out on the beach before the crowds hit.  The not so nice factor was that we could not avoid Liam’s naptime as we hoped.  Still, it was a small price to pay.  And an excellent reminder that David and I need to go somewhere alone for our tenth anniversary two years from now.  (Note to self: It is perfectly fine to leave your children at home for a few days. Repeat as often as necessary.)<\/span>

Liam opted mostly for the sand because the water overwhelmed him.  The rest of us had tons of fun riding waves.  Finally on the last day I kept him on the wet sand and helped him jump up out of the water whenever the waves came.  From then on he loved  it. “Me bump ‘aves.”  He is just way too cute.  Adam was fearless of the waves at two and three and still bold at six.  He really started getting the hang of riding the waves in with a board and many times I saw his head covered in the spray of the wave.  Every time I waited to see him come up yelling for a towel and every time he surprised me by shaking the water out of his eyes and laughing with delight.  So maybe he did miss the sleeping in genes but he sure found a few other recessive treasures.<\/span>
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Virginia Beach got hit with a massive thunderstorm Thursday afternoon.  It was insane watching hundreds of people head off the beach at one time.  In six hours we got hit with nearly 6″ of rain.  Every single one of the dozen pool loungers next door got whipped into the pool by the wind.  <\/span>
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I went a little stir-crazy.  Worse than the boys.  I think David was about to despair with me.  But seriously, that’s a lot of being cooped up in a small space.  I need to learn how to do that sitting still doing quiet things.<\/span>
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<\/a> <\/a>  (How many of you can be the platform for your husband????????)<\/span>

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It was sad checking out Friday, but the fun wasn’t over.  We took the boys to the aquarium.  I wish I could say they loved it.  I think they did, but it took a little interpreting.  The place was jam-packed with people.  Next time I think I’d rather drive down for one day and enjoy it during the winter.  You literally had to wait in line at some of the displays and the petting area for the sting rays was two-deep in some places.  We never did get to touch them because the rays hung out at the bottom.  Who could blame them?  I bet they felt exactly like a stay-at-home mom of preschoolers at 5:00.   You know, “CAN NO ONE PLEASE TOUCH ME.”  We were pushing lunch time and ended up taking the boys outside to eat some yogurt.  Whatever the reason, Adam wasn’t enamored with the sea life like he usually is.  He just kept saying, “Let’s move to the next thing.”  But when we got out, he said he loved it??  <\/span>

When we were finished we watched the 3D imax on dolphins and whales.  It was hysterical watching Adam reach out and try to stroke a whale that appeared to be swimming right in front of his nose. <\/span>
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….to be continued<\/span>
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