Just about the time that we started to roll north to Virginia Beach, VA, our Rhode Island family was driving south to meet us! Check out this shot that my Sister in Law Beth took of my gorgeous nieces and nephew. From left to right that's Abbi, Sarah, and Ryan.
We arrived at Cape Henry Inn in Fort Story VA. This is a fantastic resort that you can only stay at if you are active or retired military. Papa got it for us. It is actually on the Fort and has it's own private beach. This is awesome because we saw the main "strip" at VA Beach and it was crowded with bizarre, freaky people and we were very glad to be off on our own a few miles away. The kids wasted no time getting right into the mix with each other. (This BTW is just the first of many fantastic hair shots of yours truly. Do I always look like this? and if so why oh why does no one help me? I need hair REMEDIATION!)
We each had a one bedroom suite so we were able to put kids to bed and still hang out which was soooo nice. Also had a big old covered porch for each room. Here's a view from mine. It was just really wild and natural and you could see the ocean. So much better than the neon and pounding music a few miles up the coast!
The next morning we headed straight to the beach! We got some boogie boards so we could surf the waves.
Of course, Uncle Rod showed us that experts don't NEED a boogie board:
The cousins had soooo much fun just romping, wave jumping, sand castle building, shell finding and playing.
The Boys!
Me and my little barnacle. One of the funniest things about the week was how jealous Teddy was of his little cousin Sarah. If I held her he would get right on me the second I put her down to make sure he still could claim "his" spot.
We had little mini-kitchens in the rooms so we were able to take a mid-day break and just have lunch in the rooms or on one of our decks. With 5 little ones, that was a really nice option. Once again, nice hair M.
A few days into the vacation we had kind of a rainy afternoon and Sasha decided that she wanted short hair. Here is her "before" picture:
Teddy was such a supportive brother. Waited through a long haircut and told Sash how beautiful she looked (and she really did!)
The next day we decided to go to Busch Gardens, Williamsburg. It was such a fun day! Here's the kids waiting to go on the raging river ride.
The boys don't look too sure about this....
But the girls are psyched!
We got SOAKED!!! Not splashed but total firehose spray-down soaked.
After that Uncle Rod and Aunt Beth took the girls on some wild rides that the boys were just a bit too short for. The boys played some carnival games. Teddy even won a buddy!
Woah! Lookin' good there Uncle Rod - Hold on, it'll be over soon!
Had lunch at the Germany type restaurant and Teddy of course was in it to WIN it with his dessert. He loves his treats sooo much and takes these massive bites like someone is coming soon to take it away from him. That and it was dark as a cave in there so I thought the massive mouthful/shades package was hysterical!
The kids and I rode some awesome kid rides while Beth and Rod hit the big coasters. I got to hit the same coasters later with Papa. Wish I had some pics of that, but they were so scary we forgot to get out the camera! Abbi the pilot:
The boys are takin' off! We rode this one multiple times. They loved it.
Ted was too short for the swing ride so he opted for the little version. It was very slow but he still had fun.
Then Sasha, Abbi and Ted went into a SCARY dark castle ride. We made our best scary faces before we went in. Ryan opted out of this one and he was the smart one. It was scary in a bad way, not Disney Haunted Mansion scary. We closed our eyes!
Later we had to ride the Pompeii flume ride one more time.
Meanwhile this little peanut was all smiles and sweetness the whole day! Could you just eat her up? Best baby EVER!!!
Here's almost the whole gang getting ready to ride the raging river ride and get soaked AGAIN!
The next day we went to the aquarium and saw an Imax film about whales.
The one thing we never got on this trip was a good picture of all 5 kids. We tried to get Sarah into the shark with the rest of them but then Teddy or Ryan disappeared. We'll get all 5 of them next time, but it did make for some very funny attempts.
The day after that we went back to Williamsburg and hit Water Country. It was a really fun park and the boys were tall enough to go on everything! Teddy still almost fell through the hole in the tube on every ride though so we had to come up with a special technique where I hooked my feet under his arms and held him up!
Even Sarah got in on the action! Ryan discovered this one slide in the kiddie area and took her down it in his lap! She loved it and rode down the slide with her big bro many times.
The last day we just hung out and enjoyed the beach. Abbi and Sasha are such a pair and have so much fun together. We were all so glad that while we had to say good-bye to VA beach, we didn't have to say good-bye to each other since we were all traveling back to RI together!
There was a really nice wooden playground right in front of our rooms and we had some great sunset plays there. Love watching all the things that these kids come up with. It's never just a play. They are either pirates on a ship or princesses or......
On the day we left we drove half way to RI and then stopped in NJ for the night. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe which the kids loved. Here is another botched attempt to get all 5 cousins in one shot. "Ryan, are you back there? I can see your eye!"
There was this dessert "worms in dirt" that was a pot of chocolate pudding covered in crushed oreos with gummy worms in it. Teddy was out of his mind with joy. I mean a "treat" in my book is like 1 gummy worm so the fact that he had a KETTLE of dessert all to himself was just epic.
Of course the girls like their desserts as well.....
So that was our awesome week at the beach. The only thing missing was Jeff! ;(((. Next stop: Rhode Island!
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