Vacation of the beachy sort part two.

Ok, forgive me.

In the craziness that is back to school prep, I have about four different posts I need to get done.

So I'm going to get right on that instead of packing up my school bags for tomorrow. :) Priorities, right?

There's plenty of time to play with binders in a bit.

So back to the beach... (I wish I was still there!)

The one big excursion we had was to the Virginia Aquarium. I never miss a chance to see fishies.

Haha, look at my little hippie family! Too bad I wasn't it tie dye. It would have been perfect! This was the coolest tunnel thingy. Each triangle had a lighted picture with a reflective mirror above and to the sides. End result was a visual overload of wonder.

Nic's favorite animal was the komodo dragon. He keeps telling me he'll have one of these as a pet someday and I keep telling him they're endangered and it's illegal to own them. I try and placate him and tell him we'll get a tortoise of some sort, but it's only have way successful.

We saw lots of sharks. Grr. It's funny that it was also Shark Week. Lily was full of shark talk after watching some of Shark Week and seeing real live sharks. It's a wonder she wasn't terrified of them.

Lily thought sitting on the dolphin was super cool. Going on excursions with this little lady is an exercise in... well... exercise. Trying to keep up with her is exhausting, but totally worth it. She actually asked if this was once a real live dolphin. Uh, no dearie.

I am a turtle fanatic. It's no coincidence that all of the souvenirs I bought had turtle something. This guy was really cool. I had never seen an albino turtle before.

I can't decide if Auntie Alli or Lily was more excited to see a Dory fish. (Just keep swimming... just keep swimming...just keep swimming swimming swimming...)

JELLYFISH! Yay! So cool. The tank was lit up with black light and they GLOWED. I was in awe.

Nic can keep his dragon, I want one of these guys. Aside from the fact that my dream is slightly more realistic, these lionfish are just freaking awesome. Toxic, yes. Wicked? Absolutely. I have about 10 pictures of these guys on my phone.

Lastly, this lobster was gi-normous. He was as long as my arm. Talk about one expensive lobster dinner....haha. I kid, I kid.

And for the finale, one more of my happy hippie family. Ha! I love that Sage passed out holding her bottle in her mouth. Poor little girl was just too tired from all the excitement!

We got the chance to pet sting rays too, but I missed out on pictures of that. Lily was quite proud of herself. I thought they felt like wet jello.

All in all, totally worth leaving the beach for a day.

I have one more set of vacation photos to post, another about my FIVE year wedding anniversary, and the big reveal about the sheet yarn. I'll get caught up eventually. I might also be surprising you all with a guest post at a fellow bloggy mama's little slice of the interwebs. Neat!

Welcome home!

Woo. Vacations are so very lovely. Especially when they are beachy vacations!

Traveling with kids is not for the faint of heart. I've heard that before, but it bears repeating. Flying across country with a baby is killer work on the arms and shoulders. I felt like I was run over by a truck at the end of travel days. However, it could have been a lot worse. My kids actually did fine. Lily had never flown before and she did great. She got her travel wings and ate peanuts. Both of these things are apparently high up on the list of coolest things ever.

We spent a wonderful, blissful, relaxing in Virginia. We stayed in this HUGE house in Sandbridge. Need a place to go relax? Go there. It's beautiful. I could hear the ocean from my bedroom. There was a hammock to snooze in.

Our house had its own pool, was 2 minute walk to the beach, and large enough that it didn't feel crowded with ten adults and six kids. Lily was the oldest, I might add. Every day was crazy in a fun insane type of way.

The area we were in was nice and tucked away from any major tourist trap boardwalks or crap like that. I'm so not that type of vacationer. There was a boardwalk in Virginia Beach, but it was kind of nasty. Sandbridge was much prettier.

Every morning, after waking up about 7am, we would feed kids, throw on swimsuits, and head down to the beach. The kids set out to dig a big hole each morning. Sometimes we would return back to the same hole and keep going. The largest hole got deep enough to have my tall Lily girl drop out of sight.

Once the kids got tired of the beach, we headed back to the house to laze at the pool. Well, as much as six children who all love swimming would let us. I was so tickled to find out that Sage is a water baby! She LOVED playing in the water. She would cry and grump every time I took her out.

Lily was a bit more timid, but by the end of the first two days she would get her head wet and swim in the deep end by herself. She created a game called "fishie fishie" and I think she jumped off the side at least 100 times. The kids had a synchronized jump-a-thon that was hilarious. Counting to three at the same time seems to be difficult at that age range. Hee.

I have so much more to share! We had a wonderful time at the aquarium, took some great family pictures on the beach, and lost our luggage on the ride home! I'll share more pictures soon! 

P.S. I haven't forgotten that I left you hanging about my sheet yarn surprise, and that unveiling is coming soon! I got distracted by vacation. Ha!