Love, Roses, and Muchkins: Virginia Vacation Part 1

In July, we took a family vacation to Virginia Beach. It was our first time going there and we had a great time. Our hotel was right on the boardwalk so after eating breakfast each morning, we walked outside and were on the beach.

The kids loved watching for boats in the distance especially a few that looked like pirate ships. There was a "pirate cruise" that went by every so often and they would always point it out.

We had brought our sand toys for the beach and the kids spent most of their time digging holes and making castles. Papa enjoyed swimming and would take the kids in every once in a while but for the most part they were excited to dip their feet in the water's edge and dig in the sand. I didn't bring my camera or phone down to the beach because I didn't want them to get ruined.

One of the nights, I woke up with a sharp pain in my shoulder and was unable to move it. I thought that maybe I was sleeping on it wrong but after a few hours of not being able to lift my arm at all and having a sharp pain anytime it was bumped or moved, we decided to head to the ER. A few hours later, it was determined that it was my rotator cuff and that I should start physical therapy as soon as possible (which meant as soon as we got back from vacation). Afterwards, we went to pick up my medication and stopped at Whole Foods which we had never been to. They had a machine where you could make your own orange juice and the kids and Papa all decided that we need one of these in our house. (It's been mentioned multiple times by different people throughout the summer!)

For the rest of the vacation, I alternated between keeping my arm in a sling for a few hours to keep it from being jostled and having shooting pain to having it out of the sling and attempting whatever movement I could handle (hardly any) in order to prevent "frozen shoulder".

Needless to say, it was difficult with the kids but they all did a great job helping. Little Bear especially was very helpful with the younger two when I wasn't able to pick one up or get something for them.

One of the days, we decided to take a ride on the family bikes that we kept seeing on the board walk. We got the bigger bike which had the two seats in the front (like a basket) for the younger two and then two rows (Papa and Little Bear in the front, me in the back since Papa and I were the two peddling we needed to be on opposite sides.) After we started, we realized that we could have got the smaller, one row and not as heavy, bike and Little Bear could have at in the middle of the seat. Oh, well. We biked the entire boardwalk and back to the rental place which was a little over 6 miles. Pequeño fell asleep on Pudge's shoulder during the ride and people kept pointing at them and saying "aw!". Little Bear loved it and had a lot of fun seeing all of the different things that were on the boardwalk.

He especially loved all of the naval helicopters and planes that we saw dutlring the ride (and throughout the entire trip).

Another day, we decided to spend the entire day at the aquarium. I'm so glad that we did because this was a big highlight of the trip! The kids loved every minute of it and were excited to see each exhibit and animal.

There was a really great exhibit which focused on not littering and the effects that it has on wildlife. It is something that really stuck with the older two kids and they have been very mindful to always take care of their own trash and pick up others when they see it now.

(This is a fish made out of items that had been bitten by animals in the ocean)

We went to one of the animal areas just in time to feed all of the birds. The kids were allowed to help feed them too and threw things in such as pellets, bugs, mil worms, other worms, and baby mice. Pudge was the one who was most interested in feeding them all and very set on finding all of the pelicans.

After this, the kids were all really tired (Pequeño was asleep in the stroller) so we decided to go. On the way back, we had the idea to go to a restaurant for dinner which turned out to be a bad idea. The kids were tired from the day and the wait was long. So we ended up ordering our food and then having it boxed to go so we could eat it at our hotel. The kids barely ate anything and went right to sleep.

The next morning the weather wasn't very nice so we went for a walk and played on the beach before going to the store where we had told the kids that we would get souvenirs.