The Never Ending Vacation!

After we spent a few days in Williamsburg, my in laws came home and we headed to Virginia Beach. We did spend time at the outlets in Williamsburg first! Always have to find an outlet and shop!
We have been to Virginia Beach several times and Annamarye had been begging to go back. We planned the trip last February ~ which turned out well since the oil spill in the gulf. Virginia Beach has a huge boardwalk and the kids love it! We got there in the late afternoon so we went walking along the boardwalk.
Had to stop for a treat along the way!
This was on the beach. The kids didn't go down then, but they did later in the week!

Here's Annamarye in the rooftop pool:

The view from the rooftop pool:

Then we went to the indoor pool. It is connected to the outdoor rooftop pool. It is really nice ~ we stayed here the last time we were here. The workers work here! And they are young too! They are constantly wiping off the pool area so the kids don't slip. The chairs at the pools and at the beach all have terry cloth covers and they provide towels at the beach and pools!

The bar serves food too and the waitresses come around to the pool areas. We would just order our lunch everyday and eat by the pool. The kids loved it!!

Still more to come...

More Williamsburg Pictures

We had dinner one night here: They have normal food, but it is set up like Colonial Times. There is a normal kitchen, but no lights in the dining rooms. Here the waitress is getting the guys ready for dinner.

My father in law and Johnny were good sports. They didn't leave them on for dinner though. She explained that the reason the napkins were worn that way and were so large were because people didn't bath and wash clothes daily like we do.

We took carriage rides around Williamsburg. We had a girl carriage and a boy carriage. Ours was covered and so the pictures didn't turn out well.

Here's the kids in the jail. They thought it was neat!

Wordless Wednesday

Summer Fun

Last night we made pizza. We bought this pizza pack on a recent trip to Costco. It was less than $9.00. It has 4 crusts (2 crusts are vacuum packed together) and 4 sauce packets. We added our own cheese and pepperoni. And let me tell you - they were so good! Not as good as Mellow Mushroom or Area 41, but better than any frozen pizza I've ever had. The kids liked it (they had samples at Costco to make sure before we bought it).

One day last week, I should really say 3 days last week, we made cookies. Near the end of school Annamarye found a cookie recipe in one of her books she was reading so I copied it. We finally got around to making them last week. It ended up being a 3 day process. We made the dough one day and it needed to sit in the refrigerator. Then we played outside and it was too late to make the cookies when we came in. So the next day we made the cookies. And we had to let them cool. Then we went to the pool and again it was too late to frost them that night. So on Wednesday we frosted them. The cookies tasted OK, but we had lots of fun making them. I was so glad to finally finish, I didn't even get the camera out to take a picture of the finished project. Sorry.

Another favorite of the kids - washing the car. They absolutely loved doing this. They love playing in the water and we do this often over the summer. I hope they still enjoy this when they are teenagers, but somehow I don't think they will.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to Johnny, my dear husband and wonderful father of my kids! Happy Father's Day to my sweet Dad, Bobby! It's been a while since I have posted anything. Before I begin, let me remind you that I am not a doctor, nurse or any way knowledgeable about medical issues. This is the elementary explanation.

As some of you may know, my Dad has been in the hospital. Near the end of school he was diagnosed with a tumor in his lung. It turned out to be cancer. He had surgery and they were able to remove all of the tumor. He had the middle and upper lobe of his right lung removed, along with part of the chest wall. He came through the surgery great and from that he recovered well. However, he did have a few other complications. An irregular heart beat (A-Fib) was discovered so they treated him for that. He had trouble eating/keeping food down and they discovered it just took his system longer to wake up after surgery. He continued to have trouble eating so they did an endoscopy and found an irritated esophagus and a severe stricture (closing of the esophagus). He was put on medicine for the irritations, but to fix the stricture, they had to go back in and stretch his esophagus. They had to wait about 6 days to do this because he had been on a blood thinner to treat the A-Fib and there was a high risk of bleeding.

Finally they were able to do it and after being in the hospital for 2 weeks he came home. He has been home a week and has made tremendous progress! The swelling in his feet is completely gone and he finally is getting his appetite back. Please keep him in your prayers!!

I would also like to say a HUGE thank you to my in-laws, Leon and Betty, my friends - Celisa, Jeanne and Tracey who have been so helpful in taking care of my kids - taking them to the pool, playing at their houses, getting them back and forth to Bible School etc.... I can not tell you how much I appreciate it!! A HUGE thank you to all of you that have offered to help and have been praying for my Dad! I really appreciate you offering to help! I have a difficult time accepting help because I know you all are busy with your own families/kids and I don't want to be a burden. But please know I really do appreciate the offers!!

Since posts without pictures are no fun, here's a couple - Johnny opening his cards from the kids.

I am going to work on catching up this week so watch for lots of pictures!

School's Out for Summer!!

Last week was a very long and busy week!! Boy, am I glad it is over! Thursday was the kids' last day of school. I always take a picture of the kids on the first day of school and the last day.

Here they are on the first day of school last August:

And here they are last Thursday on the last day:

On Monday of last week, James' class, along with a couple other 2nd grade classes had an idiom presentation. Each child had an idiom to dress up/act out/explain. James had "a piece of cake". He wore his baseball uniform and took a small cake from Annamarye's kitchen... since baseball is a piece of cake for him. It was really cute. I'll try and post some more pictures later. It was bittersweet to see some of the kids we have known since kindergarten - they have really grown and matured.

It rained all last weekend and has been cloudy this weekend! The pool opened yesterday, but since it was so cloudy we didn't go. We rented Night at the Museum to watch before we go see the new one. Since we didn't go to the pool, James and Annamarye decided to make use of their towels anyway. And James wanted to try out his new goggles.