Virginia is for (Beach) Lovers

Well, our precious vacation time is up but it was well spent! We started off Brent's two week break at Virginia Beach with his parents and two of his little sibs, Jane and Garrett. We stayed right on the beach and played in the waves all morning and saw the sights in the afternoon.

The spectacular view from our hotel room! Our first morning there we saw dolphins swimming along the beach from our patio...too bad I wasn't out there with my underwater camera.



I love this picture because Brent thinks I locked him outside but the evidence clearly proves otherwise...ahahaha.



The waves were pretty small, so we had to come up with some challenges including riding waves backwards, upside down, sideways, two people on one board....most of which are undocumented, though I think Baird might have some evidence on his camera...





I'm not sure what was going on but we saw a lot of these:



and these, while laying on the beach, something flew overhead at least every thirty minutes and the jets were soooo loud.



We got a tip from some friends that the VB aquarium was a must-see so we checked it out and ended up seeing the IMAX Under the Sea 3D show, which was a total sensory overload but worth it just to see everyone in their 3D glasses.



Also, I felt claustrophobic for this hatchling which was about three inches long and stuck in a one foot long tank. But I suppose he can't really complain since in real life he would most likely have been eaten by a seagull approximately 15 seconds after birth.



I want to take this opportunity to give tripadvisor a shout out, it told us that the USS Wisconsin was the #2 attraction in Norfolk, VA. Norfolk is just a few minutes away from Virginia Beach and even though it was a sweltering day I thought the ship and the museum were really interesting, especially the models of old ships and submarines. The Wisconsin has fought in wars from WWII to Korea to Desert Storm and is being maintained in Norfolk incase she is ever called on in the furture.
This old volunteer guy on the ship told us that the USS Wisconsin had a crew of almost 3,000 at one time and only about 1,800 beds. I asked him how that could possibly work and he said "Oh, there was probably some 'hot-bunking' going on"....I wasn't quite sure what that meant so he further explained that the sailors slept in shifts and had to share bunks. I thought that sounded somewhat unsanitary.





The day we visited the USS Wisconsin also happened to be our 2nd anniversary so we had to get at least one picture together:



And at dinner (another tripadvisor recommendation) we recreated our wedding carrot cake with this delightful rendition...mmmm....it was almost as good as the original, as you can see.



One more note about virginia beach, though we did enjoy the beach, the street that runs parallel to the beach right behind the hotels is a somewhat questionable area for young, impressionable minds (such as Garrett's ;) This shop is one of at least a dozen advertising tattoos and piercings, and some shops even do the piercings right in the window front. We stopped for a minute to watch and the tattooist was motioning to us to come get our own! Haha. As one tripadvisor commenter put it "Virginia Beach's Atlantic Avenue strip is packed with cheap stores selling extraordinarily vulgar merchandise, which draws a like-minded crowd." Couldn't have said it better myself. I had to shield Brent's eyes from some of the t-shirts in the store windows. Ewww.



However, they did have some signs encouraging people not to use profanities, which I appreciated.

CHIMNEY ROCK!

While my sisters were here we took a little road trip over to Chimney Rock with the Fredericks. It was a long day with all the driving (over six hours by the time we got home) but well worth the trip! I had been there with Brent back in February and it was cool, but there was still some ice on the falls so the trail was closed...total bummer since we drove so far to get down there. Anyways, it was open this time and it was really cool, supposedly it's the waterfall from last of the mohicans? You be the judge.

On top of Chimney Rock...





The kidos decided to graffiti their names onto the fence around the "opera box"...







Hickory Nut Falls...









All tuckered out after the funnest day EVER (Maddie claims that she was just pretending to be asleep and heard me take this picture...I'm not buying it)...

Frederick Family Fotos

Our good friends the Fredericks, just moved away to Ohio a couple of weeks ago for Justin's fellowship and before they left we took a little trip over to Old Salem and I shot some family portraits for them as well as some individual shots of their kids. Unfortunately, baby Maia wasn't really into the whole picture thing and cried almost the entire time...but we still got a couple good group shots and a few nice ones of the kids. Katie, I hope you like some of them enough to get them printed because you have beautiful children and you should show them off!!





Ok, I guess she wasn't crying the whole time...























Justin tried to get Maia to smile by throwing her up in the air, it didn't really work, but it was a good effort! Thanks for letting me practice on you guys, I hope you like them!

To see the rest of the pictures click here.

Maddie and Lolo do NC

And they did it with style! For those who don't know, Maddie and Lauren are my sisters and they were way out here visiting North Carolina from California for two whole weeks! We had so much fun I don't even know where to start, but the beginning sounds good. First thing first when they walked in the door was trying out the air mattress, which became significantly deflated after a few minutes of "trying out".



For our midnight snack, Brent made us Swedish pancakes, to which Maddie ungratefully replied "Ewwwww, I don't want those, don't you have any cereal??" Of course after we forced her to take a bite, she begged for more. Silly Maddie.



After months of hearing about my friend Teri's dog, Maizey, the girls couldn't wait to meet her and we had a blast running her around the house and backyard till we were all exhausted. And I had fun with my new camera...









Thanks Teri, for letting us ransack your house whenever we wanted. We love you (and Maizey). There is so much more to say about our adventures! More posts/pictures to follow...

Also, I just opened a Smugmug account to host my photos, if you would like to see this gallery please click here.

Mahalo!

I can't believe we only have one more day in Maui, but we've had so much fun the past few days! I flew over with Maddie and Lauren on Sunday morning to meet my parents and Chase who had already been here for a couple of days.

As soon as our wheels touched the ground Maddie whipped out her carry on and pulled out a pair of blingin' glasses and a plastic lei she had packed just for her arrival! How does she think of this stuff?

We went to dinner our first night here at a little restaurant outside by the beach and they had a Hawaiian band and hula dancer act for our entertainment. My mom said she'd give us $10 to get up and dance on the lawn in front of our table so we put on a little show of our own. I'm pretty sure Maddie had the best moves ;)

A girl came by our table selling real flower lei's much to Maddie's relief, since her plastic version was almost completely unravelled by the end of dinner. Lauren wanted to show off her lei in a unique way, and with a...unique face.

We just had a mini-melt-down, here in room 9122, but Chase has stopped jumping on people and everyone has stopped crying now. Guess that's my cue. More pics and stories to come!!

Oh yeah, Brent couldn't come because he has to work, so be sure to give him some extra love this week since I'm sure he's terribly, horribly, awfully lonely without me. ;)

A star is born!

If you don't know my sister Maddie, this video is probably the best way to become acquainted. She video chatted me a few days ago and said "Look, I'm on YouTube!!!" (she's the crazy girl on the Left).



Also, yesterday we were taking Jaxon for a walk and as we turned a corner we heard someone turning off on a side street behind us yell out "Maaaaddiiiiiiieeeee!". I asked her if she knew who it was and she said no. I said, "Well, then it must have been one of your adoring YouTube fans!". She thought about that for a second, then smiled and kept walking.

"Fun" Run, and other Memorial Day Stuffs...

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that one day I would participate in a run for fun. I stuck strictly to swimming sports in high school and most of college until I took a running class at BYU and ran my first ever mile! Sad I know. But running is a little more convenient than swimming most of the time, and it's easier to find people to run with than swim with.

Anyway, our ward had a 5k Fun Run on Memorial Day and somehow I convinced Brent to run "with" me. He decided that he'd lag behind a few minutes to make me look good...what a sweetie ;) So I ended up crossing the finish line before him...and all the other women running!! I couldn't believe it, I hadn't even been training for a 5k, but I have been running with this crazy group that leaves at 5:50 AM! I know, shocking. It's all thanks to Teri, who really should have been there to beat me. I probably would have gotten better than 24:15 if I was trying to keep up with you!

So the running itself wasn't very fun, the last mile or so was especially torturous because they had us loop back around the section of the run with the biggest hill in it! But after I finished and sat down for a while to avoid spewing, it was great! They had pancakes and fruit and we talked to all our friends and hung out for a while. Brent made me take a picture with the winner's board:



And major props to Maya (11) and Alex (10?) McFarland who won for the primary girls and boys respectively...they finished right behind me and definitely gave me a run for my money! I told them when I was their age I couldn't run half a mile without puking on the side of the track. Seriously.

Anyway, enough about running, it still kind of scares me. On to the bbq!! Teri and Rob graciously invited us to their beautiful new home for a "cook out" as they say here in the dirty South. Andrew and Tiffany came too and we had a lovely, delicious time. I didn't get too many pictures, but here are a few good ones.






After dinner we went to Angels & Demons, which I wasn't too excited about, but it ended up exceeding my expectations! I never saw the DaVinci Code but I read both of the books and liked them. It was a great weekend, thanks friends.

Cabers and Kilts

Who knew Winston-Salem was such a hotbed of cultural diversity?? There was a Celtic festival here a few weeks ago that opened my eyes to the fascinating world of "Scottish Highland Games". Unfortunately we were only able to stay for two of the events, the Scottish Hammer throw and the Caber Toss. Behold the Hammer Throw:



One of the kids of the family we were with asked me "Why does he have to scream like that?". I told her that it looks like it hurts.

The other event we saw was the Caber toss, where the men basically take a huge log and try to throw it up in the air so that the the top end hits the ground then flips over and lands in a "12 o'clock" position. I don't even know how they pick the darn things up.




All in all it was an extremely interesting and educational experience, and I wish we could have stayed for the rest of the events (actually, now that I think about it, that was definitely the hottest and most humid day of the year so far and I was ready to get the heck out of there and take a shower. This old lady standing in front of us at the games actually passed out it was so hot!).

Teri even showed up with Maizey eventually just to make the day that much more special ;) Baby Maia is obviously not scared of dogs, she kept trying to stick her hands right inside Maizey's mouth! Haha, fearless.