On the 7th we flew into Virginia....first time we've ever flown with the kids....wow that was super fun!  Let's just say Crew knew his juice and every treat was "tainted", so the good stuff didn't take effect until a 1/2 hour before we landed.....so let's just say I was a little more sneaky for the trip home.  We stayed in a major ghetto motel I pricelined.....so not what was pictured on the net.  The older boys were like "where's the beach?" and Cade said, "is this the beach house?" and I said, "no" and he's like, "whew!"  That kid cracks me up.

  The next day we drove to North Carolina to the Outer Banks in our "suburban" that I so called reserved.  I guess the car renters assumed a suburban is the same as a jeep.  Crew was holding down the fort in the back seat completely surrounded by luggage.  I told him to hold up the luggage and he said, "Okay mom" with this puzzled look on his face.

Once we got to the beach house, Paul's sister Erin and her family met us there.  They had gone to Washington D.C. to sightsee and visit Gene and Judie who are on their mission there.   Gene and Judie followed them back from D.C., so they could hang out with us for a few days.

We had a great time....minus the heat wave of utter humidity for the first 2 days, but then a storm came through during the night...lightning was hitting the sand in front of the house....so cool....and then it cooled off.  The water was warm and didn't have all the seaweed that the Pacific has.  We couldn't get the kids out of the water.....except Crew....he spent all day running in and out so the water wouldn't get him.  Hey, whatever keeps 'em busy!

It's been about 10 years since I've been in the ocean swimming, and I actually got in and boogie boarded (well attempted).  The only time we ventured off to do something was to go see some lighthouses and the day we left we went to the naval base in Virginia.  The ships were really sweet minus the lame tour.

All in all it was a fabulous time....great company and great scenery!