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What I Did on My Summer Vacation

by Colleen Wineplz

Okay, it was only five days, not all summer, but man, as short as it was, I really enjoyed it. We got to Virginia Beach around 10pm on Monday, got checked-in, got the truck unpacked, and finally got the kids and dogs settled down for the night. Gavin proceeded to get up at just past the crack of dawn on Tuesday morning, despite not getting to bed until nearly midnight. After breakfast, we waited for Cooper’s morning poop, then stormed the beach.

Yes, I said we waited for Cooper’s morning poop. That child poops like clockwork around 9:30am and 7pm every day. And since he already has an incredibly sensitive hiney (I’m pretty sure he’s used more Monistat than I ever have), I didn’t want to risk

  1. not noticing the poopy smell emanating from him since I have long-since learned to sit up-wind of him, and thereby causing a new rash that will take a week to clear up,
  2. changing the poopy diaper on the beach, cuz, well, yuck! or
  3. changing the poopy diaper on the beach but end up rubbing sand into his skin in my attempt to remove all fecal matter from his not-so-teflon butt, which would also cause some sort of ridiculous rash.

So we waited until he pooped.

Once we walked out on the beach, I felt instantly calm with the salty breeze in my hair, the smell of the warm, damp sand, the cozy feeling of digging my feet in the sand, and the sound of the waves hitting the shore. Well, until Cooper started howling about the sand. So we tried putting him in the water, which caused him to holler “I no like-a da water! I no like-a da bubbles!” and had a new-found appreciation for the sand and all its building/destroying possibilities.
After a couple hours, we went back in, had lunch, and Cooper napped.

We did the exact same thing the rest of the week, though on Thursday, we went on one of those dolphin cruises. We went at sunset, which was pretty, but next time we will make sure we make it to a daytime cruise so that we can see the dolphins in the water better. Or Justin and I will just take a vacation sans kids and go swim with the dolphins.

Friday, as I mentioned, we actually saw dolphins right outside our hotel while we were eating our breakfast, and then again when we wandered out onto the beach shortly after Cooper’s poop. And when two of them were closer to the shore than a lot of the swimmers and surfers? Just too amazing for words.
Later that afternoon we wowed ourselves with the currently-being-renovated-but-still-pretty-cool Virginia Aquarium. While the shark tank was awesome (go in the submarine and you can be under the inhabitants of that particular tank), I think I liked the harbor seals out front best. Or maybe the big sea turtles. Hopefully they’ll have the new exhibits completed by the time we go there again.

Saturday, we packed-up and headed back home. Another end to another all-too-short vacation away. Especially since Justin had to leave Sunday morning for another trip for work. Meanwhile, in the two or three minutes of spare time I found for myself since vacation, I’ve been peeking at the price of housing down there. I feel the need to get back to that water already.


Oh, were you looking for pics? Well, those will have to wait until Justin returns cuz I can’t find my card reader and he has plenty more pics on his camera than I have on mine.

About the Author

Colleen

This is a blog where I will share my adventures and mundane tasks as a work-out-of-home-mom. I now have 2 kids and my wonderful husband, so the juggling has gotten a little bit more tricky (man-on-man defense). We also have 2 dogs and 3 cats (we used to have 4) so as you can imagine, our household is pretty busy. Since I never feel like I'm being listened to, I figured I'll just start talking at the general Internet community and see what happens.

9 Comments

Wendy

Didn’t I hear recently that VA Beach was the #1 place to raise children? Or at least in the top 10. I too, was thinking of how to convince hubby to leave NoVA for VA Beach, since I’ve seemingly lost the battle of getting him to move to PA with me. I just can’t imagine dealing with the insanity that is the DC Metro area until I retire.

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Allie

I can’t wait to see pictures. Wow it sounds like an awesome vacation. I want to go there. Where exactly did you go? Amazing. I love dolphins. I went swimming with dolphins about 5 years ago and since then have really fell in love with them.

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Nicole

What fun! I love the waiting for the poop . . . my kids are quite ‘regimented’ in their bowel habits as well.

I am so glad you were able to get away as a family and enjoy some time together!

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Krissa

Heck, yeah, I was looking for some pictures! You make sure that happens for me! 😉
I would LOVE to do some swimming with dolphins.

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Roger

Potty training should be a snap then, especially if Cooper is so regular. 🙂 That’s in theory, of course.

Sounds like a great time, and yep, we’ll be waiting on pictures… of course you might have already posted them, but I am trying my best to get through all of my reader, at least the personal blogs. 🙂

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