Virginia Vacation 2016

It's been a pretty crazy week. This is our first day back on the normal schedule, and it's super nice to be home.

It was also super nice to travel and visit family.

Last Tuesday, my parents returned from Florida and picked up our dogs on their way through town. The timing was fantastic, because my sister offered to watch the dogs while we were gone, and there wasn't really any other way we could have gotten them to Idaho without a lot more travel.

Then, we spent most of Wednesday packing and preparing for our trip. Grig, Kevin, Grig's two brothers, and I were all leaving together. Then, at about 5:00 pm, we drove off to the Salt Lake airport. There we met Grig's sister and her husband.

We boarded our flight by 8:00 and arrived in Denver, CO at about 10:30 p.m. It was dark, so Kevin couldn't really see the plane take off, but he still yelled, "We're flying like Superman!" several times.

We had an all-night layover. That would have been fine, if they hadn't had fire alarm tests and other loud sounds going off every 30 minutes. Grig and Kevin fell asleep at about 12:30 a.m., but Grig woke up at 3:30 a.m. when the loudest of all the drills went off. It continued for about 10 minutes. Surprisingly, Kevin and Grig's sister were able to sleep through it, but everyone else was either already awake, or woke up.

We'd hear the alarm going loudly, and then it would be interrupted by: "This is only a test. Please do not vacate the premise. This is only a test." Then the alarm would begin blaring again.

We finally started laughing from the sheer ridiculousness of it. After that, I fell asleep from about 4-5:30. We woke up, got breakfast and boarded our second flight. Kevin never woke up as we got on the plane and flew. We finally woke him up just before we landed so he wouldn't get too far off schedule.

Then, we arrived in Virginia at about 12:30 p.m. We picked up our rental cars and drove to Grig's parents' home.

Grig's mom wasn't home. She was at the hospital with Grig's younger sister Argent (who lived with us for a while). We were hoping that they would be able to come home while we were there, but that didn't work out so well.

We relaxed the rest of the evening and enjoyed spending time with Grig's dad and his youngest sister, both of whom we hadn't seen in a couple of years. Grig and his brothers went running through the family woods. They were pretty excited to be back in Virginia.

Friday, we woke up late and then went to visit Grig's grandmother. We were trying to see his uncle and family who had come from England, but they weren't there, so instead we asked Grig's grandmother if we could do a personal life interview. She agreed, so we were able to get some really good video footage from Grig's grandma for a while.

Just as we were about to go home, Grig's uncle and his family showed up. Grig's cousins were closer to Kevin's age than ours, and they had a great time together.

We went home to eat dinner, and then almost everyone went to a walk again. I had recently gotten plantar fasciitis a few weeks before, and so I was trying to help my feet to heal by staying off of them as much as I could. Due to that, Kevin and I remained at home this time.

Saturday we met at Grig's grandmother's home again to have a family dinner. I took many pictures and got to know Grig's family better.

Kevin was playing with his cousins and aunts and uncles. They were playing hide-and-go-seek. Suddenly it came to my attention that everyone was calling for Kevin. I was a bit freaked out to realize that no one knew where he was. We all began searching and calling for him. After a few minutes, we found him.

Evidently, he had been searching for a great place to hide, and had wandered away from the house toward the neighbor's. Suddenly, he realized that he was all alone. He began to call for me, and that's when the neighbor heard him. She quickly put on her shoes, came outside, and found poor Kevin. He told her he couldn't find his mommy. She was a friend of Grig's grandma, and knew about the party, so she told him that she knew where his mommy was. He immediately reached out his arms and she picked him up and brought him back to us.

When I took him in my arms, he said, "I couldn't find you, Mommy. I call and I call and I not find you!" It was very sad. However, the next thing he said made me laugh. He then added, "I not find a hide place."

Poor cute kid. I was glad that turned out so well. It could have been much worse.

Afterward we decided that he won. No one found him after all.

The rest of the party went well and everyone had a great time. The food was also amazing. I ate way too much.

Grig and Allopex looking for arrowheads.

That night was also General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That took up most of the rest of the evening. The sessions were awesome! I love conference. There were so many good talks that had things I really needed to hear.

Sunday we had a pretty lazy day as we watched the last couple of sessions of conference. Between the two sessions, Grig, Allopex, Kevin, and I went on a walk. Allopex left halfway through, but it was fun to have him along for a while. The woods around their house are beautiful. I haven't been there in April before. It is fun to see the farm at different times of the year.

Monday, we all decided to go to Baltimore to visit Argent in the hospital. It was great to see both her and Grig's mother. I think they were really happy that we came. Kevin was very excited to see his grandma and "his" Argent. Every time he sees her picture, he gets really excited. While we were there, the doctor informed her that she might be able to go home the next day. That was pretty exciting. We were hoping she would be able to come home with us before we left, but we wanted her to be sure she was healthy before she did.

We had rented two cars, so the first car went home after we ate lunch at the hospital. (By the way, I ordered a ranch chicken burger at that hospital and it was the best thing I have ever eaten. I've been wanting another one ever since. If you're ever in Baltimore, stop at the John Hopkins Hospital and try one.)

We visited with Argent a while longer, and then, when she was feeling tired, we went to the Barnes and Noble there. We wanted to go to the National Aquarium, but it was way expensive for only having three hours until it closed. We hadn't been to a book store in a while, and Grig's youngest sister was really excited about going there.

It turned out to be one of my favorite parts of going east (besides family, of course). We had a good time browsing books in the book store, but in the bay next to it they had the last surviving ship from Pearl Harbor. They also had a play area and we really really enjoyed using the equipment.

It was fun to look around. We brought our GPS to use in our car, but the rental car's cigarette lighters didn't work. So, we would turn on the GPS, write down the direction s and turn it off again, or use it until it died, and then use the written directions. However, we found Barnes and Noble without using it, and then it died, so we didn't have any directions on how to leave Baltimore.

We had a pretty good time driving around Baltimore, trying to find a way out. It was occasionally frustrating, but often enjoyable. Baltimore drivers are interesting. I'm pretty sure I saw every traffic law being broken as we drove around. Eventually, with some luck (and some prayers) we found our way out and back home. Grig's dad had prepared us a delicious supper of lamb, broccoli, and rice.

Tuesday was our last day. We went for a walk in the morning, and then visited some friends and neighbors of Grig's. We should have done it before the last day, but it didn't work out until then. We also picked up some treats for the next day's travels and filled the car up with gas.

We got back in time to have a fire and cook up hot dogs and s'mores. We had a really good time.

We traveled to the Reagan airport the next day and got on our first flight at 1:30 p.m. We flew back to Denver and then had a layover of 2-3 hours. Then, after a short flight back to Salt Lake, we drove home and got to bed by 11:00 p.m. It wasn't until the last flight that Kevin really got to see the plane take off and land. He really enjoyed flying.

Grig had work the next morning, so we woke up at 5:00 a.m., and drove him into work. Then, Kevin and I drove up to Idaho and picked up the dogs and spent some time playing and talking with my family. The dogs looked great and Siff had grown so much! I took a short nap and then we drove home to spend a mostly relaxing evening with Grig. Kevin slept the whole way home, so he wasn't very tired at bedtime. So, after Grig got to bed, Kevin and I ran to the store to buy groceries.

Kevin with my mom.

It was nice to sleep in our own bed and sleep in a little this morning. It was a great vacation, but it's nice to have the dogs back and to be on a mostly normal schedule again.

Welcome home!

Driving Tanks Across the Country: Part 4

If you missed the previous parts, here are some links:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Day 10:

Grig was really nice and let me sleep in. He took Kevin out when he woke up, and I got to sleep in for the first time on our trip. It was wonderful! I felt a lot better after that. I had been getting up at 7:30ish (which is 5:30ish normal time for us). 

So, I woke up and then we got ready for church at 1:00 p.m. Knowing that we would be stopping by Grig's grandpa's grave and his grandma's house after church, I made sure that I grabbed the camera.

It was fun to go to Grig's ward and meet a lot of his friends from his youth. Kevin fell asleep during Sacrament Meeting, and then I let his grandma hold him for the rest of the meeting. She took the sleeping baby to Young Women's with her, and we had an excellent couple of lessons in the next to classes. When Grig went to pick up Kevin, he found him awake and surrounded by teen-aged girls. I think he was a big hit.

After church we drove to Grig's grandma's house, and to my horror I discovered that though I brought the camera, I hadn't grabbed its battery out of its charger, so we don't have any pictures to show, but we still had a good time talking to Kevin's great-grandma. After we visited for a while (and she fed us excellent strawberry shortcake on lemon cake), we went to the cemetery and visited the grave of her husband. Neither Kevin nor I have ever met his grandpa, but it was fun to listen to Grig's Utah sister, brother, and he tell stories about things that they remembered.

Grig had an emotional time of it. He really misses his grandpa.

We went home and made another campfire. We didn't stay up as late this time though, because we had to get up early in the morning to go to the beach again. (Thus we never managed to go swimming in their creek or river. The river was always too high when we wanted to go anyway.)

Day 11:

This was now Monday, July 16. We got up pretty early and while Grig's mom and dad were getting the van, we got all the stuff ready to go to the beach. We left about 10:30 and went to Richmond to pick up Grig's sister so she could come with us (she had work off until Wednesday). 

That was fantastic, because now all of Grig's family was with us except for Havelock who wasn't able to come due to work.

We made it to Virginia Beach about 2:00, and there we split into two groups. The first group (including us) went to the aquarium they have there, while the other group went straight to the beach. 

Right after Grig and I were married, we went to this aquarium and I love it! They have a shallow pool where you can touch clipped stingray. They are clipped so they don't stick you and injure people. It doesn't hurt them, it's like clipping fingernails. They feel like wet baloney, and last time we had one sidling up to us to be touched like a friendly, slippery puppy. We were looking forward to Kevin seeing the rays.

The first thing we saw was a turtle display.

They were very cute. The aquarium also had a walk-in area where you were surrounded by fish on all sides, including above you. They had some pretty neat varieties of fish as well. As they swam over your head, it almost felt as though you were underwater.

Admiring the fish.

 Kevin really enjoyed himself, as did I.

 We had Grig's mom with us, his sister and brother-in-law from Utah, and his other brother that will be coming to live with us soon. When we got to stingray petting pool, I got to touch the stingray, but they never came close enough to the surface for Kevin to touch them. However, he enjoyed getting wet, so he still had a good time. He also got to touch horseshoe crabs later, so that made up for it.

We went to their second building to see the otters, but they were asleep. About that time, they were closing, so we went through this area that made us feel like we were in Honey I Shrunk the Kids.

Kevin riding a giant snake

The statue at the entrance.

 Then, we went to the beach to meet the rest of our group and Grig's aunt. I love the beach. I've only been to it about four times in my life, so it is still very exciting for me. Counting Friday, this is Kevin's second time at the beach. We took him out in the water for a while, but then he just wanted to play in the sand. Most of our pictures come from Grig's mom who took pictures of him while we were out swimming.

Eventually, we emerged from the water and I was surprised when he was willing to let me bury him in sand and give him a tail.

Our little merman.

 As the hours ticked away, the sky turned beautiful colors in the sunset. Kevin posed nicely for me while I practiced my photography.

 Eventually, Grig's aunt had to leave. It was a lot of fun to see her, and we had a good time finding sand-fleas and crabs with her.

About that time, we decided it was getting dark, so we cleaned up, changed, and went to see J at the gift shop.

She was super excited to see Kevin again, and immediately she scooped him up and asked him to give her 'some sugah' and planted a kiss on his cheek. He was content and began to point at things and ask "This?" She ran him around the shop and said, "J has something for you." She then handed him a little ball. We browsed the store while she made a big deal over him.

A few minutes later, she came back with a cool little wood carving of a heron and said, "You should of seen him when we passed this! His eyes lit up and he started whistling." Then she had to hand Kevin back to me while she took care of some customers. When she finished, I asked, "Are you sure we can't pay for this?"

She shot me another mock-glare and said, "Kevin, you tell your mamma that she's being naughty. J can give you presents if she wants to!"

So I subsided and then Kevin began to chew on the bird's beak (he's been teething). J didn't like that, so she got him a little rubber bracelet for him to chew on. She told me, "You put that bird on a shelf so he can have it when he gets older, okay?" I agreed and Kevin happily chewed on the bracelet. We talked to her for a few more minutes, exchanged information, and went away with a few other things that we bought.

After it turned dark, one half of our group headed home, while the other group stayed and hunted ghost crabs.

 The picture above is of a ghost crab that we found earlier in the day. It was a tiny one, but after dark we were able to find huge ones. However, we don't have any pictures because my battery died about this time. One of them pinched me, and it hurt a little bit, but we still had a good time catching them and then letting them go. They scuttled around everywhere, and we chased them by the light of our flashlights. It was really neat. I was glad we stayed a little longer. We drove back while watching an electric storm in the sky. It was a really nice trip.

Day 12:

 This was the last full day in Virginia. Grig's brother thought his flight to Utah wasn't until the next morning, but half-way through the afternoon we found out that he was supposed to be there in an hour. He quickly scrambled to put the last of his luggage together, we took a quick family picture, and then Grig's dad drove him to the airport. He missed his flight, but caught a later one and was able to make it.

The quick family picture

 We went out and visited a few of Grig's friends and spent time with family. Later, we chased fireflies and put them in a jar. I accidentally squished one a little bit so its light wouldn't go out, which was nice for Kevin because then he could see it light up. I don't think I irreparably damaged him, and then we later let them go again.

 We stayed up kind of late because Grig's sister and brother-in-law were leaving in the middle of the night, but eventually I had to go to bed. We had a pretty long drive the next day and we wanted to leave fairly early.

Tomorrow starts our return trip to Utah via Idaho (to collect the dog and the snake). Thanks for taking this long journey with us! Final part is up: Part 5

Driving Tanks Across the Country: Part 3

To read the first two parts, click on the following links:

Part 1

Part 2

I forgot to add one event from day 6. As I was walking Kevin around outside, we found a grey tree frog. Here's a couple pictures:

Day 7:

After our exciting day at Maymont Park, we decided we needed a down-day to spend with family. Grig was excited to show Kevin and me the woods around his house. His parents own quite a few acres, so we had a good time getting lost and then finding our way out again.

My man, back in his native element.

As we started away from the house, we gained an entourage. Their two dogs and various cats trailed us as we made our way through the woods. It was kind of entertaining, because we'd hear something crashing through the brush and it was just a couple of cats playing. 

Cat in a tree

Grig explained the different types of trees and other shrubbery to me, and we had a great time. Eventually we found the creek that runs through their property to his driveway and Grig and Kevin went wading into a pool that formed in their creek. I was going to get in, but I was wearing my only pair of jeans. We decided to come back later to swim, but it never ended up happening for reasons that I will explain later.

As we were walking back toward the house (Kevin needed a nap), Kevin started pointing at trees and saying, "This?" 

Grig would answer, "Tree!" 

Kevin would then point at a different tree and ask, "This?"

Grig would respond, "Tree."

This went on for quite a while until I tried to film it. Of course, then he stopped. It was very cute though. 

Once Grig's sister and brother-in-law woke up (they had flown in from Utah the night before), we spent some time with them. They didn't get in until really early in the morning, so they didn't wake up until we came back from the woods. Their flight had ended up being changed to a different flight when their first planes engines didn't work. They arrived at a different airport and their luggage got lost along the way. That was very frustrating for them.

The rest of the day we talked and watched Star Wars episode IV.

Good times.

I went to bed early because I wanted to get up early for the beach. Grig's Utah sister stayed up late because her luggage was supposed to arrive, but it never did.

Day 8:

This was now Friday, June 13. We had been planning to go to the beach the day before, but as we contemplated the hour that Grig's mom, sister, and brother-in-law would arrive, we decided to do it the next day instead. So, I woke up early and drove with Grig's mom to rent a minivan so we could go to the beach together. 

Unfortunately, I found out that Grig's youngest sister had spent the night throwing up, and so she and Grig's mom would be staying behind. That was really sad news. Grig's dad had to work for the day so he wouldn't be able to come either.

It took a while for everyone to get ready, and then we stopped for doughnuts. Even with my best efforts, we didn't get out until 11:30 or so.

That was okay though. It was only going to take 3 hours to get there, so we should have arrived at 2:30. Unfortunately, I had forgotten two important things.

1) It was a Friday.

2) It rains on the east coast.

As we got onto a rather busy highway, the rain began to pour. I was the only one who could drive because I had gone to rent the vehicle with Grig's mom, and so I got to experience driving in really heavy rain. It was rather exciting. We also were listening to the radio drama of Star Wars IV, so at least we were entertained for the long trip. 

The rain combined with the traffic made it so we didn't get to Virginia Beach until 4:30. We decided to try to go to the aquarium first. However, when we got there at 4:40 p.m., it turned out that the ticket stand had closed ten minutes before.

I was super frustrated at this point. Grig's siblings had told me that we shouldn't swim in the ocean after 5 because of sharks. 

We stopped and got something to eat. It was raining a little as we did so. We found a corner with several different restaurants and Grig and I went to McDonald's while the rest of his siblings went to Wendy's. While we were alone, I was almost in tears. It was a long trip for nothing and I wondered if we weren't supposed to go to the beach today. I had really been looking forward to this, and it seemed like it was ruined. 

After we ate, we prayed for guidance and then we decided to just go to the beach and see what happened. 

Another miracle. The weather cleared right up as soon as we got to the bay. We were able to swim in the bay until it got dark and we all had a fantastic time. 

The group who went to the beach Friday.

The ocean was the perfect temperature. We had a great time swimming and playing in the sand.

Grig and his brother wrestle, while the brother-in-law watches from the background.

At one point, I was jumping at waving at Kevin on the beach. Grig got a fantastic idea as I was jumping. As I jumped, he ducked under the water and came up under me, sending me tumbling backward.

I love the face-palm in the last picture

It was well-timed, and Grig's younger sister just happened to take the picture at the right moment.

The day's trip was totally worth it. Once we got to the beach, we didn't want to leave and we began talking about coming back on Monday. All the earlier frustration was forgotten and replaced by gratitude that the storm had cleared up so we could play. 

As it grew dark, we cleaned up and then went on a walkway to watch lightning in the distance. 

The only picture I got of the lightning

As we got back in the car, the rain came pouring down. We were waiting for my brother-in-law and sister-in-law to return to the car, but they were taking their time. Finally we called my brother-in-law.

He answered the phone and asked, "Is Kevin allowed to have suckers? Can I buy him a sucker?" 

I told him sure. It turned out they were in the gift shop. We decided to all go back in and take a look around at it. 

Meanwhile, the woman who owned the gift store told my brother-in-law that he couldn't give a baby a blow-pop because it has gum in it.

The woman at the counter, who we'll call J, fell in love with Kevin. The instant we came in, the swooped over and said in a heavy southern accent, "Oh my goodness! Aren't you adorable? J has something for you!"

Immediately, to my brother-in-law's surprise, she handed Kevin a blow-pop. It was pretty funny. She then said, "He looks just like my babies! Come with me, I have something else for you." 

I followed her over to a bin full of small, stuffed toys. She pulled out a turtle and handed it to Kevin. 

I wasn't sure if it was a gift, and I didn't want to take advantage of J's kindness, so I said, "We'll have to see if we can buy that."

She shot me a (friendly) glare and said, "Don't you dare! This is a gift from J. You're gonna name it J, aren't you, honey?" she said to Kevin. I agreed we would name the turtle after her. It was the least we could do. Kevin let her hold him and she told him to give her 'some sugah' and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. She was absolutely delightful. We had a great time there and we were happy that we went in. We decided to buy a couple of things as well. 

Then, we piled back into the car and I drove home. It had been a fantastic day. Most people slept on the way home and Star Wars kept me company.

We got back late and went to bed.

Day 9:

This was my in-laws anniversary!

 We started off the day late (we all slept in), and then we celebrated with a cake and a family cook-out. More extended family was going to come, but my sister-in-law was still sick, so they decided to stay away so they didn't catch it. That was disappointing, but we still had a good time. We spent time talking and spending time together.

As it began to grow dark, my brother-in-law and I went out and dug a firepit. Then we built a fire and we ended the day around it making and eating s'mores. 

It was super relaxing. Nothing quite compares to talking around the campfire while fireflies shine around you in the darkness.

I like how Grig and his dad are sitting the exact same way.

One really neat thing that happened was that as we sat around the fire, we began to notice movement. A colony of wood ants evidently lived inside one of the logs. As we watched they tried to escape with their eggs from the burning log. It was kind of fascinating. I got some neat pictures.

Most of them seemed to escape, but we didn't see the queen, so we didn't know for sure.

Eventually we went to bed.

That's the end of part 3. Thanks for reading!

Here's the next parts as well if you want to continue: Part 4 and Part 5