And what fun we had and great memories we made during the time we had there. We started our journey on Saturday, June 22nd and the goal was to get "at least" half way there. The first three hours went by fairly quickly with Briella knitting a scarf for Jim (she finished it right before we entered West Virginia), Gianna playing with her toy camera and/or sucking her thumb🙄, and Micah napping.
We were up early because, well, it was a hotel and the kids were up early so we packed up and headed out for Williamsburg, VA. It was practically on our drive to our beach house so it worked out well to do the visit. The kids loved riding the big bus to be dropped off and picked up to and from the town. We didn't buy admission tickets to get tours of the houses, but we enjoyed walking the premises, taking in the sights, and taking a picture or two. We did not enjoy "Phyllis" letting us into the gardens and having "Doris" slam the door in our face when we weren't supposed to be walking around in there, hahahaha....whoops. 😅😆
I may or may not have pinched your Daddy's rear end in our couple's photo. It always helps with a genuine smile. 😉
The first day was spent at the beach. All of you kids were absolutely in love and just so excited to be sitting on the biggest sand box you've ever sat on in your entire life. So, there was a lot of digging and pouring sand all over each other for an hour or more before water exploration even began. The picture below shows how the girls were still wearing their cover ups, but ran right to the sand and got to digging treasures to put into their buckets. But once the girls discovered the fun of the water, there was no turning back! There was a really sweet husband and wife who struck up a quick conversation about how their 20 something year old son had Micah as his middle name and the wife offered to take our picture so here we are on our first day on the beach. (And we used Briella's camera quite a bit on the beach because we didn't want to bring our phones--trying to be a little "old fashioned" so the pictures with dates on them are not correct dates.)
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| Briella to us: "Wait! Don't move! I want to take a picture of you two."💝 |
So, after spending many hours on the beach, our stomachs started reminding us that dinnertime was upon us. We raced through showers to find somewhere to eat since we never stopped at the grocery store earlier in the day since the excitement of entering early into our beach house came over us. We weren't even 5 minutes into our drive when I looked back and noticed Micah was started to doze off. This was 6:30pm. And, sure enough, he fell asleep 2 minutes before we arrived so Daddy carried him into Five Guys where he slept in his arms all the way until our food was done and our number was called. We said, "Micah, it's time to eat." and he opened his eyes and immediately grabbed a french fry, as though casually acting like he had never fallen asleep in the first place.
After eating at Five Guys, we knew we had to make a stop at Walmart to pick up some essentials for the week. It was already going on 8 o'clock and we still wanted to go for a sunset beach walk so we split the list and did a 'divide and conquer' around the store. Daddy had Micah and I had the girls. Me and girls were finishing up in the freezer section when a bolt of tremendous pain hit my barefoot toes. I looked down and couldn't see or figure out what it was and said aloud to the girls, as I grabbed my foot, "Something just hit my foot. What was it?!" but all I knew was my foot and leg went immediately numb when, out of nowhere, some very sweet man bent down and handed me my bottle of kombucha. I looked at the bottle and then at him and realized that it had fallen from where a child is supposed to sit, landed perfectly vertical on my foot as to not shatter into a million pieces, but rather, roll under the cart where I couldn't even see it. I could hardly walk the rest of the way out of the store and figured I probably broke my toe(s) and assumed it was my typical luck to start a trip that way. While my toe immediately swelled and turned purple and hurt quite a lot for the week, I didn't let it stop me whatsoever. Truth be told, walking barefoot in the sand or in flip flops was probably the best "medicine" for it because ever since coming home and having to wear shoes for any reason, it's painful.
The next morning was Monday and Micah was up exceptionally and oddly early, but no curtains on his windows was definitely the reason for that. So, after making some coffee and no one else still awake, I said to him, "Do you want to go for a pajama walk on the beach?" He literally gasped with excitement and ran to the door. It was such a special time with him. So, off we both went in our pajamas and big sunglasses to cover no make up. 💗
Once we got back home, Briella woke up within 5 minutes so I said, "Do you want to go for a beach walk?" And just like Micah, she was so excited and I said, "Let's go!" and she said, "In my pajamas?" and I said, "Yes, why not?!" so off we went to enjoy the whole beach to ourselves.
And then we got home and Gianna was sitting on the couch waiting for us because she didn't want to wake up Daddy while we were gone so I promised her that I would take her on her own walk the next morning. But because everyone was excited to "suit up" and go play in the water, we decided to get going with breakfast so we could have a full beach day. We ate breakfast and then had a quick morning devotional on our upstairs back porch that overlooked the ocean. I also did what any other mom of little kid does overlooking the ocean does in the mornings, and clipped all your toe nails before heading to the beach. 😉
Micah dug in the sand most of the day, without hardly a peep, and the girls rode their boogie boards.
I loved that this moment was not staged whatsoever and that they were happily playing together. In fact, I love how they "happily" played together all week. Why can't they do this at home too? (I should clarify that "they"= Micah and Gianna).
And Daddy and I thoroughly enjoyed sitting under the umbrella like a bunch of old folks.😝
We have officially graduated from having to extending our arms out to take a couple's photo because you girls always enjoy taking pictures of us so thank you, Gianna, for asking to take this picture. 👍
Kids, a real quick side note about your Daddy...he took these pictures of me on this day. The night before our last night on our vacation, I walked into the kitchen and he kept complimenting me: (and this with no make up on whatsoever and my hair in a wet bun, may I add). And while this is not unusual for him to do by any stretch, it was the way he was looking at me that was so precious. There were no words needed, honestly. But what he said next will always stick with me. He said, "Daniella, I don't know if I've ever seen you look as beautiful as you have looked this past week." I stood there processing that statement as my almost 40 year old aging insecurities were trying to extinguish his compliment, so instead, I embraced it, smiled, and held back a tear. It's not what he said, but because of how he said it, how he looked at me when he said it, and just the overall genuine authenticity of what he was saying. It was as though I was seeing into his heart. That moment will always stick with me. Maybe because these past 6 months have been a huge growth for us spiritually and emotionally and God has been making diamonds in our relationship. 💕💖
But back to our day on the beach... 😉
After many hours playing in the sun and sand, we were noticing that Micah was starting to tire out. So, we said, "Let's go get some slushees" and we set out for Sonic. They have an all natural lemonade and we knew that a drive would put Micah to sleep for a bit and, sure enough, we conquered both hopes. What we didn't expect was that he'd stay asleep even after the car stopped driving!
So since Micah wasn't waking up, Irish-skinned Daddy stayed back at the house, and I took the girls back to the beach to continue boogie boarding fun.
By the time Micah woke up, it was close to dinner time so Daddy grilled hamburgers and heated up the leftover Five Guys fries. We let our food digest and we decided to stay at our beach house and swim in the pool the rest of the night and, my goodness, was that so much fun. So much so that none of us even captured a single picture the whole night!
The following Tuesday morning Micah was awake early again (not having curtains on his windows was not doing him any favors and the white blanket and pillowcases provided in the house were no help either) so he and I walked the beach again, but this time I decided to leave the camera behind and just "be" in the moment. It was an exciting walk for him because a man with a metal detector saw us and gave him a little miniature digger match box truck that he had found that morning. Micah kept that digger close to him the rest of the week and kept talking about the man who gave it to him. It really made an impression on him. When we got back to the beach house from our walk, no one was awake. It was 8:30 before the girls woke up and then we had to wake up Daddy. Since the girls had burned their butts at the beach the day before, we thought today would be a good day for the aquarium so that's exactly what we did...but not before I got to have my promised pajama beach walk with Gianna. 😍
And this little beauty insisted that she take a picture of me, though I tried everything to get out of it.
What we weren't expecting was for Micah to be as exhausted as he was the day before, but sure enough, he was worn out after the Aquarium. We were on our way to eat at PF Changs for lunch when I looked back and saw the drowsiness in Micah's face so I called in our order for takeout instead and thank goodness I did because he was sleeping the minute before we arrived to the restaurant. And, once again, he slept on the couch after being taken out of his car seat for a very long time.
So, I took the girls down to the beach again and because they had sunburns on their butts from the day before from riding their boogie boards, I doused them in sunscreen, let it dry, and then put on shorts to cover up their burns. We had so much fun that afternoon.
Eventually, Micah woke up, ate his PF Changs, and Daddy brought him down to the beach to hang out with us.
When we went back to our house, the pool guy was there servicing it and he had to add chlorine to it so we weren't able to swim in it the rest of the night. (And, sadly, I wasn't able to swim in it the rest of the week because of my severe sensitivity to chlorine). Daddy cooked up noodles and beans for us while he ate his leftover pizza from Mellow Mushroom. Right as we were finishing up eating dinner, Daddy noticed Roger, the beach house owner, walking around the back yard so he invited him into the house to meet all of us. He was such a nice man and it was a joy to meet him face-to-face. The rest of the night was spent playing in our backyard sandbox, a beach walk, and much earlier bedtimes than the two previous nights; which Mommy and Daddy needed! It was so nice to sit on our upstairs balcony, talk, and take in the beach view.
Wednesday morning I was woken up to Micah downstairs happily clanking around playing with his cars in the living room around 6:30am so I got up to hang out with him and eat breakfast bars together; which was becoming the daily "usual". The girls slept until after 8am. While they were eating their breakfast, we had a morning devotional at the kitchen table, suited up, went to the beach, ate lunch, had a swim in our pool, and set out for another late afternoon Sonic lemonade run.
We wrapped up our day on the beach around 4:00 so we could go back to the house, shower, and go to Outback for a dinner.
We sure did enjoy this adorable blue beach house. 
And then Micah wanted his turn in all the photo taking fun as well as snapping the above picture too. 💙
We really had the most sweet last night together. You kids were great at Outback and we all had such playful fun on the beach. We even staged some amazing shells for Gianna to find on this night because Daddy had staged one for Briella earlier in the week, but it didn't take long for Briella to see Gianna finding shells and she was hot on the mission too.
The "chocolate thunder from down under" dessert from Outback kept the kids nice and "energetic" until 9:30pm🥺, but once they were in bed, Daddy and I got to enjoy some quiet moments sitting together poolside looking at the stars and reflecting on our week. As much as I thoroughly enjoyed our time with the kids during the day, I equally enjoyed those quiet moments with your Daddy sitting outside overlooking the beach at night.
And now we are to Thursday, our last morning at the beach,...how did we already get here? Truth is, 'technically' we were scheduled to stay until the next day on Friday but Daddy thought driving through the night would be better for us so we could enjoy the day at home rather than driving all through the day the next day.
Daddy "heard" Mommy when I said that I would really like a morning to not "have" to get out of bed because Micah was up at the 6am hour so he woke up with him on our last day. Micah came into our room having already changed into his pants and ready to get going on his day! So, off they went for their own special morning beach walk, Kind Bar chocolate face and all. 😍
And then we went back and forth between the beach and our house pool that day, essentially letting you kids decide what you wanted to do so you had no regrets for your activities. We also went on one last Sonic lemonade excursion. Micah fell asleep like clockwork, girls and I went to the beach while he stayed asleep, and when he woke up, we all said our goodbyes to the beach. We went back to our house, you all had a final swim while I showered and then you came in for your showers. We ate dinner, packed up the car, and started back for Ohio.
Final nap of the vacation! He's never napped as good as he has this week.
The girls left Roger a thank you note and Roger left us incredible feedback (I had no idea we could get "graded" on Air BnB, but now I know).
So, kids, there you go. Always do the right thing no matter what. Treat others and others things with respect and honor. While we were "paying customers" and could've left the house a "mess", because a maid was going to clean it up anyway, we would never treat someone else's property in that way or make someone feel lesser than us to clean up after us when we are fully capable to clean ourselves. Our reputation precedes us, as well as follows us, and this is a great example to remember that. Roger later went on to message your Daddy that he would open up his house to us anytime and he actually hopes we will come back again soon.
Fun, Random Memories
- You kept requesting to listen to: "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" by the Beatles
- "Budapest" by George Ezra (because it played from Daddy's phone and you all were cracking up at it because you think he's singing, "Ayy, doo be doo."
- "Praise and Worship" music "I will Follow" or Kari Jobe as requested by Briella 💖
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Kind Bars were a morning favorite by Micah or a snack time request by kids.
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was the movie that kept you all happy and quiet on the drives.
- You all ate through a Costco sized jar of pickles within 3 days. It would've been 1-2 days, but Daddy and I had to pace you.
- Micah wouldn't swim in the pool for the first two days, but by the third day he was letting Daddy hold him and by the fourth day, he was letting go and actually doing swimming motions.
- If you all watched a cumulative 45 minutes of TV the entire vacation week, I'd be shocked. There was very minimal time spent in front of the TV, or any screen, for that matter; probably because we knew you'd make up for it during the long drive.
- Gianna was a boogie board fishy.
- Briella was obsessed with finding the perfect seashell(s) and was always looking for the next best one.
- While I am currently struggling with food reactions on any given day at any given time because of eating food, my 'reactions' this week were mild compared to other weeks at home. What a blessing! I ate a lot of CaveMan bars, Sam's Choice bread with organic peanut butter or cheese, drank a lot of coffee, and felt a lot of happy not having constant hives, face rashes, or SVT episodes (just a few episodes of POTS faintness/light headedness). 😊
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| This was my arsenal of "help" to get me through the week. ✌ |
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