Our Summer So Far

We're back from our travels, and I finally had a moment to download our pictures. We've started our vacationing early this summer. The boys got to ditch their last week of school, and we made our annual trek to Virginia to go to the beach. So, after almost 10 hours of traveling, literally from coast to coast, we made it to the Crowleys. That was not the end though-we got back in the car and immediately drove 6 more to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where we got to relax, and spend a week with the best ocean view you could ask for. For those of you who don't know about the Outer Banks, you don't know what true beach life is. I have yet visit a beach in California that is as quaint, comfortable, relaxed, and pleasant as the Outer Banks.

This year the kids hit a gold mine in the sand, and caught more crabs than we knew what to do with. Big crabs, hermit crabs, dead crabs-the works. Tanner had his own little ecosystem at one point in a bucket, with crabs, sand, fish and seaweed. Little boy heaven. Tanner was also the unlucky boy that caught the stomach flu halfway through the week-I'm serious when I say we're haunted by the flu....But we did manage to make it to the Aquarium with the kids, and of course, to Sonic on the way back. A girl can't go too long without her Diet Vanilla Coke.

When we got back in Virginia, we lucked out with the flu only working its way through 3 more of us, and we were back on top of our game. We rode the train with Grandma Neider to Manassas, and visited the Bull Run memorial there from the Civil War. It's a humbling site, and of course, a great place to run out little boys energy. We had some awesome weather, nights full of fireflies, and a birthday party to top the week off.

So now we're back to our hot days here in Fresno, and the kids just barely got back to west coast time, and started sleeping past 7 in the morning. Thank goodness! We loved being with our family there. we don't get enough time with them. So feel free to come to us now and visit-we're a little traveled out! We'll keep the pool warm.