Fire Truck Works

We saw Fireworks on July 1st at Busch Gardens. Lincoln started calling them Fire Truck Works. He talked about them non-stop. On the 4th he was sooo excited he didn't nap. He fell asleep in the stroller 45 minutes before the show started. Nate, Ethan, and I panicked and had to wake him up. He would have been devastated if he had missed them. He watched them all and made it home before he fell back asleep. He's still talking about those Fire Truck Works.

Colonial Williamsburg

Our final stop on our vacation was at Colonial Williamsburg. The day was a hot one and I think we all were worn out from our previous fun filled days. In retrospect, this was not the best idea for two kiddos under four (especially after the beach and amusement park)The boys were excellent. I only had to lock them up once.
We walked up the street, went in a couple buildings, ate lunch, and called it a day. We were exhausted. We decided that this place was going to be a zoo for fireworks, so we decided to drive back to Busch gardens and watch from the parking lot there. We went to dinner and started out for ice cream when we stumbled into Colonial Williamsburg again. We found a great parking spot by the road and a huge field to watch the fireworks. We debated and finally decided to stay here and ditch our decision to go back to Busch Gardens.
Since we had two hours to kill until the fireworks, we walked into town and people watched.
These were some serious firework observers. I wish there was some way to capture how great our seats were and how close to the road we were. Those crazy people in the crowds missed out on the best seats!!!
This was the BEST vacation ever! We are all happy to be home, but bummed our vacation is over!

Virginia Beach-Day two

The excitement that started the day before carried over into day two. Lincoln decided to wake the hotel up at 6:15 by saying, "beach wet" over and over and over! We actually made it out to the beach about 10:30. The digging started and everyone (except Mommy) seemed to get buried.Nate and I got the boys into the water today. We held both of them and headed out to the waves. I was the wimp and headed back in with Link. They were so strong I thought I was going to fall over with him. He was enjoying himself so much that he started yelling, "No Mommy go back." Ethan was even squealing with delight.
Our next ploy to skip the nighttime sandy beach ordeal was to take them to the little amusement park up the boardwalk which was cunningly avoided the night before.
Poor Daddy crunched his legs up for the dizzing rides. He was such the trooper.
We ended the night with one more family photo. This time a nice gentleman volunteered to take our photo and I didn't have to edit it one bit. He was very funny and pretended to run off with our camera. I might have believed him if he wasn't laughing the whole time!

Virginia Beach-Day One

I am going to have to post a few days in a row. Our hotel (which was ten times nicer than our Quality Suites) did not have internet access.
We had a later than expected arrival to the beach, but hey we were on vacation! As my Granny says, "Your on vacation. You can do whatever you want to do." The boys were so excited they could barely eat lunch. We even tried Wendy's, but they wanted to get to the beach. I almost had my bags down before they started reaching for the shovels. They dug a while and then I tried to coax them down to the water. You can see the looks of nervousness on their faces....and in all honesty, I was ok with this!
The only way we could get them back to the hotel for naps was bribery! A good snack usually does the job. Thankfully, they didn't eat well and were hungry from a hard day digging.
We decided to forego the sandy beach that night, so we walked the boardwalk and had dinner. We found Neptune and had to get a photo.
I wanted one family photo from our first night at the beach. I asked a nice lady on a bench to take our photo. If you only knew how much editing I had to do to this photo.....

Busch Gardens

We headed to Busch Gardens today! I am not sure who was more excited Nate or the boys. I did a little research and learned that they had two main kiddy play areas, but boy was I wrong.
Today reaffirmend to Nate and I how different these two boys are! Lincoln is definitely our dare devil. He said "ride" a zillion times today! He wasn't happy unless he was riding something. Ethan bit half his finger nails off today. He is such a worrier.We got to the park before it opened, and we stayed until about 1:00. We went back to the hotel for naps and headed back to the amusement park after naps. The morning was awesome. We were first in line everywhere and the boys were able to ride each ride at least twice. The afternoon/evening was PACKED! However, the characters came out and Lincoln was able to hug each and every one of them.
The highlight of Nate's day was the little rollercoaster in Sesame Street. It truly was a kiddy rollercoaster. He got Ethan on it early in the morning, but it scared Ethan to death. He decided he was not going to do that again. After naps, and lots of coaxing he made it back on there with Daddy and even smiled a little.
We also did the unthinkable (for us) and we stayed in the park until the 9:15 fireworks were finished. Once again, Ethan was terrified. He thought that the fireworks were going to fall on him. Tomorrow should be less stress for E. We are going to Virginia Beach for two days. Sadly, I think our hotel is actually worse than this one (if that is possible.) I don't think we have internet access there.

Retro Hotel

We made it to Williamsburg in time for naps. The front desk was nice enough to let us check in an hour early. We feel like stars in Back to the Future. These are some of our amenities:
VCR (no DVD)
Boom box with cassette (no CD)
19 inch TV with a remote that does not work
Chain lock that is hanging by a screw
A game room with Ms. Pacman and Gorilla war!
We do have free wireless!!!!
Naps were HYSTERICAL! Lincoln and Ethan were literally bouncing on the bed. Nate got into bed with Lincoln and I closed by eyes next to Ethan. About five minutes into the chaos, I hear, "Lincoln that is my face." I look over to see Lincoln's legs flailing on Nate. The good news is that they both fell asleep! They both seem to be feeling more comfortable here. I can't wait to walk into that bedroom and see where they are sleeping. I hope one of them is in a bed!

It's sort of like a Pentagon

Nate and Dad had their Pentagon tour scheduled for this afternoon. We knew that it was scheduled during the boys naps, so we had lunch and went to the playground.
The boys ran and played and had a big ole time!
There were some great monkey bars. The boys took turns on all of them. Lincoln was able to hang on for a few seconds each time! That boy is strong! Dad and Nate headed to the Pentagon for their tour. When they got back, they had so many stories. Apparently, the tour guide was describing the building to a kid and said, "Well, it's not really a circle. It's not really a square." Dad says, "It's sort of like a Pentagon." See what we have been dealing with this week. :)
We ate dinner on the deck again tonight. Dad spent the majority of the dinner talking about taking the boys to Austin for a week. Nate and I spent the majority of the dinner telling him he's crazy!
For the rest of the night he did everything in his power to stir the kids into mass chaos. He gave them cookies, reece cups, cheese, and sodas. Then he had them jumping on the bed and tickling each other.

He finished the night reading books, singing songs, hugging, and kissing!