The last days of summer

Where did the summer go? How could it possibly be the LAST weekend of summer already? Sigh.

We hadn't yet had a weekend at the beach, so we decided to use up every last hour of summer and go to Virginia Beach right before school began. Literally we had the kids open house on Friday morning, then we drove to the beach. We got home Sunday night, and school started Monday morning!

Both of the kids we excited about their teachers this year, but mostly Tate who got Mr. Maneno. As a friend told him, "Mr. Maneno is the bomb.com!" He is the only male teacher in the school, and he has a couch in his classroom, which was the envy of all 4th graders last year when they had to walk by his classroom and would try to peek in. Here we are at open house Friday morning. To me, the look on Tate's face says "I have arrived!"

 We got to the beach late afternoon and discovered this awesome parkour course was new this year-

And got our feet wet-

After dinner, we came back to the beachside pool, where daddy proved to be way more fun than mommy-

And we tried out the "kids pool" too-

They also had an indoor pool which we spent a little time in as well!

Upon arrival, they upgraded us to a suite, which gave the kids a giant sectional in the living room for their bedroom-

And we had a beachfront balcony off our room, where we enjoy two nights of sipping wine and playing cards after the kids when to bed

Saturday morning we were up and at the beach early for a fun day. The kids would have stayed until after sunset!

Our hotel was way far away from the touristy boardwalk, so we decided to rent a little pedal pusher cart and bike around-

Stopping off occasionally to look for the perfect souvenir for Tate. We told them each they had $10 to spend, and Macy instantly wanted a boogie board. She had one, but it didn't have the wrist strap, so it was hard for her not to lose it when jumping waves. But Tate was on the hunt for something still...

When we lived in Germany, Brian came back to the states for a 9 week course in Norfolk. He remembered going to a great seafood place, and wanted to take us there. We found it, and it was just as good as he remembered. This was the view from our table- 

That night I saw a sign for "free hermit crabs" with the purchase of a cage. I wondered if $10 would cover the cage? Tate liked the idea, so we went in for a look-

And wouldnt you know it, it was $9.99! The kid was delighted-

Sadly, Sunday afternoon came way too quick and it was time to go home...

But, not before buying another hermit crab! In doing some research, I learned that hermit crabs will not live alone, so they need a friend. Lucky Macy got to go pick out one for herself to take home. They became fast friends- 

Also while doing some research, I learned that they can not live in the tiny little cage that they sell you at the souvenir shops... Thankfully I remembered my neighbor had a few empty fish/reptile tanks in her basement and she was happy to let us borrow one. But first, we had to stop off at the pet store once we got back into town for everything else they needed for the tank. Suddenly Tate's $10 souvenir was close to a $100 souvenir!

This is Coco, Macy's hermit crab- 

And this is Poseidon, Tate's hermit crab-

Hope they are as easy as everything Ive read about them, and they live a long-ish, happy, life with us...

Such a great weekend away with my people. And so much better than last year when we went without Brian because he was deployed. This was the perfect way to end the summer- two nights of cool ocean air and not a care in the world. Except just maintaining a certain level of joy for all 4 of us- which comes pretty easy when we are all together on vacation.