A few Virginia Highlights.

silly Claire at the beach (don't know what she is doing)

John and Harrison with the Cannons on USS Wisconson

Me with the kids in front of one of the many mermaids around Virginia Beach

soaking wet from the rain on the USS Wisconson

The family (our only family picture from the trip)

More Claire on the beach

Harrison playing trains.

Abby digging at the beach.

Mr Harrison at the beach for the first time. And I thought the pacific ocean would be his first beach!

"group" shot at the children's muesum. Harrison wasn't happy!

petting sting rays

nature walk. Emily was mad at Abby so she made an ugly face!

The beginning of August before school started we went to Virginia for our family vacation. My father went into the hospital right before we got there and ended up being in the hospital for 7 weeks with MRSA and complications from it. We spent most of our vacation at the hospital. We were glad we got to see him and help my mother because we almost lost my father on August 2nd. It was a very scary day. We did try to do a few fun things for the kids since the hospital and my parent's apartment weren't very exciting for them. Here are some pictures of a couple places we took them.

The Virginia Aquarium was fun and had a neat nature hike along the coastal water where we saw lots of crabs. The kids got to pet sting rays there too.

The Children's Muesum in Norfolk was lots of fun. They had a HUGE train display and play area Harrison just loved. He cried very hard when it was time to leave the muesum. He really had a good time there. I wish my dad could have watched him play. He would have loved to see him being such a little boy.

The only "historical" thing we were able to do was go see the USS Wisconson. The kids weren't too excited about it but John really liked and it was neat to be on the deck on such a huge ship and see the cannons and such. It started to pour rain when we were on board. The girls enjoyed getting really wet. We walked along the docks near by after wards and got to see jelly fish in the water.

We made it to the beach one afternoon for about an hour. The kids loved it so much we had to go back another day. The girls can now say they have played in the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean! We wish we could have seen Jamestown and Washington DC. I guess we will just have to plan another trip someday....

the amazing part of the whole adventure was John drove back two days to Texas alone with the kids so I could stay another week and help my mother. He is an awesome dad and good husband to let me stay!