Family Vacation Part 3- Topping

We went to the river house(my parent's river house) for the last couple days of vacation. It was a pretty day on Tuesday. Christian immediately found some new puzzles that my mom brought there and needed to do them all before he could go outside. He LOVES puzzles and is really good at them too. V noticed everything that was new and different there. She is pretty observant. I wonder if she will be interested in interior design one day. The kids called Danny into the river room and said, "We found a creature!" It was a lizard. They were happy to try to catch it with Danny. It was too fast though. Maybe we'll find it again next time.

When we got outside and got everything set up, both kids went on the waverunner with Danny- one at a time. Danny and Victoria saw an eagle chasing some osprey! It's always cool to see an eagle. They also had fun doing donuts and swerving and getting soaked. I love the waverunner, but I have a need for speed and that and pregnancy don't mix well. I did take V on a slow ride around the creek. It was fun to explore and look at the houses, boats, and animals. V didn't mind posing for a few pictures while Christian and Danny were out exploring the island for a bit. When the went to the river it was as calm as could be, so they could go about 30 mph. That is definitely the fastest Christian has ever gone.

When my parents are there my dad takes us out on the boat, but we didn't take any rides on it this time. The kids had a blast playing on and in it though. I loved the way this picture turned out! It wasn't even posed. The spitting off the side pics weren't quite as cute. And the ones of Christian hanging over the edge were scary. We decided not to add those. Who is down in the cabin? That night we went to Urbanna to ride the trolley, but we didn't see it. Instead, we tried out a little ice cream place that we have never tried. It was good. When is ice cream bad, right? The next day, was really smoky! The wild fires in NC are definitely evident. Christian said it smelled like someone was cooking hot dogs. Yes, on a gigantic fire! Danny took V out to the river to play on the waverunner, but it was too hard to see and not safe. They could only see about 100 feet and didn't want to get hit by a boat, so it was a very quick trip. Victoria and Christian still enjoyed playing outside though. V likes to pick honey suckle. Christian likes to throw sticks and pinecones (or anything else) into the water. They also wanted to play on the boat again.

They both love playing in the pool and I was able to sneak a couple good pics of Christian. I love catching his personality on camera. Check out his tongue. V is always easy to photograph because she doesn't mind posing.

Another really cool thing from that day was that Victoria jumped off the end of the dock and swam almost all the way back to the shore. She was wearing a life jacket, but she is getting better at swimming. She had fun with that and with playing in the water until she got stung by a jelly fish. Good thing my parents had meat tenderizer in the dock shed. That helped a lot. So, after that Danny decided to swim to the island and back. He got about halfway and came back. We wondered what the problem was. He was swimming through tons of jellyfish. He said it felt like he was swimming through spider webs! Gross. Next time I think we'll give the jellyfish repellent a try.

After that we played a little more and ate lunch. Then we packed up and headed back home! It was a great vacation!