Family Vacation Part 1- VA Beach

We decided to have a great vacation this summer without spending a lot of money- and were very successful! We went to VA Beach for a couple days, then to Williamsburg, then to Topping!

The kids had so much fun at the beach playing in the sand and playing in the water. Victoria really seems to love water lately and doesn't mind being knocked down by a wave. Christian loves the water too, but prefers not to get in too deep. He had more fun in the sand. He and I built some pretty great things! Castles with motes, a sea turtle, and a giant outside bathtub. Somehow, don't ask how, we forgot to take the camera onto the beach, except for when we took a walk after dinner. These are a few pics from that evening.

V holding a little crab she found.

making footprints in the wet sand

Next time we go to the beach Grant will be with us! I love that they are so excited to meet our new baby in August!

Lifeguards- Danny and Christian

Danny gave Victoria a pretty shell and she was pretty appreciative! She's always kissy! We love it and hope she won't outgrow it anytime soon.

Christian finishing off his free Taco Bell Fruitista Freeze in true Christian style.

I mention this to add in a few ways we made the vacation cheap.

1. Hotels.com- of course we got a discount on the hotel and found one with continental breakfast!

2. We packed a cooler and a couple bags full of food!

3. I brought my coupons- For dinner on day one we were going to use a 10 dollar gift certificate that I had gotten for free. It was for a little sports bar/ pizza place. But when we got there it was smoky and didn't seem so kid friendly so we gave it to some people who were eating there. We found out that they were regulars and were really excited about the free gift card. So it was fun to spread a little sunshine. Luckily though I had my regular coupons and there was a Taco Bell nearby. I had 4 free fruitista freeze with any purchase coupons. We all had dinner for under 6 dollars since they have a pretty good selection of under $1.00 things. Not too bad.

4. We visited a time share on day 2. I think they are worth it. It lasted under 2 hours, the kids played in a playroom and watched a movie (it was adjacent to the room that Danny and I were in and it had a glass window, so it was safe and more fun for them). For taking that tour and listening to the sales pitch we got 20 dollars for gas, a 20 dollar lunch gift certificate, a 30 dollar dinner gift certificate, a 3 day stay in VA Beach and another 3 day stay that we can pick where. So, more cheap vacations to come! We have done those before and when you go you can even get more free stuff by listening to another sales pitch.

So, for lunch on day two we used our gift certificate and went to a place called Pi pizzeria which turned out to be awesome and free! We just all shared a pizza! It was a modern looking restaurant and I loved the way it was decorated. The kids had fun with the pizza dough that they got to play with while we waited! What a good idea. The pizza was good too!

No pictures from our free dinner that night, but it was also awesome! The certificate had 6 choices on it and some were quite pricey and wouldn't be free, but we found one, Just George's, a more casual (family friendly) sports bar version of Captain Georges the seafood restaurant. So we went and Danny and the kids were thoroughly impressed with all of the TVs- even at our booth and in the bathrooms! The food was great and we enjoyed it!

6. Free entertainment- we found out that there was a free air show at Langley Airforce Base, so we went there too!

There were moon bounces for the kids- V in front of the Candy Land Castle. She was "Queen Frostine"!

Christian didn't have time to pose in front of any of the moon bounces, but he sure had fun inside! Our little boy loves to jump! After our vacation was over- he said that the candy land castle was his favorite part!

Vand C on a train ride at the air show- big smiles!

Cool helicopter pics!

It was an air show, but Toyota racing had a great setup there too. We had fun taking pics in and with some cool cars.

I didn't get any pictures of the true air show that we watched. It was dark already and I didn't think they would turn out. It was a lot cooler than I thought it would be. The first plane had cool lights on it and did tricks and blew smoke trails so we could see the loops that he did. The second plane blew out flames- like a space shuttle. The third one dropped off neat fireworks. The fourth one dropped off sky divers who had fireworks coming off their bodies. It was crazy! The sky divers were dressed as Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. We couldn't really see them though. Each of the flights had cool music that went with it. Afterwards there were fireworks. It was a pretty cool event. We wouldn't mind going again!