Sunday, May 16, 2010

Beach Vacation Day 1: Packing and Driving

 [One note before I begin: this year we went to the beach with Na-naw, Paw-paw, G.G. Uncle Kevin, Aunt Megan, and our 2 cousins, Cadence and Justus. We normally go with most of Mama's family to the beach in August, but Mama and Aunt Megan's due dates messed that up! :)]

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"Then the Israelites set out from the Desert of Sinai and traveled from place to place..."
Numbers 10:12a


Our beach vacation was booked for May 2nd through May 9th. 
We all were hoping that we could get in a day early, so when Midgett Realty called and said the house was available we were really excited!  It was late Friday afternoon when they called so we went to packing!

Hannah, Alexis, and I had almost finished packing a day or two before so we helped Mama pack up, watch kids, etc.  Saturday morning we packed some more!  Daddy and Caleb had left really early that morning to get all the yards done that had to be done before we would leave.  [Daddy, Caleb, and Seth had been working really hard that week so we could leave early!]

Around 2 o'clock Daddy called us to let us know he was almost done, so we could pack the coolers.  Soon everything was ready for packing in the van! :)  When Daddy and Caleb got here everything that hadn't yet been loaded got packed in any available space in the van (which was already stuffed!).  As soon as everyone was in the car, and every item squished somewhere to fit, we were off! :)

Just to give you an idea of how stuffed the car was:

The back

The middle.

We keep one seat out of the car for this very reason! :)  As you can see from the left side of the picture, everyone's feet was on something.  No one, other than the driver, could touch the ground.

A view of the aisleway.

You're probably wondering how we got out of the car:  the back door! :)  It's a little difficult crawling over the back seat, sticking a leg out, and heaving yourself over but we're sort of used to it by now!

We were leaving the driveway around 4 PM!

Soon we all settled down to reading, looking out the windows, etc. 


Hannah reading a G.A. Henty.

Part of the way through driving Daddy let Mama drive.  (He was so tired from working hard all week, so he took a nap, unusual for him!)

Mama driving in all the junk. :)

Daddy just bought a Garmin GPS a week or two ago, so we let Garmin tell us where to go and it took us straight into traffic near the Hampton Bridge! :)

We probably lost about an hour of drive-time from that traffic...


In the tunnel! 

The underwater tunnel is probably one of the favorite parts of driving to the beach.  Everyone stops reading and just looks at all the lights and cars.

Around 7 PM we stopped at a Friendly's in Chesapeake, VA.  We had practically skipped lunch because we knew we would be eating at a restaurant that night. :)  [Mama had a coupon for buy-one-salad-get-the-second-free that she just had to use]

It was so yummy!  I got my normal cheese quesadillas and a birthday cake friend-z.  Daddy had a blue cheese salad and everyone else had chicken fingers, grilled cheese, hamburgers, etc.  We left Friendly's around 8, all of us stuffed and ready to get to the beach!


On the bridge to the Outer Banks!

We arrived at our house, Bella Vista, around 10:30.  Na-naw, Paw-paw, and Uncle Kevin were waiting out on the steps for us.  As soon as we parked we were unloading in the gusty wind and blowing sand! :)  It was so kind of Paw-paw and Uncle Kevin to wait up and help us unload!  While we unloaded, Aunt Megan, Na-naw, and Mama unpacked everything and put it away so it was all done when we finished!  Thanks everyone! :)

Once everything was unloaded we pretty much went to bed.  It was about 11:30 before we were all in bed, ready for a fun day tomorrow at the beach!

Delighting in Jesus,
Kimber :)

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