Exmore Playground

Who knew Exmore could be so much fun?!?! We visited the playground the other day and the kids loved it! The choo-choo train was very exciting. They also loved climbing up high and going down the big slides. The only way we got them in the car without a meltdown was the promise of a yellow duck cookie!

Tucker's new trick---holding onto the bar and swinging his feet over the slide.

Tucker had lots of fun playing at the new playground!

The kids loved to be "up high" on the bridge.

Tucker on the choo-choo. Not exactly what we were used to in England!

Caroline was not interested in having her picture taken today...this was the best I could do!

Pickin' Fruit

We have done lots of fun things since we have been on the Shore. One of our favorite things was going to the fruit farm to pick fruit! We picked some apples, lots of blueberries and some peaches for Daddy. Tucker found an apple right away and ate it while we searched for others. I think our favorite thing to pick was blueberries. Caroline was great about picking only the blues ones and not the green or purple berries. She got very frustrated when Tucker would try to drop a green berry in the bag! Tucker spent most of the time at one blueberry bush pulling off berries one by one and eating them. He did not contribute much to our berry collection.

We loved eating the fresh peaches and the kids enjoyed the apples. Caroline and I made blueberry dumplings this week and they were yummy. Well, at least the adults thought so...Caroline said they were "too blueberry." Chad and I hope to get back next week to get more blueberries and some blackberries.

July 4, 2009

Our day started with a parade in Accomac.  Tucker rode in the stroller and Caroline walked...well, actually she walked until she decided that she didn't want people taking pictures of her and then I had to carry her.  The kids got popsicles at the end of the parade.  They had never had popsicles like this and they loved every minute of it!  Caroline ate her popsicle very neatly, while Tucker ate the popsicle upside down.  This only lasted a few minutes as he soon realized that the stick did not taste all that good.

After the parade we went to the beach.  The kids played very well together in the sand.  Caroline started splashing in the water and got her suit wet.  She immediately took it off because she did not want her bathing suit to get wet.  She played for several more hours naked.  Tucker also joined in the fun and played naked.  Birthday suits are the best suits!

Home Sweet Home

We made it! Yay!  We are so glad to be back in the US and with family and friends.  However, it was no easy task to get here.  Here is a quick summary of our trip home...

Instead of  taking the train, we got a taxi to take us to our hotel just steps away from the airport in Manchester.  We had 3 large suitcases, 2 small suitcases, a double stroller, a backpack, a computer bag, Caroline's backpack and a few other items in tow.  Oh yeah, let us not forget the 2 small children!  We made it to the ticket counter to check in.  Amazingly, only one suitcase was overweight.  The extra three pounds cost about $150.  This was a lot for just three pounds, but Chad and I were thankful because we truly expected all the bags to be overweight.

The plane ride from Manchester to Atlanta was a little over 8 hours long.  Tucker slept for not quite 2 hours and Caroline didn't close her eyes once!  Instead, she found a boyfriend sitting in front of us.  He was about 5 and enjoyed her antics.  When he took a nap she wandered up a few rows and found a new friend to sit with.  She ended up sitting with this little girl and her mom for about 30 minutes.  During this time, she told them that her name was Paige which is actually her middle name.  We were very excited to finally arrive in Atlanta because the kids were ready to get off the plane!  They needed space and so did we.

Thankfully, the trip through customs went smoothly and all our luggage made it.  We found our gate in Atlanta, got some ice cream, changed a few diapers and waited for our plane that would take us to Norfolk.  Our flight ended up being delayed about 20 minutes.  The kids were exhausted and slept the whole way to Norfolk.  Once we got to Norfolk and retrieved the double stroller we noticed there was a problem.  Apparently the crew was a little too rough with the gate-checked stroller and bent two of the wheels.  The only good thing about this was the fact that it happened at the very end of our trip when we no longer needed the stroller.  We would have been in big trouble if this had happened on the way to England.

Four of the five bags made it to Norfolk with the promise that the missing bag would be delivered to the house the next day.  At this point it was about 7:30 pm in Virginia, but it felt more like midnight to our bodies.  Caroline went to sleep as soon as we got home, but Tucker was happy to hang out for a few minutes while we located our pajamas and toothbrushes.  By now it was more like 3 am to our bodies.  We were all wide awake at 5:30 am on Thursday with lunch following at 9:30 am.  Clearly it was going to take some time to readjust.  No worries...we were just happy to be home!