OUR FAMILY VACATION!!

For Christmas my dear sweet husband pulled the impossible; He somehow took 6 days off work during the "blackout days" (days not to be taken off), borrowed a roomy van from a friend and drove me and the girls to Virginia to see Matt (my brother), Nina and their roomy, Dennis (who happens to be an old family friend of ours) .The girls had never really been on a rode trip before and I was amazed on how good they were in the van on the ride there and the ride home. We arrived on Thursday morning before Christmas and left on Christmas Eve morning. Nina never let us go hungry, she is an awsome hostess! Matt and Nina planned to take us to two restaurants during our stay. The first was a sushi bar. It was a great expierence and I learned that sushi is not my favorite. But it was still fun! And the second was a chinese bistro. Now that was GREAT!! I wish we had one of those here. On Saturday Matt and I took Sara and Grace to a cool light festival called 'Winter Wonderland'. The girls got to pet the bunnys and feed the goats. We also were able to roast marshmellows. And we saw a live nativity. Frank and Nina stayed back with Allyson and cooked homemade lasagna. It was mmm mmmm good! Sunday we had a turkey dinner. Matt and Frank deep fried the turkey and nina made all the fixin's. Later we went to see the lights on the board walk in Virginia Beach. It was a long wait and then a long ride through the lights but the girls enjoyed it. We were able to watch almost all of 'The Polar Express' in the van before we were able to see the lights. We did some shopping and some wine tasting while we were there. We had a really good time. Here are some pictures of our time in Virginia Beach.

Nina and Allyson at the sushi bar. Allyson did not have any sushi but she did try a lemon for the first time.

Here is Grace, she wanted a picture with Santa.




Matt and Grace were feeding the Goats at Winter Wonderland. It was cool because we could go right in the gate with the goats and the sheep. As long as you had food in your had they would follow you around. We kept wondering why they were following Grace around then we realized she had a little food in her hand. Grace had a fun time with the goats but Sara didn't want to mess with them too much.



Here is Grace crawling through the doggie door. We did not tell her to go through there she just noticed the dogs doing it so she did it too.



Allyson is helping Nina with her computer.




The Ultimate Bubble Bath!! I think we used a little too much bubble solution in the bath But they had a lot of fun trying to find their toys under all the bubbles. We did have to rewash them in the shower when they were done.



Nina made the girls Hot Chocolate in little tea cups. Uncle Matt deceided to join them in a tea party. Sara drank all her coco but Grace seemed to like the marshmellows the best.





Matt took me and the girls to the aquarium in Virginia. Grace had a blast trying to touch the stingrays. Grace loves the hands-on part of anything the best! And the big tank was cool too. We saw a huge sea turtle.














Nina and Sara were busy making pumpkin bars. Nina has made them for us before when she was here. But they were a lot better when Sara made them! SHHH!! Don't tell Nina!!




















Matt is reading a story to Sara and Nina called 'Nina, Nina, Ballerina'.














We had a fun trip!! Thankyou Matt and Nina for having us!! We can't wait to see you all again!