My apologies for the delay in posting, but we were on our first family vacation in many years! Our Ukrainian born kids had never seen the ocean, and every summer I say we should take them but never manage to make it happen. This year, however, I recruited my daughter-in-lawKerri to help me with the arrangements and we made it happen! We don't take a yearly vacation, in fact, not counting 2 trips to Ukraine for our adoptions, we had not had a vacation in years. We do frequent weekend visits to our camp in the Adirondacks, but I can never get Wayne to stay longer than a weekend. And since it's our camp, he spends most of the time working, not relaxing. So Kerri and I made all the plans and just told Wayne the dates to plan on being away. Sadly neither Curtis nor Missy could join us due to college and/or work reasons. Wayne Jr. and Kerri joined Wayne and I and Sierra, Andrii, Anna, Jordan, and Slava. Yup, 9 of us packed into 2 vehicles (we rented a mini-van, or according to Slava a "vini-van") and fled NY at 4am Saturday morning. By 3:30pm we arrived at our destination - Virginia Beach! Since the whole point of this trip was for the kids to experience the ocean for the first time, we rented a house right on the beach. Sandswept (name of the house) is in a residential neighborhood but was just minutes by car from the boardwalk. It was an excellent choice!
Sierra, Wayne Jr., & Dad
Wayne loves to fish and made sure that he got in a deep-sea charter trip. I opted out of this voyage and stayed back at the house and took the little boys to the beach. The 6 of them went and all caught a dozen Spanish mackerel which they had filleted and prepared for lunch right at the marina.
Slava aka Sand Man
The beach is a sensory rich environment. Slava was in his glory covered in sand, laying on the sand, digging in the sand, jumping in the waves, and he even was pretty good with a boogie board.
The Little Patriots
We took a few day trips here and there during the week. One day we went to the Virginia Aquarium, another to Busch Gardens, and finally Colonial Williamsburg. In between we just enjoyed the beach and ate lots of sea food.
Anna & Wayne Jr. digging the beach.
We had perfect weather. The days were hot, in the 90s and only a few rain showers at night. The ocean was warm enough for us to play in. I actually went into the water farther then I'd ever been.
Jordan, Wayne, Sierra & Andrii taking a break in the shade.
Andrii dug a hole and stuck Anna in it.
She willingly complied. Afterward he had to dig her out because she couldn't get out herself.
The Flachs at Sandswept
Slava & Jordan with Gayle
The house we rented was Gayle's family home. Her parents built it in 1955. She's had many upgrades done and it sleeps 14. We were very comfortable, Gayle was extremely hospitable, and the house had ocean views from practically every room. We couldn't have picked a better place to stay.
First time at the ocean!
This pic was from our first day in Virginia Beach. We romped around in the waves and tasted the saltiness of the water. Then we went to Bubba's Crab Shack for some delicious seafood!
Anna enjoying crab legs!
For the most part we ate breakfast and lunch at the house and enjoyed seafood dinners in the evening. Of course we ordered pizza in once and on Friday Wayne made a trip to Chick-Fil-A to bring us beach bums some lunch.
Wayne and the little boys chatting with a fishermen.
The ocean sunrise had me up at 6am each morning. I savor quiet mornings so I'd sneak into the kitchen, make the coffee, and curl up in a cozy spot for my morning devotions. But ocean sunrises also wake up sleepy Slavas. He'd make his appearance around 6:30am. Almost every morning by 7am Wayne and I would take the little boys down to the beach for a morning walk and some sea shell collecting. Jordan loved chasing scampering sand crabs and Slava just loved running around. Every day we were treated to our own dolphin show. A pod of dolphins frequented the area right in front of our beach house. They came so close to the shore that it seemed we'd bump into them while we were swimming. I warned Anna not to ride on one!
Anna & Andrii on the boogie boards!
Wayne Jr. & Kerri relaxing & reading.
Andrii & Dad
We ventured down by the boardwalk one evening and had dinner and ice cream. We had planned to go back, but with all the other day trips and the heat, it just never happened. Wayne is not a big fan of tourist areas (another reason why we rented a house outside of the tourist spots). Sandswept is in a residential area so we had the beach practically to ourselves.
Sierra & Kerri on the roof-top deck.
On the night of the full moon we hung out up on the roof top deck. Wayne Jr. played some guitar, and Sierra & Kerri played Banana-grams. Check out the moonlight reflecting on the ocean. It was a breath-taking view.
Jordan & Slava at the aquarium.
It was an excellent vacation. We arrived home on Saturday evening and spent the rest of the weekend recovering. I am so thankful that the Lord blessed us with this incredible time together. Back to reality this week: Jordan gets a new cast on on Tuesday. He had a doctor's appt right before we left and I had Dr. Carl remove his old cast. He'd had it on since January so it was a bit nasty, plus I didn't want him to have to deal with it full of sand from the beach. The Dr. took it off but wants to put one right back on this week. I guess he's figured out that Jordan is a busy little boy! And it looks like the next surgery will be late August or early Sept. Like I said, back to reality! God is good!
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