First Family Trip to the Beach (Part 1)

We had a rather unexpected opportunity to go to Virginia Beach last week! Jason, our pastor, and another elder from church were going to General Assembly and were able to bring their families! It just happened to be at VA beach this year! We thought it would be nice for Karla too to have other kids she knew to play with.

Karla has been to "beaches" at lakes but never at an ocean so we were all pretty excited. We have never taken a long car ride with her either so we didn't know how it would go. We had a great ride down though and Karla did not complain once! She was so good! We couldn't believe it!

I tried to journal here a little each night about what we did during each day.

The evening we got there we went to the beach right after we checked into our hotel. Our hotel was right on the beach and we had an ocean view from our window. Karla was VERY excited when we walked out on the beach for the first time....she was literally running in circles and was talking/singing nonstop along the shore! The moment the waves washed over her feet for the first time is a moment I will never forget! The look on her face was surprised and amazed.
Right after first feeling the ocean water:

Me and my girl.

Day 1
The next day we got ready for the beach first thing in the morning. Karla was excited to build a sandcastle and I was showing her how to get water in her bucket. Then she tried and the waves took her bucket. She started crying at the top of her lungs and yelling for her bucket so I scrambled around in the water and waves trying to grab the crazy bucket. I finally got it and returned it to a very unhappy little girl. Things kind of went down hill from there. I had taken her to the doctor 3 days before we left for a sinus infection but she took a turn for the worse on our first full day at the beach - even though she was on antibiotics. Between not feeling well and being a little "afraid" of the waves after the bucket incident it was a rough morning. I am beginning to think that hotels and vacations cause Karla to get sick with lots of congestion and asthma troubles! I had to tell myself that I know what to do. I have her meds, I can go to an Urgent Care center if necessary, can use my insurance, and the doctors can speak English -- all of which I could not do when in Guatemala with her a time or two.

She slept for 3 hours in the afternoon! That hasn't happened in a long time so I know she isn't feeling good.

She said several times today that she missed her toys and the neighbor boy.

View from our hotel room!

Day 2
Second full day on trip we ended up taking Karla to an Urgent Care Center. She was wheezing and not improving at all. Luckily we only had to give her a stronger antibiotic. Doctor said to bring her back in not better by Friday. If she's not better by then we'll be heading home earlier than planned!

Day 3
On our third day of the trip Karla finally felt like playing with the other kids in the pool and then when Jason had an unexpected "free" hour in the afternoon she went in the ocean with him! She also "helped" him build a sandcastle. She hadn't had any interest in that before even when the other kids were doing it. I was starting to worry we'd end up leaving the beach and she'd still be afraid of the waves or not like the beach! It was also obvious she was starting to feel better, therefore, I was able to relax a lot more too!

I finally got to go to the Convention Center to see what the General Assembly was like and visit the exhibit hall. Jason got to attend a seminar this week on starting an "Adoption and Orphan Care Ministry" at your church so I picked up a little more info on that. :) We had planned that Karla and I would attend the worship service last night...but we went to Urgent Care instead. I thought it would be fun to worship with thousands of other people. Maybe some other time.

We got to go out to dinner with the other two families from our church which was really nice. Karla enjoyed being with the other kids too.

Day 4
Jason was done by noon with the General Assembly. He got back to the hotel just as Karla and I got to the hotel pool. Karla and I slept till 9 this morning (nearly unheard of for her) then ate snacks in our bed for breakfast and talked...we just had a very lazy, fun morning together in our room. Then the 3 of us swam in the hotel pool and ate lunch poolside. We didn't make it to the beach in the afternoon because it stormed. But we went to dinner at a nearby pizza place and had ice cream.

Karla is feeling, looking, and acting better although she gets tired pretty fast still so it was an early night!

Day 5
Today we went to a restaurant called "Pocahontas Pancakes" for breakfast and ate way too much. Karla really loves french toast and bacon. That is what she ordered. Then we went to the beach all day! It was great. Karla went out into the ocean and played in the sand. She and Daddy made a big sand castle and a big hole that the 3 of us could stand in. She played and played all day. She even had the idea to make a sand angel.


We went for a walk down the beach and then Karla decided that she wanted to run back to our chairs and sand castle. So she and I took off running. She was able to run for quite a while! I had said I wanted to exercise on this vacation...

For dinner (we didn't even eat lunch today b/c of our breakfast!) we found a good seafood place. We ordered the buffet and at first I thought Karla wasn't going to eat anything. She ate spaghetti and bread and THEN she decided she wanted to try some clams since Jason and I were eating them. She took a bite and announced "I love them!" Then she proceeded to eat several more. I had been eating crab legs too and she had many questions about the crab legs so I finally said that she should really take a bite b/c they are even better than clams. So she took a bite - and loved it too! I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe I hadn't brought my camera either. Luckily Jason had his phone. :)

For the rest of the evening Karla pretended she had a little pet crab whom she was now mothering since I ate its mother. She assured me the crab was not mad at me though.

More to come...