How I Spent My Summer Vacation
We just got back from Chincoteague Island VA. Janna and Heather love horses right now, and Kelly loves animals of all sorts, so it seemed like the perfect place for us to go. For those of you who don't know, there's a famous book called Misty of Chincoteague, which is based on a real pony and introduced the world to the wild ponies of Assateague Island and the annual pony swim and auction on Chincoteague. I read it as a girl, and I've been recommending it to Janna since she also loves to read. 
Once we decided to go there for our vacation, I bought the book and read it aloud to the girls in the car. (That's something I've been doing for five or six years now.)
We got to our hotel Wednesday evening, just in time to watch the sunset from our balcony. The next morning, we started our day with a cruise to see the wild ponies. Our host, Captain Charlie, was wonderful! He's a lifelong native of Chincoteague, and he's knowledgeable and very friendly. If you ever go there, please look him up and take one of his cruises! After the cruise, we took a picnic lunch to the beach and spent a few hours there. We came right before the peak season, so the beach was uncrowded and pretty quiet. Kelly, who loves water of all sorts, was afraid of the ocean. She spent the afternoon in the sand, filling her bucket, burying her feet, and blowing bubbles.
Once I stuck my toes in the water, I immediately volunteered to stay with Kelly so J. could enjoy the water with the older girls. He enjoyed it, letting himself get bowled over by the waves to the amusement of all his daughters. I'm not sure whether this was noble or stupid.
Friday, we went to the Chincoteague Pony Centre, and the girls got to ride a Misty-family pony. We also tried to visit the Beebe ranch, where Misty herself is stuffed and on display in the kitchen of the house (where she stayed during the Ash Wednesday storm of 1962 and delivered her foal, as described in the book, Stormy, Misty's Foal. The ranch was closed, which is probably just as well, because I think it might've been creepy to see the dead, stuffed bodies of Misty and Stormy.
From there, we drove to J.'s sister's house in the DC area. We only get to see them twice a year or so, and they're always gracious hosts to our family. Kelly especially loves their dog, Jasper, and their cats, Hermione and Marshmallow. Jasper loves stuffed animals, so he'll often steal the girls' toys and run off with them. Kelly thinks this is hysterical and purposely gives him her stuffed animals. When we get Jasper to give them up, they're usually covered in slobber, and Kelly doesn't like that. "It's dirty," she tells us. Then she gives it back to Jasper.
Saturday, we went to the National Zoo for the weekend. Heather and Janna rode in one car with their cousin Nick and Uncle Jim. Gayle (J.'s sister) rode with J., Kelly, and me in our car. We don't get many chances to have in-depth conversations with Gayle, so we appreciated the chance to talk with her without constant interruptions from the kids. According to Jim, Heather kept up a steady stream of chatter in her car (hard to imagine, huh?).
The National Zoo is on more of a slope than the Pittsburgh Zoo, which is no small feat. Pushing Kelly in the stroller up a few of those hills more than made up for four days without the elliptical. One of the highlights for the girls was the second
exhibit we saw. It was one of those rock formations surrounded by water, where the lemurs can climb and frolic on the rocks and you can walk around the edge and watch them. There were no lemurs to be found, however. Only some pigeons and some turtles. Janna saw a baby turtle on a lily pad, which was pretty cute. Then J. saw one on a rock. Then we saw some more on a log. And some more. They don't look much different than those tiny little turtles I found as a girl that are apparently now illegal because of salmonella. But gosh, they were cute! Later on, we saw some baby meerkats which were also adorable.
A great time was had by all.
Today we drove home, and actually made good time. This might be a first for us. It's nice to be back home! Kelly kept asking for Maggie, and crying when we told her that Maggie won't be back until tomorrow. It's also nice to get to sleep in our own beds again. Speaking of, we moved Kelly into a "big girl bed" finally. She's been in a toddler bed for a while now, and she's nearly as long as her toddler bed, so we knew we needed to get her into a twin-sized bed soon. Janna and Heather share a room, and even though they have two beds pushed up against each other, they both sleep in one bed and the other stays unused. We had to open up some floor space in their room anyway, because the beds take up most of the room, so we moved one of the beds into Kelly's room. Now Kelly has a big bed, which she loves, and Janna and Heather have space to play in their room, which they love. And we're one step closer to moving, which *I* love. And all the girls in the house are happy, so J. is happy. Everyone wins.
Check out more pictures by following the link in the sidebar. Flickr insists on putting the most recent photos first, so click on the "Chincoteague Trip" album on the right of the page if you don't want to see the photos in reverse order.
Once we decided to go there for our vacation, I bought the book and read it aloud to the girls in the car. (That's something I've been doing for five or six years now.)
We got to our hotel Wednesday evening, just in time to watch the sunset from our balcony. The next morning, we started our day with a cruise to see the wild ponies. Our host, Captain Charlie, was wonderful! He's a lifelong native of Chincoteague, and he's knowledgeable and very friendly. If you ever go there, please look him up and take one of his cruises! After the cruise, we took a picnic lunch to the beach and spent a few hours there. We came right before the peak season, so the beach was uncrowded and pretty quiet. Kelly, who loves water of all sorts, was afraid of the ocean. She spent the afternoon in the sand, filling her bucket, burying her feet, and blowing bubbles.
Once I stuck my toes in the water, I immediately volunteered to stay with Kelly so J. could enjoy the water with the older girls. He enjoyed it, letting himself get bowled over by the waves to the amusement of all his daughters. I'm not sure whether this was noble or stupid.
Friday, we went to the Chincoteague Pony Centre, and the girls got to ride a Misty-family pony. We also tried to visit the Beebe ranch, where Misty herself is stuffed and on display in the kitchen of the house (where she stayed during the Ash Wednesday storm of 1962 and delivered her foal, as described in the book, Stormy, Misty's Foal. The ranch was closed, which is probably just as well, because I think it might've been creepy to see the dead, stuffed bodies of Misty and Stormy.
From there, we drove to J.'s sister's house in the DC area. We only get to see them twice a year or so, and they're always gracious hosts to our family. Kelly especially loves their dog, Jasper, and their cats, Hermione and Marshmallow. Jasper loves stuffed animals, so he'll often steal the girls' toys and run off with them. Kelly thinks this is hysterical and purposely gives him her stuffed animals. When we get Jasper to give them up, they're usually covered in slobber, and Kelly doesn't like that. "It's dirty," she tells us. Then she gives it back to Jasper.
Saturday, we went to the National Zoo for the weekend. Heather and Janna rode in one car with their cousin Nick and Uncle Jim. Gayle (J.'s sister) rode with J., Kelly, and me in our car. We don't get many chances to have in-depth conversations with Gayle, so we appreciated the chance to talk with her without constant interruptions from the kids. According to Jim, Heather kept up a steady stream of chatter in her car (hard to imagine, huh?).
The National Zoo is on more of a slope than the Pittsburgh Zoo, which is no small feat. Pushing Kelly in the stroller up a few of those hills more than made up for four days without the elliptical. One of the highlights for the girls was the second
exhibit we saw. It was one of those rock formations surrounded by water, where the lemurs can climb and frolic on the rocks and you can walk around the edge and watch them. There were no lemurs to be found, however. Only some pigeons and some turtles. Janna saw a baby turtle on a lily pad, which was pretty cute. Then J. saw one on a rock. Then we saw some more on a log. And some more. They don't look much different than those tiny little turtles I found as a girl that are apparently now illegal because of salmonella. But gosh, they were cute! Later on, we saw some baby meerkats which were also adorable.
A great time was had by all.
Today we drove home, and actually made good time. This might be a first for us. It's nice to be back home! Kelly kept asking for Maggie, and crying when we told her that Maggie won't be back until tomorrow. It's also nice to get to sleep in our own beds again. Speaking of, we moved Kelly into a "big girl bed" finally. She's been in a toddler bed for a while now, and she's nearly as long as her toddler bed, so we knew we needed to get her into a twin-sized bed soon. Janna and Heather share a room, and even though they have two beds pushed up against each other, they both sleep in one bed and the other stays unused. We had to open up some floor space in their room anyway, because the beds take up most of the room, so we moved one of the beds into Kelly's room. Now Kelly has a big bed, which she loves, and Janna and Heather have space to play in their room, which they love. And we're one step closer to moving, which *I* love. And all the girls in the house are happy, so J. is happy. Everyone wins.
Check out more pictures by following the link in the sidebar. Flickr insists on putting the most recent photos first, so click on the "Chincoteague Trip" album on the right of the page if you don't want to see the photos in reverse order.
posted by Lisa | 10:34 PM
2 Comments:
Thanks for the great update! It sounds like you all had a wonderful time. We need to see some pictures of YOU too.
LOL oh my goshhh. I seriously almost died laughing at that picture of Janna and J. in the water!! His face is priceless and Janna looks like she absolutely loved it. :]
I'm sad to say that I don't really get a vacation this year. :( Too much stuff to catch up on money-wise and all that stuff. Soo I'm going to Lacey and Chelsea to Sonshine [music festival in Minnesota] in July for a few days, so I'm thinking of that as a vacation. : )
I'm glad you had fun!! I didn't realize it was actually a vacation. I thought you just meant visiting your parents in Kentucky. But it looks like you definitely enjoyed yourselves. ;D
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