A fun, family weekend

Our family woke early Saturday morning and headed down to Virginia Beach. We left at our house at 7:15 and had toes in the water before 11:00 a.m. This would be our only real family vacation this summer due to busy schedules, so we tried to make the most of it. Michelle loved the ocean, and really liked the water until a big wave knocked her over. After that she decided to just stick to playing in the sand. The weather was perfect - just warm enough, and the water was just cool enough. The big kids stayed in the water for close to 5 hours - needless to say, we didn't have to rock anyone to sleep that night.

That evening we drove out to the Rogers home for dinner and a Luohe reunion! Pete and Catherine came to stay with us just before their trip to China to get Emma last November. Catherine sent us some beautiful pictures and priceless video of Michelle. The girls were in the same orphanage - it was hard to tell if they really remembered one another or not. Emma seemed to really be checking out Michelle when she came in. In the below picture Emma was looking through the photo album she was given by the Luohe orphange - and, as usual, Michelle is eating! LOL

On Sunday we drove to Busch Gardens for some more family fun. Busch Gardens has a "Salute the Hero's" program, where all active duty and their families get in one day each season for free. We have lots of great pictures from our fun day which I will try to put up later, but this is one of the main reasons we came - to see the furry red guy of Michelle's dreams. This year they opened the new Sesame Street Land and Michelle gave it a big thumbs up! I wish I had captured her expression when she first saw Bert and Ernie. It was one of awe and amazement to see these characters in the flesh. She was excited but a little reserved until she saw Elmo, and when she saw him she just ran over and gave him a huge hug!


The weather again was perfect on Sunday - slightly overcast and cool with only one brief shower. Busch Gardens is such a fun family park - lots of great roller coasters for the teens, lots of fun little kid rides, and lots of shows and animal attractions if you are not a ride person. We are all tired after such a whirlwind trip, but fun was had by all.