Monday, May 12, 2014

VIRGINIA BEACH

Our first evening out on the beach.
This amazing statue of Neptune was my favorite part of Virginia Beach.
The Boardwalk in Virginia Beach. Its lined with hotels and has Air Force jets flying overhead at regular intervals, breaking the serenity, but adding to the unique ambiance.
Here's another view with Neptune in the background.
The view from our window/balcony. There was a really fine outdoor pool, but it got shady from the tall building in the afternoon. There were also two indoor pools, one adults only, and a 12 person spa.
Here's a view from the fitness room on the 17th floor.

The Beach in front of our hotel.
We spent some time in Williamsburg, which was not too far away. It's partly original and partly replicas of the original buildings.
This is the Capitol Building. They reenacted the reading of the Declaration of Independence, which was pretty moving. It was very evident how far away our government has gotten from the original intent of the Founding Fathers.


If you enlarge this you can see it was George Washington's pew.
This is the jail house. Not very comfy looking. However, prisoners didn't stay long. They were either convicted and hanged or released. They were hanged for just about anything, which probably kept people on their best behavior!

People wore wigs a lot in those days. I'm assuming it was because of the humid weather which makes it hard to keep hair looking good! At least that was my experience. Seriously, I guess it was the style.

We wouldn't have been smiling if we had to spend much time in the stocks.
This battle field in Yorktown was used for both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. 


This is in the area of Jamestown. It's really beautiful and green wherever we went. 
We decided to check out the battleship Wisconsin in Norfolk Harbor one day, just for fun. It's a gigantic ship that was used in WW II through the first Iraq war and was retired here.
It has some pretty big guns!
We got to check out the quarters below the deck, but it's not all opened up yet.


 Here are a couple of pictures of what's below the deck. It's very close quarters, and smells like grease.


Norfolk Harbor
We drove down to NC one day, not knowing for sure what we'd be doing, but ended up having an interesting day! 
We spent some time at Kitty Hawk (which is actually a town), at the site where the Wright Bros built and flew the first planes. It's actually called Killdevil Hills.
A bronze replica of the first plane.
We took our pictures right before the field trip showed up!


Another replica of the plane.
This is a monument built on top of the hill where they flew their gliders.


The area we were in in NC is called The Outer Banks. They prepare for hurricanes by building the houses on stilts. Wooden walkways go down to the beach.
We went to see this memorial, which is dedicated to Confederate Soldiers. Apparently, it was never really finished. It was supposed to have a statue of a soldier on top of it, but they just stuck a granite ball there instead. We thought it was pretty funny.


We rode a ferry across the Currituck Sound to Knotts Landing.
You could either stay in your car or get out and walk around. We went up on top for most of the ride. As you can see, a school bus took kids across who went to school on the other side.
We were almost to the other side here.
Backwards, I guess, but here we are just pulling out to go across.
We rented bikes on the Boardwalk the next day and took them off-roading on Cape Henry Trail, which was pretty close by in First Landing State Park. We rode for about three hours, and had a great time.
The last thing we checked out while there was the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse which was built in 1791, the oldest government built lighthouse in America. It's located at Fort Story, VA, not far from where we were staying. In order to get on the base, we had to get out of the car while it was searched. I assume they were looking for bombs!






Thursday, April 3, 2014

ABBY AND KEVIN'S WEDDING

First thing Grandpa wanted to do when we got to Utah was to hold baby Daniel!

Carly's family arrived about the same time we did, so we all went out to eat at Cafe Rio.


We spent some time Thursday helping Abby move out of her apartment.

That evening, Kevin's parents hosted a very nice dinner for family and the wedding party at Macaroni Grill.

It's a good thing we had a little corner to ourselves so the kids could be kids. We did get to visit with Kevin's family more afterward, so got to know them better. Kevin's grandpa is a doctor, and had to assist a Red Hat Lady in distress at an adjoining table!




Rich's parents let us all stay at their Sandy house while we were there. It's very nice and roomy, with plenty of space for all of us. Abby spent Thursday night with us there. This is Barb and Carly doing yoga headstands. Abby would have joined us, but there wasn't enough room on the carpet.


It was wonderful being in the temple with Kevin and Abby and many friends and family. 














We were greatly surprised when Jesse and Sarita showed up in the temple! They said they wouldn't be able to make it, so we were caught totally off guard when they walked in. That made the day even more special!






Since Charles had to run back to the house to pick up things between the temple and the reception, and there wasn't much time, I rode with Abby and Kevin to the reception center. Abby's bouquet was lovely! Her hair stayed nice all day too!

These two little beauties enjoyed themselves.







The following day we had some relaxing family time. I love this picture of Katie and Daniel.



A week later we had our final wedding celebration here in Rancho at the Woodruff Building. 


Jake, Jacob, and Lexi were able to come.

Kelsey took pictures of the guests as they entered the foyer, so Abby can have them for their scrapbook. These boys like to ham it up.


Skylee and Lexi were happy to see each other again.
Paul's mom and Neil left their post at Camp Hinckley to be with us that evening.

The flowers on the table were beautiful- roses and baby's breath.
The food was wonderful- a dessert and fruit bar by our friend Cindy Hampton. We had a ton leftover though, as we planned for a lot more guest than we had. I didn't take into account that the longer a child has been gone from home, the fewer people come. We probably had around 100 of our good friends come.






The following morning, we all went to the beach. It turned out to be a beautiful day. It was cold for swimming, but Jacob and Lexi went in anyway.




That evening, Kevin and Abby opened the gifts they received here. A lot of friends who didn't make it sent gifts or cards.