Summer's Last Blast

Between everyone we had over 900 pictures capturing our trip to Virginia. We had such a great trip. We packed up the kids, picked up gram and drove straight through. Frank was very concerned about where he would be sleeping. When we told him the car he was less than happy. We had a hard time getting mimi to keep her top buckle fastened as well as keeping her onsie on.

Putting it back on made her mad.

We welcomed a new member to the Johnson family, Carlie. Zac and Carlie were married in a beautiful beach side ceremony. It was so pretty. Congratulations to the cute couple.

Of course the kids loved the sand. This was mimi's first trip to a beach. Before the ceremony even started she was rolling around in the sand. I feared that she would throw sand at Zac and Carlie during the ceremony. By the end, Jack and Frank were in the water. How appropriate for wedding guests.

Wyatt's brother knows the captain of a ship and got us a tour on a destroyer. As his brother boarded the ship they announced over the intercom "commander" something something something boarding the ship (or something like that). Wyatt thought that was the coolest thing in the world. He wanted to join the Navy right there so he could be as cool.

The tour of the ship was amazing. The captain was very accommodating to all frank's questions. And he asked a lot of questions. We got to sit in the captains chairs and "steer" the ship. There was even a red phone on the bridge. Very important looking but Jeff assured me that the president of the united states would probably not be calling.

The captain let Frank wear his hat, mimi found the remote in the officers room. when the boys put on the head sets captain johnson started talking to them through the head sets and freaked both boys out. They quickly took them off, thought is was funny when they realized who was talking to them but would not put the headsets back on.

We climbed up and down some very steep stairs. We were able to see most of the ship even some very information sensitive communications rooms; not that anything we saw would make any sense to us we just can't post pictures of those areas. when we visited the cafeteria two sailors were watching cartoons which the kids joined in in watching for bit. One hallway we headed down frank saw another sailor coming toward him and he turned back to us shouting stranger stranger. He would also ask the captain if each person we would pass on the ship were his friends. The captain would reply "sure" in a not so convincing way.

Then the other best part for Wyatt, when they announced his very important commander in the navy brother getting off of the ship. he was so proud.

We got to attend our niece's band concert. The live band with the drums sound so amazing. Wyatt gets chills from stuff like this. It was awesome.

Isn't this picture cool. When we were at the beach jets and helicopters would frequently fly by. It made you feel like you were in a very safe place being protected by our military.

We had a great day at the beach. mimi didn't like the water so much and was content to again play in the sand. Frank had a great time with jack. They befriended to teenage girls and helped them fill their hot tub they had built with water. Frank got to go body surfing on Wyatt's back. Getting out of the water, a wave crashed on frank and he lost his new hat.

Last night at bedtime frank asked me if we could color signs and put them at the beach so people might find the hat (awwwe). We will definitely need to go buy a new hat.

It was such a good visit. We loved meeting baby paisley and the kids had so much fun with their cousins. one night frank had a sleepover in jack's bedroom with gram. He came down stairs to tell us there was a strange noise in jack's room. We asked him what it sounded like and he made a woo noise. Shortly after we heard a jet fly over head and frank said "there's the noise". Nicole said the military was practicing touch and go's.

Nicole made chicken and dumplings at Wyatt's request. It was such a good dinner. Wyatt stepped away from the table and when he got back his plate had been taken to the sink and cleaned. Wyatt was very sad especially since there wasn't any left to get a second plate.

While some went shopping after touring Jeff's office at the hospital we went back to the house to find we didn't have a key to get in. While we waited for a key, we went in the back yard where the kids jumped on the trampoline and ran through the sprinklers. after mimi was done in the sprinklers we just put her onsie back on her to keep her warm. We didn't snap it up. as she was playing on the deck she walked over to a corner and pooped. Yikes! Embarrassing but funny.

One of the last nights we put all the pictures from everyone on a flash stick and hooked it up to the t.v. It was so fun to see all the pictures. We laughed so hard at some, it was so fun.

We made a lot of great memories. We hope to visit again before too long.

08-26-09