Busch Gardens!

Last year we bought an annual pass to Busch Gardens and Water Country USA. It expired on June 27, 2011 - so we went last weekend, to use it before it expired. Chad had to work on Friday, so mom and dad (and the dogs) waited for him to get off work, then drove the RV up to Williamsburg. Trey and I left Friday morning and drove up to go to the water park for the day. We had a blast! The lines weren't too bad (except for their newest ride, Vanish Point) so we were able to ride quite a few rides pretty quickly. It was a good thing that we got through them quickly, because after being there for a little over 2 hours they closed the rides temporarily. There was a storm nearby and of course a water park has to be extra careful.  All of the rides were closed until the storm passed. Since we had our phones with us we looked at the storm and it was pretty big. It wasn't going to hit the park too hard but didn't seem to be disappearing any time soon. Since we didn't feel like sitting around for an hour or so to wait for them to re-open, and we hadn't actually paid to get in the park, we decided to head out.We did enjoy using our water proof camera in the time that we were able to ride the rides, though!

Walking up to a ride

Riding aquazoid, going through a tunnel!

Coming out of the tunnel!

In line

Attempting to take a picture of Trey even though I can't see him

Since my parents were still on the road, and Trey's best man, David, lives in Newport News so we went over to his house to get cleaned up, hang out and went out to dinner. After my parents and Chad got up there and we finished dinner we hung out outside the RV for a little while. There were lots of bugs flying around for some reason and since we were getting eaten up we decided to call it a night. Apparently, we didn't do so soon enough - Chad got a mosquito in his eye!! He didn't realize it though, until he woke up the next morning and the bottom half of his eye was bright red and a little sore. It seems that the little skeeter got under his bottom eye lid and of course irritated it. At the time we didn't really know what was going on with his eye, and just looking at it would make my eyes water. It progressed over the next few days though and is better now!

Saturday we took the RV to the parking lot at Busch Gardens (another perk about an annual pass - you don't have to pay for parking!). We let the generator run so that it was air conditioned for the dogs and were able to go enjoy a day in the park! We were again surprised that the lines weren't too bad, they did get worse as the day went on but I have seen way worse lines there before. Trey didn't exactly love roller coasters before we were together, but that's not really an option in my family. He has grown to love them but is still funny to listen to at the top of a huge ride like Griffon.We bought the meal deal pass online before we went, it includes lunch, dinner and a souvenir drink cup - it was a GREAT deal! I would definitely do it again. We got about $45 worth of food for $27.

In line for Dark Kastle

Funniest picture ever - on the log flume. In order to fit Trey & Dad sat together, while Chad & I sat together. Notice Trey ducking all the way down. Chad and I got SOAKED.

On the train

Sky ride! Dad and Chad are in the on ahead of us.

The new Mach Tower, still not open yet so we didn't get to ride it!

Das Festhaus, aka the beer stop.

Saturday after we left the park Trey made us a campfire :) Chad decided to hang inside and keep his eye away from the dangerous mosquito zone but we enjoyed roasting a few marshmallows and drinking a beer to wind down a long day.

Trey & his campfire!

A trip to Williamsburg wouldn't be complete without going to the outlets. Trey has always wanted a Tommy Bahama shirt so we decided to go in there and he came out with two :) I must say it looks great on him and of course we got it on sale!

My sexy husband in his new shirt :)

My summer project

Since I get the summer off and would be bored out of my mind doing nothing at all, dad found a huge summer project for me. I go over to my parent's house almost every weekday (the dogs LOVE going to grandma's every day) and work in their dining room.

Sunbathing at grandma's

Her favorite thing to do

We have found all of the loose pictures in their house and my job is to sort, organize, scan and save them with some sense of organization to it all. Before digital cameras we took pictures on film and printed ALL of them. We did put quite a few of these prints into photo albums but we had boxes and boxes full of envelopes of pictures that have been printed out. Those don't do us any good sitting in a box at the bottom of the guest bedroom closet, so it's my job to do something with them! Mom and I got out all of the boxes and found any pictures hiding around the house and put them all in the dining room for me to sort out.

The beginning pile of boxes of pictures

Each day I sort through more and more of them. My first step was to pile all of the envelopes (or loose pictures) into stacks of 5 year periods. Now that I have them separated I am going back through each 5 year period and sorting them individually by year and also getting rid of the envelopes at this point.

It looks crazy but there is a method to my madness

Slowly emptying boxes!

Right now, I have done everything but the 90's - there were a LOT of pictures during those years so that's going to be a rough one. After they are all organized by year I am going to scan in each picture so that we can save them electronically. I am leaning towards using Target's rapid scanner - they will scan them on to cds for you. I would like to not just organize them by year, but also categorize but haven't completely decided on my categories. I think that will be easier to do once they are all on cd (and then I upload them to a usb or external hard drive).

The huge messy boxes left to organize are the 90s!

In the end, I hope to have all of our pictures on cd/usb and possibly some internet site. I am also going to take all of those loose pictures and put them in photo albums! So, needless to say, I have my work cut out for me this summer! But at least I get to hang out with my mom, snoopy and my pups everyday while doing it :)

His favorite spot on the couch

Snoopy loves to lay around in the dining room with me

Hanging out with mom

Lounging upstairs

Fun in New Jersey

One of the things that I love most about Trey is his love for adventures. We love to go on vacation and see new places and it's even more fun when it is spur of the moment! As we were driving up to Cape May on Thursday we realized just how close Atlantic City is and neither of us had ever been there. We decided that after graduation on Friday and lunch that we would head to Atlantic City for the night!

As we drove in on the expressway

It took less than an hour to get there and then we drove around for a little bit to find a hotel. I don't know what we would do without smart phones - we use the GPS on our phones to find our way and looked up hotel prices so we didn't walk into one and try to get a room for $300 a night! We wanted to find a decent hotel but not too expensive.

We decided to stay at Resorts which is on the boardwalk, near the Taj Mahal. We went up to our room for a few minutes to look at the map and paper of what is going on around for the night to try to decide what to do.

Our room for the night (we were in the older "ocean tower")

The view out of our hotel window

We walked around the boardwalk for a while. We walked down the boardwalk and over to "The Walk" outlets and did a little bit of shopping! After we shopped we came back looking for a place to eat dinner. We decided on Harry's Oyster Bar and Seafood, in Bally's hotel. It was really nice, the hotel is shaped in a U and the restaurant is in the middle, facing the courtyard. It was cooling down outsides and really enjoyable weather.

The view from our table at dinner!

Bally's

We enjoyed a great dinner and then strolled back down the boardwalk enjoying the interesting sights, eating ice cream along the way.

The boardwalk lit up at night

We had to get up early and head out on Saturday, I had to be back to town by 6:30 for Leesville's graduation ceremony. On our way out of the hotel we just had to gamble (as we hadn't the night before). We put $20 on black in roulette - it hit so we doubled our money and walked out!

Foggy early morning heading out of NJ

The drive back went pretty well and we got home to VERY excited doggies :)

Mandy's Boot Camp Graduation!

On Friday, June 10th my sister-in-law, Mandy graduated from US Coast Guard training! She is now a sea(wo)man! USCG training is only done in Cape May, NJ - so she has spent the past two months up there. She played clarinet in the band and was also a squad leader. She did great and we are very proud of her!

Before the graduation ceremony the family was able to go have breakfast on base and then we watched a video about the recruit process, to get a little bit of insight into what she had been doing!

The view on the water from breakfast

Some of the boats on base

After watching the video we headed over to the field for graduation. It was at 11am and VERY warm! Luckily it wasn't as hot as it had been over the last few days and it was a beautiful day. At first the graduating recruits marched by the bleachers and we couldn't find Mandy! We knew she would be hard to recognize with the hat and everything on but not that hard! Turns out she was over with the band. They played at the beginning of the ceremony and then joined the rest of the recruits for the actual graduation.

Recruit drill team

Mandy walking by with the band!

Waiting in line to graduate

Standing incredibly still

After graduation she was allowed to gather her belongings and leave. When they are in uniform they aren't allowed to carry anything on their backs, so we had to help her carry everything out! Then we all headed out to lunch together to enjoy our time with Mandy!

With seaman Winoski!

Her "dorm" for boot camp

We went shopping after the ceremony

She was able to come home for a week and at the end of this week she will be heading to duty in Grand Haven, Michigan.

Memorial Day at the Beach

Now that all of the wedding and honeymoon posts are up, I am going to continue the blog to add the fun trips that we go on and other exciting events in our lives!

We have been so busy this spring planning the wedding and Trey works every other weekend, so we haven't made it down to the beach to visit his parents since Christmas! Tyson was not even 5 pounds at the time! We finally made it back to Carteret county for memorial day weekend. Luckily, we didn't hit too much traffic on the way down - now that we live closer to 540 than anything else we take 540 to 264 to 795 to 70 (it comes out in Goldsboro) and didn't have to sit through 40 east traffic!

Are we there yet, mom?

It was so great to get out of town and we were very excited to take Tyson to the beach for the first time! Trey's sister, Mandy, is in boot camp in Cape May, NJ for the Coast Guard, so his parents had her 1 1/2 year old boxer, Matty. To say that Tyson LOVED her is an understatement. They played, and played, and played.

Matty & Tyson playing tug of war

Who is who?!

Saturday morning we took Vegas & Tyson for a walk on the beach. Vegas has never liked the waves so of course Tyson mimics her in every way and decides that he is also a little timid of them. He has never been in water, other than the shower, so it was so cute to watch him try to jump like a kangaroo through the water. They loved running on the beach chasing shells and playing together.

Running free!

All that space & Tyson insists on sitting ON vegas!

We were going to go out on the boat that afternoon, but the weather was a little rough, so instead Trey, his mom and I went to see The Hangover Part 2. It was hilarious! After the movie we came back to the house. I worked on some grad school work for a little while and Trey took a nap while his parents made us a delicious homemade dinner - shrimp, scallops & linguini with white sauce.  After dinner, Trey wanted to try out his new driver on the golf course - his parents live on the 18th hole of the Country Club of the Crystal Coast. While Trey played a few holes, Tyson and I tagged along!

Cruising in Trey's mom's new car!

Hanging out while dad plays golf!

Sunday morning we got up at about 9 and picked up Bojangles for breakfast - we love that it is not even 5 minutes from the house now! We took the boat out for the day with his parents and Vegas & Tyson. Vegas may not like the waves but she loves to swim - so taking her out to Shack or Carrot Island is a lot of fun. We hung out on Carrot Island for the day - as soon as we got there Vegas was whining, ready to get out of the boat and go swim! She and Tyson jumped off and were so excited. We stopped where it was pretty open, so they had a blast running around the beach and following us in and out of the water. Watching Tyson try to figure out how to swim was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. At first he brought his front paws all the way above the water and splashed them back down, so he had to keep his head lifted pretty high to not soak his face. Eventually he got the hang of it pretty well and really enjoyed it!

Riding in the truck to the boat ramp!

Watching for squirrels! (Don't worry we were only in the neighborhood!)

SO anxious to go swim!

Resting

Checking out the sights

Our friends, Savannah and Matt and their dog Ella met us out there! We all went back to Finz in Beaufort and ordered lunch to go and came back over to the island to enjoy our lunch and the sun for a little while longer. Vegas and Tyson both love Ella so they all had a blast playing together. At about 5:00 we began to crisp from all of the sun and were pretty worn out so we decided to head back in.

All the dog fun!

Watching everyone

Exhausted!

Heading back in

After a great day on the water we gave the dogs a bath and we also showered so we could be clean for our drive home. Trey had to work on Monday (but got holiday pay!!) so we had to head on back home.

Very sleepy, heading home

I was coming down with a cold and Tyson and Vegas were so worn out from their fun weekend that Monday we spent quite a few hours cuddling on the couch to recuperate.

Sleepy cuddler!