The Best Things in Life

Lest you think we spent all of our time enjoying the sunshine and sand at the beach, the following recap will prove you are only half right.

And I promise this is the last of my attempts to rub my wonderful summer vacation in your beautiful faces.

I may have said this before, but I have the best family.

You can argue that point all you want, but nothing you say or do could possibly change my mind.

The whole reason VB was our destination of choice was for my lovely sister, brother-in-law, and cousins who are living and working there for the summer.

An apartment with a pool and located 20 minutes from the beach is all we needed to hear and we were booking our tickets.

And my dearest cousin just happens to married to the son of one of our long time family friends.

They just so happened to be traveling the east coast themselves, and we found ourselves enjoying beautiful Virginia together for a couple of days.

One talent our family is known for is our ability to eat.

I guess that means I shouldn't be surprised at Stella's abnormal ability to eat substantial amounts of food at one sitting.

While eating we are good at, the ability to do so with out ingesting far more calories than we need is not a skill most of seem to posses.

Especially when we are all together.

Case in point: cheese balls for breakfast.

Let me assure you that as a dietitian I am fully aware that gigantic puffs of corn covered in a delicious cheddar cheese powder are not exactly good for you or the best breakfast for a toddler.

But when you wear cute rain boots and a miniature backpack, and beg for a bowl to start your day off right, there is just no denying that desire.

Note to self: eating half-melted Dip N Dots in a rain/wind storm is a difficult task for an 18 month old.

Besides eating exorbitant amounts of food we also enjoyed exploring a few of the local attractions.

We enjoyed one inning of this:

And then it turned into this:

Our short rain delay turned into a complete cancellation after what I can only describe as a monsoon took over Norfolk, Virginia.

Water was gushing down the stairs from the upper deck and the winds were whipping the water through the seats and into the crowds taking shelter near the concession stands.

It was amazing.

We left no worse for the wear and not out much since our tickets came free with the $5 Subway meal we enjoyed earlier on the beach.

We managed to fit in a little lighthouse hunting one day.

After our cars being searched and IDs checked they allowed us onto the military base where we toured the first Lighthouse on US soil.

We climbed to the top of the one on the right.

I don't know how many stairs we climbed, but thankfully it wasn't enough to put me into labor.

However, I am considering heading back in a few months when I am ready to get this child out of me.

It has been said that while visiting the coast, you must eat as the locals would.

Apparently that means seafood.

Our family isn't big into seafood (shocking, right?  All this talk of our ability to eat and yet we don't like seafood.  Too healthy, I think), but we decided we better try some anyways.

Fresh, local seafood has to be worth the expensive price tag, yes?

While I must say I thoroughly enjoyed my crab legs, I am not sure if everyone in our party left the restaurant thinking seafood is where it's at.

For being located approximately 5 miles from the ocean I am not sure how fresh this seafood actually was.

A bit disappointing, but an adventure none the less.

Crabs legs are gooood.

Beaches, lighthouses, and crab legs aside the best part of the entire trip was spending time with my lovely mother and sisters.

These women are my dearest friends and closest confidants.

There isn't much that is better in life than laughing together, crying together, and sharing clothes for a week straight.

It is hard living away from them for so many reasons, but I think I miss the simple things the most.

The only thing that gets me through the time apart is knowing the next time we all get to see each other.

This time around that means November and the arrival of Little Sis.

Can. Not. Wait.