Spring Break..Picnic on the Boat...

Unfortunately we didn't get to use the boat as many times as we'd hoped during our visit to First Landing State Park - mostly that was due to some pretty windy days and some RV repairs we had to wait around for - boo. However, when we did get to use it it made for a most memorable day! 

We decided to have a picnic lunch on the boat. We stopped at a sandwich spot called Taste which had come highly recommended by Drew. It did not disappoint. Reminded me a lot of our favorite sandwich shop in Williamsburg, The Cheese Shop. We loaded up on a variety of sandwiches, chips and drinks and off we went to the local boat ramp. We weren't in the water long when we realized there was a perfect spot to "beach" the boat. It was just like our New Year's Day outing (remember this) where we basically had a beach all to ourselves. 

We hadn't originally planned on needing bathing suits - though Adam was wearing his - so after letting Harper romp around in the water in his shorts and t-shirt we finally just gave in and let him swim in his adorable boxer briefs - picture perfect if you ask me. 

 

We all had so much fun - Andy and Poppy relaxed on the boat and then took the boat for a few romps around the water - while I enjoyed sitting on the beach, watching my kids have the time of their lives. 

Oh - and Drew was right - the sandwiches were amazing :) 

It's moments and days like these that I know we'll always look back on and smile. Especially when we see this photo of Harper completely wiped out after a fabulous afternoon. 

Spring Break...First Landing State Park...

We stayed at First Landing State Park a few years back and we loved it! (Read about that here.)  I'm not sure why we waited so long to go back but probably the fact that it fills up pretty quickly and they don't have full hooks ups was partly to blame. That said, we decided early on that it was where we wanted to spend some of our spring break - and it did not disappoint. 

The campground is just so beautiful - you feel like you're in some alternate universe as you are completely secluded from the outside world. We rode our bikes everywhere and it was so fun to explore the campground, climb the funky trees, learn about the history in their mini-museum at the campstore and take in the breathtaking sunsets! 

 

We had a visitor too - Poppy! He came and joined us for a few of the nights and the boys had so much fun spending time with him (adults did too!) 

The beach was great and the best part was the water was way too cold for Harper so he was content to just play in the sand. Adam found it to be too chilly the first day but found his way in later in the week. Still - it made for a much more relaxed beach visit for mom and dad! :) 

We did have some excitement on the beach one of the days as they were doing some military exercises from the neighboring base. All of a sudden we saw a military plane open it's cargo door and a bunch of soldiers jumped out and parachuted back down - it was pretty awesome - and we saw it happen twice! Too cool. 

The dogs of course loved it as well. They got to play on an empty beach one morning - we felt like the beach was ours and ours alone - love that. They also enjoyed some sunsets - and a lot of "awww, look how cute those dogs are" from the passersby. 

We also had a surprise of Uncle John, Auntie Amy, Sam and Lulu coming down for a few nights. They rented a last minute cabin our last night there so we got to spend time on the beach and around the campfire with them. Always love those unplanned get togethers. 

Of course another perk to the campground was the proximity to boat ramps - but that deserves it's own post...

Camping at VA Beach...

A couple weekends ago we headed down to Virginia Beach so we could attend the York v. CNU lacrosse match. This game had been on our calendars for quite some time as it was nephew Nick (a York Spartan) playing against nephew Drew (a CNU Captain) - brother v. brother - pretty cool. 

We decided to check out the First Landing State Park which sits right on the Chesapeake Bay and is an awesome campground - apparently it's the busiest of all of Virginia's State Parks - and I can understand why. We had an amazing campsite that was not only ginormous but also gave us incredible views of the bay and the famous Bay Bridge Tunnel. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset and learned that we could get even better views of it by climbing one of the trees on our site - I haven't climbed a tree in quite sometime - but the views were so worth it! In the morning we took a nice long walk with the dogs and enjoyed even more beautiful views. 

The game was a lot of fun. We had a tailgate beforehand with Auntie Amy, Uncle John & Sam - they were all appropriately dressed in a variety of York & CNU gear. We made sure to dress Adam and Harper in the colors of both teams as well. The game was fun and we got to see both Drew & Nick get some good time in on the field - it was kind of fun getting to cheer regardless of what happened - if York scored - YAY, go Nick - if CNU scored, YAY go Drew! In the end, York came out on top and just this past weekend they beat undefeated Salisbury to win their conference championship and they are now off to play in the National Championship tournament - wow, go Spartans! 

After the game we headed back to our campsite and Amy, John & Sam joined us as well. Our site had plenty of space for them to set up some tents so we enjoyed a fun evening around the campfire enjoying fresh steamed shrimp, chicken salads, and a lot of good conversation. 

I can definitely see us going back to that campground - hopefully for a longer visit next time!