Vacation

Well, we are back from Chincoteague Island, our first real family vacation (well, family + Micaela's friend Jason). Chincoteague is a small old beach town that caters to tourists, but in a very low-budget sort of way (perfect for us). Next to Chincoteague Island is Assateague Island where wild ponies live which the kids were very excited about. We spent most of our time on Assateague because it has a pretty nice beach. Even though it wasn't all that hot outside the water was warm and we brought the boogie boards, so we had fun. The waves out there weren't quite what I am used to though and I got hammered quite a few times. I got Micaela to come out and try to catch a wave with me on her small board and we both ended upside down under the water. That was the last time she tried boogie boarding, but she did good playing in the waves on the shore. Jason did good with the boogie board and was a little braver than Micaela but I think he took home half the beach in his hair. There was still sand in it when we sent him home, oh well.

Other activities included Pony rides, movies, duck feeding, a trip to a NASA vistors center and Xbox playing. The pony rides were underwhelming, three times around a corral, so we bought a hour long lesson for Micaela. She did pretty good but was nervous and wouldn't try trotting. After it was over though she wouldn't stop talking about how cool it was. When we weren't out doing anything, Kurt got the kids hooked on Star Wars Legos II for the Xbox. It was a little frustrating watching them since they didn't really get it (Micaela will need lessons from Isaac next year) but they had fun. When the kids got too noisy, we sent them outside where they could almost always find ducks roaming around. We warned them about ducks biting, but they didn't believe us and wanted to hand feed them instead of throwing bread to them. We laughed at Jason when a duckling bit his toe and he cried. Is that mean? I thought it was funny.

We rented a small house there for a week, but after 5 days, Kurt and I decided that we were ready to go. It was a really nice vacation, but being disconnected from the world (i.e. our computers) took it's toll and we wanted a few days to unpack and relax before Kurt heads up to PA to go fly. And now we're at home, sleeping well and enjoying the Internet, it's good to be back.

Notice the wild ponies in the background