The Ocean!!! Which one is this again?

Check one more thing off our list...the beach. My mom made me promise we would go to the ocean and take pictures for her, because she's never seen this ocean and always want to. So after another long, hard, hot week of work, we woke up early and headed to Virginia Beach for the day to play!

Camped out under the umbrella, having a good time. Thanks to Sara for the big beach umbrella; it certainly helped with the 90 heat and helped us keep track of where we were on the beach.
The ocean is just so breathtakingly beautiful. I felt like a little kid as we were driving up to it. "Look Nate, that's really the ocean. THE OCEAN!!!" Although in all my giddiness and excitement as I was calling to have my mom guess where we were, I had to ask Nate, "Which one is this again?" I blame my naivety on the fact that you just can't think clearly on a beach, it's too wonderful.
A little chilly at first, but so very nice. Nate was searching for seashells, his favorite part of being at the beach. (Sweet tan, honey!)
I thought the pier was cool. I've had a pretty protected life as far as travel and seeing what's out there beyond Utah, so I felt like I was in a movie or something.
This silly grin ws basically plastered to my face all day. I'm pretty sure I could spend all the rest of my days at the beach (getting rid of my own farmer's tan!).

When I think about how we spent our entire day yesterday, it just cracks me up. Why is throwing yourself into waves over and over and over again so much dang fun? It's exausting, and during high tide, you get rocked by those waves, but nonetheless, we just kept going back for more. I've got some really awesome sand scrapes from when a giant wave took over me and dragged me up shore, and yet, I wish I were back right now. I loved the feeling of going back to lay on the towel and still feeling like you were fighting against to pull of the water. What a cool sensation.

We love you Virginia Beach and ATLANTIC ocean-thanks for such a good time! This was probably one of my favorite days this summer, although every weekend pretty much goes on my favorites list.As we were leaving the ocean, we waved to our friends Chris and Brittany-they are in France. They told us they'd wave back. This pic was taken right before we went into the tunnel that went UNDER the ocean; how totally awesome is that?!

The weekende ended with this-I don't know how this happened. Let's just say I'm really glad it was basically an entire church full of people I don't know. Although Sara and her girls came up to hear it, and I am really greatful I could have some family support. Your the best!

We now have every weekend left planned. We seriously do not have tht many more saturdays and still more we want to do. But we are also starting to plan our trip home; first stop, Metropolis, Illinois! Superman city! We are pretty stoked. My oldest sister is also flying in this week and that is going to be a lot of fun. She has never been to the east, and we definitely have a lot of plans. After several handfuls of interviews, I think I have finally found someone to hire to take my place at work. This is a big relief to know I am not just going to leave them hanging there, but it also means A LOT of workk for me up until the day we leave in trying to train her. But I sincerely thank all of you who were praying for me. I felt your strength and am greatful. On to another week! We just wanted to say how wonderful it was to have the Fuller's out here and how much fun we had with them. I love combining my two worlds. :) And welcome home to my sister, Mandy, who has been out of the country traveling for the last month. We are glad you are back safe!