Virginia Beach - Travels and Matthew's First Time on the Beach

The drive wasn't as tedious as one might have thought.  We were able to get out of town without any major hitches and, basically, right on time. Punctuality has been an ongoing battle for us since Christopher's infant days and has only gotten worse since Matthew has come in to the picture.  The drive was alright until about half-way through Delaware, when we encountered intermittent torrential downpours, which last for the duration of our drive.  We also ran into heavy traffic of other people heading to the numerous beaches between Philadelphia and the Outer Banks.  Matthew and Christopher were able to bide their time without much issue.  Matthew opted to gnaw on his feet and Christopher entertained himself with the GPS...hey, whatever works, right? 

Once we arrived at the beach house, we unpacked and got some much needed relaxation time.  The family got ready for bed and we all went up for an early to bed.   We knew the next day we'd be heading to the beach.  Of course, Christopher woke up at the crack of dawn and he was so excited that he roused Matthew as well.  So, I took the opportunity to get the boys down to the beach to see how they'd handle it.  Matthew had never been to the beach and Christopher hadn't been in 2 years (and, notably, he was having no part of the ocean back then).  Shannon, Colleen's cousin Jackie's wife, happened to be awake as well.  Christopher loves that girl, and he asked if she could come with us to the beach.  She agreed and we all went down the beach.  I didn't have my good camera as our charger died and I had to replace it (which I did later in the week) so I was limited to using my iPod touch, which is why the pictures are grainy and low quality.(sorry for that).  Matthew was having no part of the intimidating waves...Christopher refused to get into the water with me, but was able to man-it-up when Shannon asked him to join her. It was really neat to see Christopher take to the water as well as he did and was equally neat that Matthew braved the waters later on in the morning....well, braved meaning that he allowed me to hold him while standing in the water.