Dude…totally!

Remember Crush and Squirt?  

You know…just keep swimming, just keep swimming.  Finding Nemo.  

My jaw dropped when I saw these HUGE sea turtles at the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach. Actually, my jaw dropped the first time when we passed by the Komodo Dragon.  I thought I could skip the reptile exhibit since we are going to the "Aquarium", but nope!  It's there, and I think it was actually waiting for me.  Eewww!  

Anyway, from Washington, we headed to Virginia Beach for a week-long stay with my hubby's relatives.  The real purpose of our trip was to attend the wedding of Raymond's cousin, Jake.  (More on that on my next post!)  It was a "short" drive; we even had time to stop by Maryland where Raymond's other Auntie lives.  

Since we were going to be busy helping with the wedding prep, we decided beforehand that we will do something special with the kids amidst the busyness of the event.  So we braved the crazy Virginia Beach weather (hot and humid one minute, raining on the next) and headed for the Aquarium.  A little costly, if you ask me, but totally worth it with the sea turtles. 

Enjoy the photos! :)

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A "Long" Blogpost

A "long absence" blogpost. That's what it is.  A long absence from the blogging world.  Not totally the whole blogging world, just this blog in particular.  Not that it's not important to me.  It's actually the most important blog, at least in my hubby's eyes.  And I have been slacking (neglecting!!!).  No excuses.  Just stories of what happened to us while we were not blogging for those three long months.

Now, how can I squeeze those three months of absence into one post?  Answer:  I can't!  So we will do a few blogposts this week to catch up :)

In today's post, we have Washington, D.C. as our subject.  We have never driven past Pennsylvania, so driving there was an adventure already.  Twice the fun, too because we were with Raymond's sister and her family.

We got a 4-star hotel Downtown Washington, a block away from the White House.  Such a huge blessing especially because we have kids in tow, so walking around DC will be so much easier.  Got the deal from Priceline's Negotiator.  Gotta love them!  3 days, 2 nights at J.W. Marriott Hotel.

Our hotel

Downtown Washington at night…and day :)

World War II Memorial

Korean War Veterans Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

Vietnam War Memorial

Strolling to find a food court :)

Extremely hot day.  Perfect day for popsicles, except it ended on the ground :(

Three days and two nights are not enough to enjoy what DC has to offer.  Hubby already promised that we will definitely go back there.  

Oh, and on our way to DC, we got lost.  We missed an exit, and wanting to stay on course and be in-sync with our printed Google directions, I decided to be the expert and told hubby we can take the next exit and I will navigate to get back to I-29.  Bad idea!  We drove around for 45 minutes, uphill and downhill, looking for that elusive interstate.  Forget the map and GPS!  I turned on my iPhone and checked the maps, and we got back on track.  It was actually a good thing because we were able to meet with my sister-in-law for lunch, and we drove together from then on to Washington.  All went smooth after that.  But hubby made up his mind that we are taking the fastest way next time; no more scenic, "shorter" way.

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Oh, sorry. Were you waiting for something?

I thought I was ready for the reveal this week but it seems that I have to leave you hanging for another month.

  

I am the kind of person who doesn't want to giveaway instalment info so to be safe, we would have to wait another month so I will have everything prepared.

In the meantime, I am posting pictures of our day at the Buskerfest at St. Lawrence Market in downtown TO.

Lots to see, lots to do, and lots to eat!  Yum!  

My favourite would be the corn roast. 

 The kids' favourite would be the funnel cake.

Our city

  

The skyscrapers downtown

The motorcycles at the street of Toronto.  

Period.

Buskerfest

The CN Tower just peeking behind the TD Building

Beata and Jethro's favourite part of Buskerfest…NOT!

Apparently, they did not like these over-nine-feet-tall dinosaurs.

I think they are cool.

They even make cool and loud realistic dinosaur sounds.

Oh, sorry.  Were you waiting for something?

One month.

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Double Three

Happy 33rd to me!

We decided to go back to Great Wolf Lodge

for a fun-filled, early-weekend

birthday celebration.

We came with some of our relatives this time and that's double the fun.

Triple the fun would be all the blessings we received that birthday weekend.

Upon check-in on Thursday at GWL, I mentioned that it was actually my birthday.

I asked if we get any special deals since it's my birthday.

The lady behind the front desk said she'll she what she can do.

And few check-in signatures later (I had to make three since we booked three separate rooms)...

we were given five bags of arcade coins!

Then, they had this "Family Of The Day" contest everyday for guests staying at the hotel.

We filled our ballots and placed them in the box, hoping that we would be up early the next day
to be able to attend the draw that's held before they open the waterpark.

With at least ten entries, our room number was picked and we got to be "Family Of The Day" on Friday.

(Complete with a special orange F.O.T.D. seats for the whole day

with bar fridge on the side supplied with bottled water and an appetizer plate,

six mini-golf passes, more arcade tokens,

free pack of GWL palying cards, free photo from Niagara Rapids slide,

a GWL drink container to keep, and an extra 10% off at the craft store.)

Saturday morning, we got a good start of the day from the free hot buffet breakfast  

(because the manager of this little hotel at River Road was so nice

that he did not only fixed the problem with our rooms for our overnight stay,

but gave us complimentary breakfast coupons for four adults, too,

and the server at the restaurant did not charge us one single kid breakfast!)

We are so blessed that weekend, don't you think?

Not to mention the extra coupon booklet handed to Raymond by a stranger while waiting at the lobby of GWL...

And another coupon booklet that he found by the bushes while we were playing mini-golf...

And another free round of mini-golf because Raymond got the bonus shot at the end of his mini-golf round!

(Insert VERY big smiley face here)

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Wolf and Birds

We surprised the kids to a three day vacation at Niagara Falls earlier this week.

We were blessed to be able to get a $179/night rate at Great Wolf Lodge...

(and with a $150 gift card from Lani, we only spent around $30 for the hotel).

It's great to be back at GWL.

Kids enjoyed it a lot.

And Jakob was tall enough for all of the slides!

Raymond and Jakob got to go on the Vortex and on the big blue slide

(but we forgot to scan their wristbands for photo).

 On our third day at Niagara Falls, we went to Bird Kingdom.

I am sure I promised myself never to set foot on this attraction since I found out that there are lizards walking around the floor of the reptile section...

but a half-price Canada Day weekend deal is sure hard to pass.

I did skipped the reptile floor and just waited on the platform to meet the rest of the family

but honestly, my heart was racing and my eyes are constantly scanning the area

just in case that lizard comes right out of the exit door...

or a staff walks behind me with a lizard on the shoulder...

you'll never know.

(I thought I escaped that reptile part, only to find out that they have a new "exhibit" at the nocturnal section...
a monitor lizard. 
Yuck!
 Even though it's behind a glass display, I can sense that it's looking at me...
can't even continue this story, it's giving me goosebumps!)

 We crossed the border after the Bird Kingdom to do some exciting "one hour" shopping

but before that, we ate at Perkins restaurant
and an elderly man whom we met at the door,
came to our table with three stuffed toys for the kiddos

We were definitely showered with blessings those three days!
It was a very nice (and cheap) getaway.

 

(notice Raymond's eyes?

no glasses!

He lost it somewhere in the hotel.

He drove home for four hours with no glasses)

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