Rock & Roll!

Chris has been training for several months now for the Virginia Beach Rock & Roll Half Marathon. We wouldn't have missed it for the world, so on Friday the kids and I drove down to Dahlgren to pick him up and head for the coast. After a fairly uneventful drive save some heinous traffic right at the end we arrived at our hotel and checked in. We ordered a pizza for dinner and settled right in for the night. We got up bright and early and had a good hot breakfast (free!) and were on the beach by 0930. This afforded us a great spot right in front of the hotel.  

Declan enjoyed his time on the beach immensely.

 Especially crawling by the waves.

Christopher and Daddy built castles and dug moats...

Christopher loves sitting right in the water.

After this little incident...

Declan was happy just to chill out in his playard while I lounged and read magazines. Hooray!

After we finished up at the beach we went for a a quick shopping spree at the NEX before meeting up with our old HOWARD shipmate and good friend Bill.

After we got back to the hotel we turned in right away. I woke up before the dawn to see Chris off and then took a moment to enjoy the sunrise over the Atlantic.

After we had given Daddy a little head start, the boys and I headed down to the halfway point of the course to wait for him.

Jr just chilled in his stroller.

Deck rode in style in my obi.

It was amazing to see Chris come running up. Jr was extremely excited and dashed out to meet him!

Chris finished the race strong! I wish we had pictures but the way the barricades were set up coupled with the crowds and me being saddled with two kids made it impossible. We do have a low-res one from the race people though.

We didn't have much time after that to lollygag because checkout time was approaching fast. We hurried back to the hotel and packed up and drove over to the Westin. We had decided ahead of time we wanted something a little more restful after Chris' race and the Heavenly Bed ™ sounded like just the ticket. When we got there it wasn't quite check-in time yet so we went to The Cheesecake Factory and had lunch. After check-in Chris decided to lay down for a bit. He didn't wake up again until well after midnight. The kids and I watched movies, did bathtime and went to bed- Chris was so deep in sleep he didn't even snore, let alone stir.

We woke up early with the intention of heading back down to the beach for the morning but sadly this is what started just as we were approaching the beach...

We opted instead for breakfast at the Log Cabin Pancake House...

Followed by a dip in the amazing indoor pool at the hotel.

After that we had to check out and head back towards reality. We are so proud of Chris for taking on this challenge and finishing!