Spring Break 2012 - Saving History for another Day...Making our Own!

Since moving to the East Coast, we have constantly been hearing about all the many wonderful things there are to see and do out here.  Especially the history stuff.   We have seen a lot of what DC has to offer, at least the National Mall, etc.  We decided it was time to venture out and check out some closeby sites for Spring Break, namely Williamsburg.  I have heard wonderful things about Williamsburg, and Jamestown, and whatever else is there that we didn't see.

Day 1: Monday, we drove to Williamsburg.  It took us about half as long to get there as I expected, because there was little to no traffic, which was awesome.  The plan for Day 1 was to just get a sneak peek of our action packed history filled week.  We decided to start with Historical Jamestown (rather than Jamestown the Colony), which is significantly cheaper and has lots of open space for the kids to run.  And it was a beautiful day.  The kids liked the open spaces for about 20 minutes, and then they were bored out of there minds of looking at very old bricks on the ground, and had no interest in trying to imagine the homes and church that once inhabited the area.  We trudged around for a couple hours, and then headed to Williamsburg, again another sneak peek.  It was obvious from the hour we spent on Duke of Glouchester Street that someone who doesn't know my kids at all must have planned this trip.  Oh wait, it was all my idea!  What was I thinking??

As we pulled out of Williamsburg, and headed to our hotel in Hampton, Neal and I looked at each other and said, "What in the world are we going to do this week??"  We promptly kissed our desires to have our kids enjoy a history filled week goodbye...and decided that Busch Gardens was probably more up their ally!

Day 2: Lucky for us, Neal's parents were so sweet in giving up their Williamsburg dreams to join us at Busch Gardens on Tuesday.  We were there from sun-up to sun-down and it was such a blast!  Everyone left the park with a smile on their face and something sugary and definitely on the "dentist's do not eat list" in their mouth.

Day 3: Wednesday we enjoyed a warm morning on the sand at Virginia Beach before the afternoon showers rolled in, and we cut Nana and Papa loose to go check out the sites we missed, so they could validate our reasons for not taking our children there.

Day 4: Thursday morning, we got up and Neal took the kids to the indoor pool at the hotel one last time, we ate our delicious Embassy Suites gourmet buffet breakfast, and hit the road for home.  Another successful Hinson vacation with fun-filled pictures and memories!  I am pretty sure that sleeping, swimming and eating at the hotel was at the top of the kids' list of fun things we did on our trip!!


Many of these pictures were taken with my iphone.  I left the camera home on Busch Gardens and Beach days :(

Nan knows my boys have LOVE musical instruments.  And they loved their new harmonicas, and actually sounded pretty good! 

Somehow, I didn't get a picture of Millie and I waiting for a giant crazy roller-coaster ride!  She was actually pretty brave and rode several twisters with Neal and I!  And loved it!!

Justin wanted to ride the log-ride over and over.  His personal favorite!

 Take all the stress of life away and these boys find themselves bonding.  Moments like these make crazy family vacations so worth it!