Through the Bridge-Tunnel

For a week we got up really early, dropped Brett off at work and made the trek to Hampton for an excellent gymnastics camp for Maya and Jonah. Totally worth it--cheap and great and festive. The instructor was one of those people who can memorize 40 people's names the first 10 minutes she meets them. Both M & J improved in their skills, and it was so fun to see little still-getting-coordinated Jonah doing some great tricks. ;) You should have seen how long it took them to describe to him how to do sit ups. I guess we missed telling him about sit-ups--he had no clue.
Simon is the reason you get no pictures. On the last day, the only one where the parents could watch, I took lots of pictures. He was in a kicky mood and made every single one blurry. Bummer. Simon and I enjoyed several days of alone time at Starbucks reading and nursing in the air conditioning while the big kids were in class. I (Cross out that "I" like the other cool bloggers do, but I don't know how to do it yet) He really liked having alone time with me and a latte A LOT.
After class, we explored Newport News and Hampton. One day we went to the beach on the Chesapeake. The waves were gentle and there were actually shells, unlike Virginia Beach proper. Just after I vehemently assured Maya that the jellyfish would NOT sting her, two teenagers ran out of the water screaming. Bummer, lost some credibility there. Still, it was a nice time and fun to be at a different kind of beach.
There is a lot of Wright Brothers stuff here, and the Air and Space Museum was great. So were the bumper boats and carousel outside.
The traffic can be not fun at all here. Lots of bridge-tunnels with no place to turn off and they choke down the traffic considerably. At least we didn't have to keep going through this tunnel. That was the way we came down from NY--it was beautiful at midnight, with no traffic and the kids asleep. Brett and I called each other (we were in two cars then) and ooooohhhheeeed and aaaahhhhed about it in whispers. But I bet in traffic it is a serious problem. At least if you have a baby in the car that is likely to be less than happy in stop and go traffic. After a week of so much time in the car we were ready to hang local for a while, and we spent a lot of time hanging out with the paparazzi.