Story Time with Virginia Ann Elizabeth Bruce

Settle in folks, Virginia has a few stories she'd like to read you. Try to imagine that she was keeping me hostage on the kitchen floor rug the whole time she was "reading" and only let me up after Daddy T distracted her...

Story 1: YeaYea and the Wheelbarrow

Story 2: Fox Trot and Monkey Bell


Story 3: The Growl

...she never did come back to finish that one!

P.S. Don't miss out on the extra credit story. For girls only, of course.

August Adventures Part III: Atlantic Beach

The last, and arguably most fun, leg of the trip was to Atlantic Beach! It is the first time we've really taken a "family vacation" and we l-o-v-e-d it! It could have been a little cooler and maybe not rained so much, but hearing V call our tiny condo a "vacation house" and the kiddie pool a "kitty cat pool" was worth the drive.

Here is a slide show of the highlights:

And a couple of videos to enjoy:

Time to take a bath, honey.

My feet are in it.


I'm a shark.


Sandcastle.

We're ready to go on vacation again already...and it is only Tuesday.

August Adventures Part II: Charlottesville

To celebrate our TENTH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY (in bold because aren't you SHOCKED we are old enough to have been married 10 years?) we left V with Grandma & PawPaw in Ashland and headed to a vegan bed & breakfast outside Charlottesville, VA for two days. I can sum up the trip in two parts:

BEER
Great breweries and wineries are hidden in Virginia's Blue Ridge mountains! We stopped by Blue Mountain Brewery and Hops Farm on the way into the mountains.

It was literally 95 degrees outside and a hippy band kept threatening to start playing, but we braved the outdoor seating and were rewarded with tasty beverages (and nachos- yum). Welcome to vacation Daddy & Mama Bruce!

On Monday night we hit the Devils Backbone Brewing Company and were treated to fabulous mountain views, great customer service from a woman named Peggy and interesting conversation with the manager who used to live in Raleigh.

NOT BEER
One of the great joys of being "on our own" for two days was getting to go out to dinner and a movie. We decided to go see the documentary Food, Inc.

Clearly, it was a popular choice. Without giving away the whole story, I will say that the documentary's portrayal of food safety problems in the US made us glad we were staying in a vegan bed & breakfast.

We spent Monday morning tubing down the James River. We spent Monday afternoon at the Charlottesville mall's Lenscrafters getting Tres new glasses after he decided to jump into a pool by rapids in the river (guess what? His glasses didn't make it!).

Guess which glasses he chose?

Ahhh...the $40 tubing trip that cost $400 by the end of the day! Oh well, he needed new glasses anyway. Mad props to Grandma and PawPaw Bruce for hanging out with Virginia for 2 days so we could get away from it all. THANKS, we owe you one (or three considering the vomit fest).

August Adventures Part I: Richmond

The VeggieBruce adventures all started with a trip to Richmond to celebrate dear friends April & Jim's wedding. They were smart and went on a trip to Bali and got hitched!

Debbie, April, Jim and Regis. Yes, Regis!

April is the woman who talked me into running marathons several years ago by introducing me to my personal training hero Hal Higdon. I'm still kind of mad about how easy she made it all seem while I was panting like a dog for 26.2 miles. TWICE.

Anyway, April is another one of my friends that is extremely crafty. So crafty she MADE sparkly, gold chocolate Buddha heads to go with her Bali theme at the reception.

She also somehow found banana leaves to use as placemats. And decorated the cake. If it wasn't so pretty, it would be annoying. :)

We had a great time catching up with Richmond friends. Including April's two other friends who have babies born on December 20.

Amy is in the middle, her son Reese was born 12/20/07 and Kelly is on the end, her twins Jack and Sadie were born 12/20/05. We are lobbying April to join the club in 2010.

We had to leave the reception a little early because V managed to throw up all over Grandma. Twice. Sorry Grandma! Luckily she was feeling much better the next day, allowing us to embark on August Adventures Part II...

Vacation...all I ever wanted...

Well a lot has been going on as you may have suspected from the lack of posts since July...

I've been to Austria (courtesy of NC Theatre's production of The Sound of Music), New York (for real with NC Theatre donors this time), Richmond, Charlottesville and Atlantic Beach.

I've been on a Broadway stage, celebrated April & Jim's wedded bliss, celebrated my own 10 years of wedded bliss, floated down the James River and avoided sunburn at all costs at the beach.

I'll do my best to post lots of witty commentary on all of it as soon as I can. In the meantime...enjoy one of my all time FAVORITE sightings at the beach...

That's right, two men donning banana hammocks FLYING A KITE. It doesn't get much better than this folks.