There are lots of fun destinations and I hope we get to visit them all someday, but there’s nothing like a beautiful place that just happens to contain some of your favorite people in the world, and that’s what Virginia Beach is.  It’s a gorgeous spot, but it’s ten times more beautiful, for our family, because Rebecca is there.

Rebecca and her boyfriend Eric generously opened their home to us for a week, and it was absolute bliss to spend so much time with them.  Rebecca insisted on throwing Peanut a pizza party for her fourth birthday.  Normally we would cook together – one of our favorite things to do – but I had my hands full with a certain young gentleman this time.  But we were in great culinary hands – Rebecca is actually the person who taught me to cook!

Rebecca wasn’t the only one in the house who was bent on showing us a good time!  While the girls hung out in the kitchen, the boys were fishing!  Eric showed Steve and Nugget how he uses a trap to fish for bait to use on deep water fishing expeditions.

The boys were pretty impressed.  Nugget really liked the boat – which is now called “Uncle Eric’s Water Truck.”

While at the beach, we had other friends to see as well!  We managed two play dates with Elissa, sister of my favorite person in Buffalo, and her sweet little guy.  I’d met Elissa once, many months ago when she and her husband and son visited Zan and Paul in Buffalo (we all got together for a farmers’ market expedition) and was excited to see her again and see how much her little man had grown.

We met up at the beach, where Nugget raided Hudson’s stash of snacks.  Oops.

He did feed some of Hudson’s snacks… to Hudson… so yeah, that happened.

And then we attempted to take a picture, and Nugget had a massive meltdown.  Don’t you love the look on Huddy’s face?  He’s saying “What’s this kid’s problem?”  Heh.

So much fun!  Zan – you have the cutest nephew!  Elissa and I had a lovely time beaching it with our little boys (Peanut was a bit under the weather that morning and was having a quiet, sand-free day at the house) and clearly Elissa wasn’t too put off by Nugget’s tantrum at the end, because she invited us over to her gorgeous home for a play date a few days later.  No pics from that morning, but we had a fabulous time.  The only sad part was missing Zan.  The fun didn’t feel complete without her, and Elissa and I kept exclaiming that we wished she was there.

Vacations are great no matter where you go, but when you can combine them with the chance to spend a week with some of your very favorite people on the planet… well, that’s the highlight of the year right there, my friends.

Next week, a hike in a beautiful wildlife refuge – check back!

Do you vacation with friends?