Suffolk Peanut Festival

We decided to go do something fun on Friday to get away from the house and boxes and took the boys down to Suffolk for the Peanut Festival.

 Aside from being on base, it is the first time we have seen the water.  When driving around town and looking at the GPS, we can see water all around us.  We just haven't ventured right down to the coast yet.

 We took the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel (or 664) which is four miles of part underwater tunnel and part bridge (if the name doesn't make that obvious enough.)

Here we are approaching it.  In the picture on the left you can see the water if you look closely.  On the right we are getting ready to enter.

 I felt very claustrophobic knowing we were underwater and the pressure pops your ears.  Thankfully, that part is not too long.

I loved being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. :)

Out of the tunnel and on to the bridge.  You might care less about all of this, but I will probably be blogging about all our little adventures so get used to it.

The boys loved watching the birds dive for fish.

 Well...Fisher did.  Cooper fell asleep.  You might also notice that the dreaded beedee is back.  The morning of the day we left Omaha, I had not had any sleep and was so worried I wouldn't be able to stay awake while driving the next few days.  I gave Cooper his blankie so that he would go back to sleep and I could get a few extra hours in.  It worked and has continued working.  He goes to bed and sleeps through the night which is something he hadn't been doing for weeks after we took it away.  Unfortunately, we will have to go through the whole process again but it has helped us immensely by having him (an us) get more sleep.

In case you were wondering, there were just as many trees down in Suffolk as up in our area. :)

We took a nice little drive through downtown Suffolk, which had the perfect small town Main Street type of feel.  

 We passed some of the largest pumpkins we have ever seen.

We made it!

We started off by watching a demolition derby.  It was boys' first time at one.  They really liked it except that the sun was shining right into our eyes.

 They thought the cars were funny.

 Loved when they smashed into each other.

Laughed when they stopped running and were smoking like crazy.

 All in all, they enjoyed it.

 A lot.

 But soon they were ready to go check out all the other attractions.

 The "World's largest pig."

 Smallest horse.

 Biggest rat. (Which wasn't a rat at all but rather the largest type of rodent.)

 We tried having all three of the boys riding the ponies but Cooper and Tucker freaked out so we were given full refunds.

 Fisher chose the biggest one.

 He thought he was pretty cool.

 This outfit is what happens with an extremely stubborn three year old. We are lucky if he is dressed when he leaves the house, let alone in something decent.

 Once again, Fisher was the only one of the boys brave enough to go near the animals.  He loved feeding them.

 This guy made us laugh.

 The other two stood by at a safe distance and watched Fisher feed the animals.  

 Since he was so brave, we thought he should give riding the camel a try.

 It was kind of a rip off for only one lap but I don't know the next time he will have the opportunity to ride a camel so that's okay.

 Beautiful skies.  Different than in the West and Midwest.

 A few minutes later.

We have had hot temps and horrible humidity and a lot of rain lately.  It is a good thing we lived in Louisville and Omaha to prepare us for the humidity here which is even worse.  

This particular night was the first one to cool down in over a week so it felt really good.

 All four of the boys (including Todd) took a little train ride.

 It was kind of funny.  Fisher was flirting with the girls behind him and Cooper.

 Todd took the boys into this tent for some goodies.

 They loved their balloons.

 Everyone was toting around their Romney and Obama balloons, buttons, signs and hats.  There were also a lot of "I support Confederate history month" stickers everywhere.

 I took Fisher on his first roller coaster.  We were laughing like crazy the whole time.  It was a pretty good one for a little thing.

 Cooper tried to win a gold fish by tossing balls into little fish bowls.  No luck.  

 Both of the boys were able to ride on the fire engine.  We thought it would be to babyish for Fisher but it actually went really fast so he had a good time.

 Cooper really liked it.

 Go Romney!  They had their balloons with them on every ride.

 Todd took Fisher and Cooper on the spinning dinosaurs.  I happened to park right next to this lady who was decked out in her Obama gear.  She eyed me with all our Romney stuff and we had a little showdown for a few seconds.  Then Tucker broke the ice and we became friends. :)  

Truthfully, I hate politics.  I think it brings out a lot of negativity in people and I prefer to stay out of it.  Todd is more into it than me.  I will be glad when it is all over and done with.

 Tucker couldn't take his eyes off of all the bright lights and chaos everywhere.  It was way past his bedtime and he was happy as can be.

 The highlight (and worst part of mine & Todd's) was when the boys won light sabers from the duck game.

 We try to avoid anything that resembles swords in our house for safety reasons.  Our boys and swords are a hazard to anyone and anything within any distance.

 It was a successful evening.  

 Tucker discovering the power within him.

 I think there is something very cute about Tucker with a light saber.  He already likes to fight his brothers with it.

 The trees are eerie in the dark.

One last drive through the underwater tunnel.  Even thought I didn't have the light at the end of the tunnel since it was nighttime, it wasn't as disturbing since I knew how long it was.  I just hope to never be caught in traffic while there.  

We spent the rest of the weekend watching General Conference.  There were some great talks.  We spent a lot of time breaking up fights with the light sabers so we may have missed a little bit. :)