It’s been a hectic couple of weeks, during which time I: helped chaperone a trip to Virginia Beach for my daughter’s 5th grade class, ferried her to two soccer tournaments, ferried my son to his soccer tournament, got him packed up for a two-week program at NYU, sold our old house, went to a work conference in Denver, cried in the middle of the Expo Hall as my husband texted me photos of my daughter’s elementary school graduation in real time, helped pick out the winning (two) covers for my sister’s upcoming novel, and almost died returning back to Charlottesville.

To get back in the swing of things, here are a few photos from the trip to Virginia Beach, the annual field trip for the fifth graders right before they graduate…kind of a baby version of Beach Week for graduating high schoolers and college students.

Learning about whelks at the Virginia Living Museum in Newport News

See that long, wavy thing that vaguely looks like a pasta noodle? I learned that each segment at one time contained a baby whelk in the making!

There she goes! Leaping into new adventures…

Everyone had breakfast at the Golden Corral, where I witnessed another freaky sight:

Deep fried bacon!

Next stop: the Virginia Aquarium:

Hello!

The octopus was working on opening a prescription pill container:

This is what happened when I asked the girls to pose for a photo…

The highlight of the day was the Dolphin Discovery boat ride:

Mama dolphins and their days old babies came up to our boat to check US out and say hello!