?Vacation?

So, since finances are tight after the adoption this spring, we don't have a lot of money to do a fancy (or not so fancy in our case) vacation. I was asked last winter to do a lecture at my work department's annual educational conference at VA beach and so I decided to make a long weekend of it and bring the kids...get a babysitter while I was working and then have the afternoons to play and enjoy the beach.
...can you say...What was I thinking????
My kids definitely didn't "get" that this was a working weekend. The older ones, especially, had a lot of trouble not acting up when I wasn't with them (I'm really sorry "Shore Sitters"), then, they all wanted all of me when I was with them and their were too many things to do. They were just overwhelmed with it. And they were in no way ready to behave at "semi-adult" recreational parties at night that we had to participate in...which just served to keep me anxious and watching everything that they did. so...not really relaxing.
...We did, despite everything have a few good times. Thursday afternoon we arrived and I (silly me) took them to the pool...since we had somewhere to go that evening, I thought I could just "watch" them in the pool...HA! Riley did his first canon ball into the pool and I was soaked and meanwhile, Addison was having nothing to do with just sitting with her feet in!!! She WANTED full on, under and in the water! So I went back to the room while my friend Wendy held her out of the water and watched the rest. When I got back down (with suit on) it was fun for an hour and I have to say that it is great to see the boys swimming and jumping in and having fun in the water.
...Friday afternoon, after the conference ended for the day, we went out on the beach. Riley and Logan had their life preservers on and had a great time having the waves push them back up the shore. Riley wasn't satisfied with just going in a small amount, but with the red flags flying, I wasn't going to let him go out any further. Wendy did take him out into the ocean a little farther but he still was pretty scary cuz he has no "reasonable" fear of the water. Addison loved sitting in the sand and having the waves come to her. She was flipped completely around several times by those "red flag" waves.
...Saturday afternoon, we went out for lunch and then walked a little in downtown VA Beach (but very little cuz we were all tired and HOT).
Addison was clearly tuckered out by the whole weekend ...she fell asleep before lunch both Friday and Saturday afternoons (actually laying on the restaurant tables)...and was the cutest thing. Even Sunday, she fell asleep on the hotel bed waiting for us to finish up with the conference. And amazingly, after that brief nap, she was the only one to stay awake the entire ride home...entertaining Wendy and I by singing twinkle twinkle little star to her self and talking happily to herself the whole way.
Now we are home, they are in bed, it is quiet and I am happy. There were definitely times this weekend where I thought..."oh, what was I thinking I could handle 4 kids!?!"