Vacation, Part III

On the trip home we also decided to divide it into two days, only this time instead of staying in a hotel we took a little detour so that I could visit a good friend from college.  I met Crissy my freshman year of college at VT and we were pretty much instantly friends.  She left a few years before I did when she got married and moved to Utah. 

When we were deciding to stay in a hotel while overnight in the DC area I was reminded of a post she put on Facebook a couple years back mentioning that they were moving back East.  I knew that her family was in the Maryland area and so I messaged her to see if she have moved back to the Northern VA/DC/Maryland area and she replied that she was now living an hour north of Baltimore.  She was going to be out of town during our travel dates going to NC but it would work out perfectly for us to stop by on the drive back to Michigan, I was so excited!!

So when we left NC we made a stop at the Washington DC Temple, where we were married 6½ years ago.  It ended up being perfect timing for a stop because rush hour was starting and the traffic there is BRUTAL!!  We ended up stopping at the temple until 6pm and then we got back on the road (still congested but moving) and we made it to her house in Pennsylvania right at 8pm.

They say that you can tell good friends because when you get together with them it's like no time has passed at all.  Let me tell you that was no exaggeration in this case!  It had been approximately 10 years since we had seen each other but it was like we picked up where we left off only this time with husbands and kids in tow. 

Even though I was pretty tired and dreading the drive home the next day we stayed up late talking and we even ended up leaving late that morning because we kept talking and catching up.  I was so very glad that we were able to stop in and see her and meet her family.  She has 2 boys and we joked that we'd have to make sure we keep in touch so that Y and her oldest son will grow up together and get married some day.

We left her home around 10:30am and enjoyed a pretty uneventful day of traveling.  We stopped 4 or 5 times, mostly for potty breaks and Q must've been exhausted from the trip because she slept almost the entire trip.  We finally made it home at 10pm, I got the kids to bed and B unloaded the car...and then we slept!

The perfect ending to the perfect trip!

Vacation, Part II

After arriving safely in North Carolina and getting some much needed rest, the fun really began.

Y spent all day every day playing with her cousin G who is 6 weeks older than she.  While we've visited every year this was the first year when they really interacted together and it was really the first time either of them has had someone their age to play with in the same house - all my other nieces and nephews are between the ages of 10 and 13.  They had a blast together up until the last couple of days when they started fighting over toys and such, but honestly I would have been surprised if that hadn't fought at all while we were there.

The girls were spoiled by everyone, especially my parents.  My dad went out and bought birthday cakes for both the girls so that we could celebrate their birthdays while there since they won't be here for their actual birthdays.  Both Y and Q got to ride on a little princess ATV that belongs to G, we went to one of the NC Aquariums, visited Coquina Beach again down on the Outer Banks, spent time with Great Grandma S, played in laundry baskets, ate lots of "down home" food, took pictures with the Google Car (my brother is currently doing mapping for Google), went to visit a very good friend of mine and swam in her pool, took family portraits with 4 generations, and ALL went out to dinner together.  It was an awesome trip!

I am so grateful that we have the opportunity to visit with family each year, though I wish it could be more often I am thankful for the time that we do have together.

Vacation, Part I

We made our annual trip down to North Carolina beginning on June 30th.  Despite having a fairly young baby who is still in a rear-facing carseat we drove down, it's so much cheaper than flying.  The thought of traveling such a great distance with Q did make us a bit nervous and so we decided to split the drive into two days. 

The first day was definitely the longest part of the drive, we left home around 6:15am and arrived at our hotel in Northern Virginia at 6:45pm.  We made stops for breakfast and lunch and once for snacks, each stop was approximately an hour so we made pretty good time.  We were glad we decided to stop though because by the time we reached the hotel both girls were screaming - Q because she was probably sick of being in the car, Y just screamed because she said she couldn't concentrate on coloring while Q was screaming.

Once we were checked into the hotel B immediately took Y down to the pool, that was what she was most looking forward to about the hotel and we figured it would be a great way for her to relax and unwind after the trip.  After their swim we came up and ordered some pizza and skyped with Nana B and Grandpa P before heading to bed.  We awoke early the next morning and went downstairs to breakfast before getting dressed and since checkout wasn't until noon, B took Y swimming again before we left. 

Apparently the night before we arrived the entire area had suffered some pretty severe storms and tons of people were without phones or electricity.  When we first arrived at the hotel I had attempted to contact my aunt who lives in the area but neither her home phone nor her cell phone were working, I tried once more before leaving the hotel and luckily we were able to contact her.  My dad has 9 siblings and many of them have yet to meet my children so it was nice to be able to introduce Y and Q to one of their great-aunts and great-uncle.  Y was really excited to meet them and really enjoyed spending time with Aunt M.

After that we quickly stopped for lunch and then headed on our way.  We ended up leaving the area later than we expected but it ended up working in our favor because we ended up being just behind some severe weather that was traveling through North Carolina - had we left when we planned we would have been caught in those storms while driving.

We arrived safely and once we got there Y was so excited to see my parents.  She literally jumped into my dad's arms and then ran around asking "where's Grandma" when she realized she wasn't there (she had gone to pick my sister up from work).  It took a little while (hours) for Q to warm up but no where near as long as I thought it would take.