Adventures in North Carolina

This might be the longest I've ever worked on a blog! Even taking out the pictures for the last post, we still had a LOT of pictures. I've done my best to sum up our fun trip here but let this serve as a warning - this is still a long post. :)

Bonding (aka spoiling!)

I know it goes without saying that the kids were given lots of love and attention from Grandi, Gramps, and Aunt Kate. Here are a few random pictures of them all.

Madi and Grandi

Paxton and Grandi

Madi and Gramps

Paxton and Gramps

Madi and Aunt Kate (in their matching gold sandals!)

Paxton and Aunt Kate
Church Pictures

As always, we had family pictures made while we were dressed up in our church clothes.

The Tea Party

This started simply enough. Just Madi having a tea party with her bears.
But somewhere along the line, it was decided that the bears weren't dressed up enough to attend the party. So some accessorizing took place - all pink, of course.
And if the bears were dressed up, it only made sense that Madi would also need a fancy pink outfit also, right?
And what pink party dress is complete without... you guessed it. Pink shoes! I'd better get some "Cool Mom" points for this. (and yes, that is a pink bow in MY hair as well.)Modeling the final productAnd while the dress didn't stay on too long, the tea party experience continued until finally the bears were not good enough guests and the tea party attendees extended to include the rest of us. Madi was very careful pouring and drinking her tea. But Gramps still thought she needed lessons on the proper way to drink her tea and eat her cookies (goldfish crackers). Madi wasn't sure about all of that, but thought he was pretty funny.
Paxton wasn't sure what to make of the whole experience, but found it quite entertaining!

The Hunt

One night, Madigan got the whole family out to hunt some lightning bugs.

She worked hard to catch the little buggers. And was rewarded with a whole jar full of lightning bugs!

The "Gathering"

In order to let us catch up with some of our North Carolina friends and give Gramps and Grandi a chance to show off their grandkids, Sandi invited some people over dinner one night. As you can see, Paxton hammed it up for everyone...

And Madigan made some new friends. Silly girls :)
Krispy Kreme

While in NC, we visited a Krispy Kreme for some donuts.

If you've never been to a Krispy Kreme, they have windows that you can watch through to see how the donuts are made. Both kids enjoyed this.

I, on the other hand, felt a little sick watching them. Yes, that is a large pool of oil the donuts are soaking in. Still not grossed out? How about this fountain of gooey glaze that each donut passed though?Madi didn't care what we thought about the fat and calories in the donuts. She just though they were G-O-O-D!Paxton tried hard to see what all of the fuss was about. "Give me that thing!!!"
The Museum

We also visited a very cool Museum of Natural Science.

Madi's favorite part was the butterfly room where butterflies flew and landed all around you. She also liked the giant mouth and thought it was funny to pretend we were getting eaten. The close-up :)
Swimming

Last but not least, we went swimming at the cool pool in Aunt Kate's neighborhood.

Paxton enjoyed the water, as always.
But also enjoyed drying off in the shade with Grandi!Madigan was determined to try out the slide...until she actually got up on the slide, of course! Here's a video of her adventure!

As you can tell, her sliding down was a COMPLETE accident and didn't go over too well. :) She recovered though and we had a great time at the pool.

Heading Home

Although Madi was VERY sad to leave Grandi, Gramps, and Aunt Kate, things were made a little easier when she got on the first plane and saw a super surprise - TVs in the headrests!

I was surprised to find that they offered shows and music for free. Needless to say, it was easy entertaining Madigan on that flight!


We had a wonderful trip, as always. Thanks Grandi, Gramps and Aunt Kate for making our time in NC so special!