Our mini "vacation" to North Carolina

This is my Life:  We were suppose to arrive Thursday :)

Going to try this again: I already wrote this whole blog, and it didn't save...so it may not be as humorous or in depth, lol, but I'll try! 

We departed for North Carolina very early Thursday morning.  We left our house at 5:30am. GPS said we would be arriving at Marissa's at 6:30pm.  Of course this did not take into consideration all the pit stops for a family of 5 which all in all took an additional three hours(this does include eating)!  The ride down was great.  We were concerned about hitting traffic around NYC during the morning commute, we hit none!  We made it past DC and hit terrible traffic.  It. Was. Not. Moving.  At this point it was roughly 4pm.  We were sitting there, Connor started to complain he was hungry, Anthony's patience for the traffic went right out the window, Nathan was trying to poop so he was screaming...Jamison may have been saying something but couldn't hear him over all the chaos! I started to cry.  So....what is a family too do?

We pulled off the next exit to stay over night.  There was no way we could survive sitting longer in the traffic and come out together lol.  We pulled in and Anthony ran in to check what rates they were offering...we then checked hotwire on our phone, got a better rate, bought it and went in to check in. phew!  It was a huge breathe of fresh air...Nathan was able to stand and go poop, we washed up and walked across the street to a new IHOP.  Everyone was happy, and I was able to order my iced tea and delivered my southern sweet tea :) Yum!    

We did not pack a pack n play because we were planning on driving straight through and Nathan was going to stay in Sutton's crib.  So, this was my first time sharing a bed and sleeping through the night with Nathan.  It took him a little bit to get it and go to sleep, but he got it.  We got a cot that Jamison wanted to sleep on and Anthony bunked up with Connor.  We slept through the night , woke up, all loved each other again and hit the road at 5am. We got to see another sunrise. 

We arrived to Marissa's house around 10am.  Which, come to realize, it worked out better this way.  Nathan was able to explore the house, get comfy before we just threw him in a new room.  The boys explored, played with the dogs, I made them lunch and they (and by they, I mean Anthony too) all took nice naps.  During their naps, Marissa took me to see downtown New Bern.  Beautiful.  Little side note:  Nicholas Sparks lives here and Pepsi was created here too.  Pretty cool. 

As we were walking around New Bern, it felt so good to just be me and her for a little while.  I said to her how amazing it felt that she is expecting her first child, I'm here visiting her with my family...we are real adults!!! I remember twin day in 7th grade with our matching navy blue Champion sweatshirts and purple Dr. Grip pens that made our handwriting beautiful. lol. And now we're here.  I just love it.  We got back to the house and the boys were well rested :) Almost forgot to mention, Jamison cut his finger what seemed pretty bad on the dogs frisbee.  It was terrible.  We could not tell if it was dirt or a splinter in his finger.  I tried to clean it to tell, but he doesn't let me care for him as easily as Connor does.  It came down to Anthony having to hold him down and me trying to clean out the cut.  It was absolutely horrible.  He started screaming and crying "Mommy" and I started to cry..ehh.  But, we got it out, it was just a hard piece of the frisbee and cleaned it and band aid. 

 

Connor found Marissa's games and learned to play battleship with Dad! 

Nathan started his adorable friendship with the dogs! 

And as the night went on, the boys know very well now that Friday's are family movie night and we were so excited to share this with her.  The boys were very accepting to watch Frozen again since Riss hadn't seen it yet.  Nathan went to bed, we watched it, maybe half way through as the boys didn't sit still too long, but it was fun!  I also hit the hay early this night too !

One of the main reasons we went down this weekend was because of Marissa's baby shower.  At first her friend had asked me and I didn't realize it was Easter weekend so I had to decline.  But, I talked it over with Anthony and he was more than happy to drive down and make a little mini family vacation so I could be there and we could spend Easter with her as her husband is deployed.  It was a beautiful shower.  Her friends are so great and were so sweet to throw her this shower.  I loved getting to know them. While I was at the shower (with Nathan).  I got these great pics from the hubs. 

Anthony met up with his college room mate in Raleigh and they took the boys to a museum. The boys had a blast and I'm so happy that Anthony got to meet up with Jeremy! He enjoyed it.  :)  
We both got home around the same time, got some Buffalo wild wings for dinner and relaxed at home for the evening. 

Getting ready for bed:) 

Happy Easter!

The bunny delivered.  The boys had fun opening their baskets.  We had breakfast and started getting ready to go to church to celebrate Jesus!  

 

So, we got all dressed, ready for church and as we were heading out the front door (we still don't know exactly how it happened), but both her dogs booked it out the front door and ran away.  We had to search for the dogs.  A cute side note.  As they boys were up the road with Anthony and Riss looking for them, I could hear Jamison's little voice calling "Shadow" from one of his favorites Homeward Bound.  It was adorable. Ryder came home first, he's the younger one.  But, Acen was still missing.  We missed both services at church.  We did the boys egg hunt in the meantime and I started Easter dinner.  Roughly two hours went by and her friend went home before dinner and on her way home she saw Acen playing in water.  She brought him home and Anthony gave him a bath and the boys were down for naps :) 

All things happen for a reason and had we left, the ham wouldn't have been done in time because I was planning on make it in the crock pot and when I pulled out her crock pot...I think I said "I didn't know it was only for salsa" lol.  It was quite small and couldn't fit the ham, so into the oven it went.  We all gathered to eat Easter dinner and give thanks to Jesus.  It was wonderful. I'm so happy we spent Easter with her. 

Connor has been asking me for over a year to buy him a bow tie.  He was more than happy and they rocked them!! So adorable. 
We had a  nice last night there, playing with the dogs and loving on baby Sutton before we left in the morning. 

 

 

It was a great visit...hated to hug her good bye in the morning.  Cried, I just didn't want to leave her. 

We left her house at 6:30am and started our journey home. 

One of our morning bathroom stops and I just thought this sign was amazing.  I love the south for many reasons, but this visit just summed it up and really showed us that we belong here!  This sign was great and when we stopped at a gas station, I ran in and the clerk and customer were chatting about Good Friday. I was like YES! Love it. 

 

The ride home started out great.  We made it up to VA again, hit traffic and hit traffic what seemed like the rest of the way home.  It was a VERY long trip home.  Didn't get home until 11:15pm, we were in the van for 17 hours.  The boys did great for this situation and we were both back to work Tuesday morning.  We said again, as we did last year, we won't do that drive again...but I guarantee we will :)  Makes for good family memories. 

And to end on a great note: I woke up to this this morning! 

 

Marissa's Deployed husband is home (another amazing story).  God is so good!