Carolina...callin' me home!

Three years ago, we fell in love with South Carolina during our visit to Hilton Head Island.  If we didn't have a goal of getting to all 50 states, we might have just made it our only vacation spot.  This year when deciding where to go, we remembered that great trip and decided to go to North Carolina in hopes that we would enjoy it as much. We were not disappointed. Not for one second! 

As with most trips that we have taken, our favorite things were free, cheap or food-related. :)

The adventure begins:

Getting there

The trip to North Carolina started off bright and early...yes, the clock says 3:48 AM!!!!  However, the airport is quite peaceful at that time and the boys were great.  Now the 2 hour delay in Chicago...........YUCK!  The boys were good, though.  Thank goodness for nice strangers to meet along the way. 

Atlantic Beach, North Carolina

Our condo at Ocean Sands for a few days at the beach:

 

Walking to the beach (literally in the backyard of the complex)

Beach bums

When we weren't at the beach, we enjoyed the pool at the condo.

Aquarium

This was a great aquarium. The boys enjoyed petting sting rays and all of the different types of crabs that they had in their hands-on exhibits. We even got in 1/2 price because of our membership at the Riverside Zoo here in Scottsbluff.  BONUS!

Cool sand sculpture

Delicious food

We didn't starve while we were gone.  In fact, almost everything we ate was perfect!!

Our favorites in:

Atlantic Beach

The Shark Shack-fun outdoor setting with great fresh seafood

Amos Mosquito's-YUM!! Perfect Seafood topped off with S'mores

Morehead City

Cox Family Restaurant-True Southern hospitality and great food

Crispino's Pizza-Great pizza and the owner was lots of fun to chat with

Raleigh

Bad Daddy's Burgers-Great burgers in a fun setting

The Pit-BBQ that melts in your mouth

Chapel Hill

The Pig-More delicious BBQ and GREAT Macaroni and Cheese

Megalodon Fossils

The North Carolina State Maritime Museum

This place is awesome for a free-will donation museum in Beaufort. They have lots of remnants from Blackbeard's ship.  The boys loved all of the pirate things. Beaufort was full of historical homes.  The oldest one we saw was built in 1768.  WOW!!! What history these homes have seen!

ARRRRRGGHHHH

 Fort Macon State Park

With our little history buff, we decided that it would be good to take in some of the history of the area.  Fort Macon was just down the road from Atlantic Beach and was awesome. Especially for being a free state park.  

Love this sign. 

We found it interesting the the Fort identified the Civil War as the War Between the State. It is interesting to view things from a different perspective than we have been traditionally taught.

Fun in Raleigh 

One of the great parks in Raleigh.  It was right next to North Carolina State University.  Lots of fun things to do for free!  

 Marbles Kids's Museum

What a fun place!  It had so many cool exhibits that we hadn't seen at other children's museums before including a savings themed "Moneypalooza" and also a hockey rink.  Mason even got to use a real saw in the building area.  Very cool. The boys loved it!

 We also went to the North Carolina Museum of Science and History. It was another amazing free-will donation place to visit.  It had 4 stories of exhibits and we could have spent hours there.

Rivals

We couldn't drive through Durham and Chapel Hill without stopping to see the homes of some great NCAA basketball moments.  The only question is...

Duke....

 or North Carolina???

 

Heading Home

After a great time in North Carolina, we had to come home.  We had a long layover in Chicago so we took the chance to go and have some good pizza at Gino's.  

This is shortly after Sam decided that it is OK to smack the flight attendant on the backside as she walked by.  What are we going to do with this kid??

Ahhh...Vacation

If you couldn't tell from the gushing, we LOVED our time in North Carolina.  The people were so nice.  We've travelled many times and encountered a few nice people along the way.  This trip there was always someone there to chat with, get information about the area, or just comment on how great our guys are (of course we agreed with them!)  We will be back at sometime in our lives. Who knows, maybe sooner than later.  To end, I'm leaving you with one of our favorite Eric Church songs...after being to his home state, I love the song even more!  Goodbye Carolina!

Celebrating Mason

Special Birthday Breakfast (yes, that's a chocolate long john from the Gering Bakery) 

Mason turned 7.  Wow.  Can that be possible?  How is it that we are old enough to have a 7 year old?  Well, enough about us...on to the fun of celebrating his birthday.  Here are some of the highlights from his party: 

Opening presents with cousins! 

Dueling cakes:

My kind of Fruit cake

The real cake (Grandma Lorraine's recipe of course!)

Swinging with Grandma Sue

Batting practice...notice the catcher protection-can't beat a shield! 

Look at how much he has grown up!

Here's to more years of fun with this great guy!!

One Fun Year

This past Tuesday marked the 1 year anniversary of us living at our house.  In following with our tradition of spending lots of time on the road, Bryan was in Omaha-just like he was the first night we lived here!!!

Here are some pictures of our home...just in case you wanted to see it.

Move-in day!  Note the lack of any yard...our biggest project.

Unpacking a few boxes: 

SNOW!!!!

Snow day!!! 4/10/13

1 week later:

Still snowy.  What an April

Now, since this is Nebraska, I had to post this picture too: 

Yes, this was on the Sunday in between the two previous pictures.  Only in Nebraska!!!!!

Some of our projects: 

Quality dirt to grow a lawn

The dirt worked!  And the watering, watering and more watering. Starting a lawn in the middle of a drought is not the greatest plan that we had!

Creating a raised flower bed

The (almost) finished project

Bryan's winter project was putting up trim.  It looks so good!

Since we are living on a farm, we felt we needed some livestock.

So we got some chickens.

We love our house and these are just some of the reasons:

Snowball fights

A living room big enough to have birthday parties in with room to spare

Land to go fly kites

Space to carve pumpkins

A place for the boys to grow up happy and enjoying outside

Dining space to host Christmas Dinner

Beautiful views to remember how much we are blessed

Has it only been 2 years?

OK, I know we all say, "time flies" or "it passes so quickly." I agree with both statements, but when I look back and realize that it has now been (just a little over, Feb 11 isn't that long ago, right???) two years since Sam entered our lives, I find it hard to believe.  I really don't remember life without our little guy. It seems like forever since he was my little bitty baby. (OK 8 1/2 lbs isn't really itty bitty, but you get the point) 

His first day on earth

Bundled up to meet the ESU 13 staff at inservice day...2 weeks old

Now that he is two, our world is a different sort of noisy.  Now instead of cries when he is tired, hungry, cold, etc.  It is jabbering about anything and everything.  He has taken on his brother's musical talents and will sing along with us.  Right now his favorites are Carolina by Eric Church and Some Nights by Fun. Someday I will get a video of those and post them.  It is quite cute.  Here are some pictures from his birthday party to show off how big he has gotten: 

Look who's 2!

Presents!

Awesome cake from Mindy's Makings

Mason made a sign for Sam

The birthday boy getting away with sitting on the counter...

Happy Birthday to you!

He wasn't in to blowing out his candles...at all.  Mason was, though!

We had his party the weekend before his birthday, so we celebrated at home on his actual birthday.

Whoa!  Look how big this thing is!

What could it be?? 

Yay!!! Clothes. 

Now he's a big kid and has to shave with dad in the mornings. 

Happy Birthday, Sam!!

YMCA Soccer

Today marked the end of soccer season.  Mason had a great time. I never thought I'd find myself saying this, but the season wasn't long enough.  They were finally getting it figured out these last couple of weeks and then, it's over.  Oh well.  It was fun to watch while it lasted!   Here are some pictures of our futbol star: 

Are you ready for this???

So fast he's a blur

Buddies together for soccer

  

Mason's fan section. It was so fun that his cousins came to watch him play.

Man, I wish we could go join them!

Another great season at the Y.  It is nice to have such fun programs for the kids to enjoy.  Now that soccer season is over, what will we do on weekends?  I'm sure we will find something!!