North Carolina Here We Come!

 I have been to Florida, but only the touristy places so it doesn't feel like I've really been to the American South. Now I can say I have and it was a great experience!

I had not met my brother-in-law's family yet since only my BIL was able to fly out for our wedding in October. So this was my first chance to meet his family. The kids were shy with me at first, but they soon warmed up to me with our own game of "Fish heads" which happened when they rolled themselves up in a blanket, stood up, and fell on me. So I started singing the silly song, "Fish heads, fish heads, rolly-polly fish heads, fish heads, fish heads, eat them up. Yum!" This became a thing for the whole 4 days. hahaha. 

Our first night however we were exhausted from flying so we mostly played video games together. I didn't play at first, but when it was my turn I royally lost at Mario Kart. But Nicole whipped up some pretty fantastic food, all egg-free for me. I can now say I've had Thai food, and I like the way she made it and when I went home to look for more Thai recipes I was too scared to try them for fear of burning my mouth off.

Flying is so exhausting it just is. So the day we arrived we mostly played video games with the kids. The baby is so shy I could hardly get him to come near me. The kids started out a little shy with me too, but soon learned I was happy to play with them. In fact, I became their main focus of attention. To start, we played Mario Kart which happily is the one game I've played and kind of understand. That didn't help me much though. Their dad would give the kids a free lap before he started playing, and he'd usually still win or get close. Lochlan is pretty good and was winning a bit too. Zoe was usually farther behind and I think it made her happy when her dad swapped out with me and she was no longer the one losing each round. haha. 

We slept on air mattresses upstairs just down the hall from the kids' rooms. They were given specific instructions by their mom not to wake us up in the morning and you could tell that was hard for them.  Once they peaked in and saw that Nathan and I were awake, all bets were off! The kids were there to wake us up and follow us around until we could come down for breakfast. (We had wake up calls by the kids all the following days too. haha)

After a quick breakfast we packed up into the minivan and drove to the North Carolina Museum of Art to visit the Golden Mummies of Ancient Egypt exhibit! I told Nicole, this was the fastest I've ever gone through a museum exhibit thanks to the kids. (I went through a local Egyptian exhibit in Utah and took 2+hours with just me and Nathan.) Zac said the exhibit was a bit of a rip-off since he was expecting "ancient" mummies and not "Greek" ones from the Ptolemaic time period. I admit, I'm less interested in the Greek ones too, but I enjoy all nerdy history moments. I also answered quite a few questions the kids had about the mummies and told them lots of nerdy historical facts, like how mummies are made. The kids also got to use an interactive display to write their names in hieroglyphics. I even enjoyed the gift shop and bought a pendant necklace with a cartouche of Cleopatra's name.

We stopped at the other building on the property where the art is kept and had a good time walking around that area. The kids really enjoyed the hands-on kid area where they could build an Egyptian temple with blocks or spell out the alphabet in hieroglyphs. I founds a few art pieces I just loved including a sailing ship and some landscapes that reminded me of my grandma. Outside the buildings were large grassy areas with some outdoor displays including the giant metal pig/slide that the kids wanted to go down. It ended up being too wet from rain, but it didn't prevent us taking some fun pictures. It was fun walking around and Lochlan usually wanted to hold my hand, or if I wasn't available hold Nathan's hand. It was so cute! Zoe feels too old to hold hands, but she holds her siblings hands to help keep them together. 

 

After stopping at home to grab lunch, we headed to the Quail Ridge Bookstore. It felt a lot like being in an independent store combined with Barnes and Noble. I bought 2 books and a few miscellaneous book themed things. Nathan bought me a Christmas present after I was debating on whether or not I should buy the book! It was artwork from the Lord of the Rings, called the Hobbit Sketchbook by Alan Lee. In the car Zoe started a reading competition with me asking me what page I was on, but it wasn't fair since she was reading a graphic novel and there were lots of words on my pages! We continued our competition throughout the trip including our drive the next day to the Zoo and around the house. I told her I'd go home and count how many I read in a year to beat her.

One of the things Nathan and I both expressed interest in seeing was the North Carolina Zoo. Their zoo is huge! It felt like it took all day just to walk around the different lands. At least for the hour it took to drive there, it was worth the time. I felt like they had a great layout and variety of animals. Lochlan had a kid camera and really got into taking pictures of the animals and since I had a camera too, it was almost a competition. Lochlan would even hold our hands but apparently Zoe is too old for that kind of thing. Sigh. At least she was happy to pose for photos with me! I got them both to pose as giraffes sticking their necks out. haha. We were able to get some lunch there too before taking the long drive home. I even bought a NC Zoo hat and a gemstone necklace. But with the heat, we were all excited to get into a car with AC and then a house with AC!

On Sunday we decided to take it a bit easier, and with COVID we played church virtually from Nicole's and Zac's ward. But we started the morning with a trip to the Farmer's Market nearby. There were some awesome offerings and I was drawn especially to anything jam like... I bought sweet potato butter (love it!), caramel apple pecan butter (a little too sweet), local sourwood honey, and muscadine jelly. We were also tempted by the bakeries, and Nathan bought himself a cookie. That same afternoon we played Ticket to Ride and learned that Lochlan gets crazy upset if he thinks he's not winning... so that was fun. I think it was this day he also tried to have a melt down on me and I told him he couldn't treat me like that which made him feel guilty and run away to have a melt down in his room. It's so hard to be 5. Zoe was super chill the whole time but she enjoyed climbing on me or sitting next to me just as much as Lochlan did. Together she and I worked on a craft they had set up putting little round plastic pieces on a shaped frame that you could iron together to make a plastic shape, like a horse, or fish. I have no idea what they're called. haha. My one last request that trip was to make caramels with Nicole and she told me about the candy cookbook the whole family uses where she gets her recipes. Of course I ordered it immediately. We made orange flavored caramels which weren't bad but not as good as plain caramels. I was still a happy camper and it was nice to have one on one time with Nicole since I felt like I spent the majority of my time with her kids. Once caramels were done we also played a few games in the yard and played with sidewalk chalk. Boeden also was being adorable trying to catch the sunlight on the floor inside the house. He was pretty shy the whole time and only went to Nathan once when Nathan tried to call him over to him. I was stranger danger! No Boe snuggles for me.

Since Sunday night was also the 4th, that night Nicole, Lochlan, Zoe and I tried to go see some fireworks. We had a whole escapade including not realizing car doors were open and banging them into the garage, trying to find a parking space on the road so we could still get away before it got late, and in general just having a wild time. Needless to say, Zac was not too happy about the dent in the van door.... oops!! That night was our last time with the family since we had flights out early the next morning. The kids woke up to give us sleepy goodbyes as Zac drove us to the airport. Zac is such a kidder, but he is fun to be around and I was very grateful he was willing to drive us out to the airport. It sounds like they have plans to fly out to Utah in December hoping to see snow so we won't see them again for 6 months!