Visit to Greenville

Last weekend, I decided to do something a little crazy.....
My sister was having a baby shower and I decided that I really needed to be there. So me and the kids made the 400 mile drive to North Carolina. That's right, just me and the kids. Thanks to our lovely DVD player, Mikayla did wonderful. Gavin on the other hand, had some rough moments. The drive takes approximately 8 hours. Well, going up there it took me about 10 1/2 hours. We stopped for about an hour for a food stop which would account for some of the time, but the rest of delay can be attributed to Gavin screaming off and on for about an hour. It was so hard to listen to, his poor little voice was even hoarse the next day. Even with the tough trip, I am so glad we went. We had a great time spending time with my sister and her husband. It was fun to be able to share some of her pregancy with her.
This is my sister at her baby shower. Isn't she an adorable pregnant person!! It doesn't hurt that she is also the absolute most photogenic person in our family either.
My sister and her husband have a LoveSac (basically a very comfy, very big, and very nice bean bag chair)at their house. Mikayla fell in love with it. She kept calling it her "birds nest".
I enjoyed cuddling with my kids in the "birds nest," too!
Sleeping was a tough thing while in Greenville. Me and the kids shared one room, which with Mikayla was no big deal, but it was a little hard with Gavin. Gavin doesn't go to sleep very well if he can see people in the room as he is going to sleep. Each night, I would put go ahead and put Gavin to sleep in the bedroom and then would have Mikayla lay down on the birds nest to fall asleep. That way, there wouldn't be any noise once we finally went to bed. This plan did give me at least 3-4 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. Gavin kept waking up in the middle of the night and I would have to bring him to bed with me. He has continued the habit a little since we have returned home. I am hoping and praying that this is just due to teething!

My sister lives about 2 hours from the coast. We decided that I just couldn't be that close to the beach and not make a day trip to the beach. We knew that taking Gavin to the beach would be a definite roll of the dice, but we decided to go. I am SOOO glad we did! Gavin LOVED the beach and we had a wonderful time. It was definitely the highlight of the trip.

Mikayla loved playing in the sand and running in the water.

Gavin loved crawling around in the sand. He just crawled around everywhere. He also liked the water. I sat at the water's edge with him and just let the small waves go over his legs. He really liked it, but the salt did bother him a couple of times.

The sand, however, posed no problem for him. He kept planting his face in the sand and trying to eat it. I am still amazed that the sand in his eyes didn't bother him.

The kids had fun playing with each other. It was so much fun to see them interacting with each other. They are really starting to play together instead of just beside each other.



We had a wonderful time while in North Carolina. In case you are interested, the drive home was in most ways much better. Gavin slept most of the time (and I swear he needed the Benadryl for a runny nose!). The only tough part was dealing with the horrible thunderstorms that Tropical Storm Fay sent our way. Even with that though, it only took us 8 1/2 hours to get home. I am, however, looking for cheap flights up there for when we go to see Emily's baby blessed in December. Cross your fingers for me!