A Little R & R (Reneaus and Roberts that is)

A few weeks ago our really good friends from Oklahoma Stefanie and Jeremy and their kiddos Braeden and Lydia, came to visit us for a week. We haven't all been together since we moved from OK over a year ago. We were so excited to have the coming to see us, I have missed my girl Stef. We were always hanging out and spending time together when we lived in OK, so it was nice to have her here for a week and get to catch up. 

They flew into the Raleigh Airport, so after we picked them up we headed to get some dinner. These kids were best of friends and even though they haven't seen each other in a year, they picked up just like they hadn't had anytime apart....just like real friends do.

 So as anyone who comes to visit we always have plenty of time for the pool... Katie and Lydia taking a snack break.

 We headed over to the beach in the evening on the first day they were hear. Braeden and Lydia have never been to a beach that has "warm" ocean water so they were excited to see it and feel it. They all took off running when they hit the sand.

 After the beach we headed over to the pier to check out what everyone was catching. On the way back to the car I caught Braeden and Bree holding hands and walking. My heart melted...nothing like a stroll with a friend. :)

 We had a couple of days at the beach. Lydia digging in the sand.

Stef and Braeden...hanging out

 Jeremy was the skilled sand castle builder so all the kids wanted him to help build a castle...but attention spans shortly kicked in and they were off doing other things. :)

 About mid way through the week we had to throw a little excitement into the week. Stef and I had Bree and Lydia at the pool. They were playing and jumping off the side. Well, Bree decided last minute to turn her forward jump into a backwards cannon ball. Two seconds later there was screaming and lots of blood. She hit her chin on the side of the pool. SO...Chris and I spent over 6 hours at the ER getting her stitched up. 5 stitches in her little chin. She was on tough cookie though. She didn't cry one tear when they numbed her or did the stitches. She laid really still. The ER doctor kept telling her she was better than most adults who get stitches. 

 We headed to Wilmington one day to check out the Children's Museum. B and B were trying to figure out how to get the cannon to work (it shoots out tennis balls)....no luck on this day must have been broken.

 Our little engineer in the making....she kept trying to figure out the best way to stack all the cups as high as she could without them falling over.

 Future Scientist

 Taken a break to do some art

 Cookin' in the kitchen....it's always more fun to cook with your best friend.

After the Children's Museum, Jeremy took Braeden and Katie over to tour the Battleship. Stef and I took Bree and Lydia out for ice cream and then back home. But Jeremy said they had a blast and snapped a few photos.

B and K outside the Battleship

 Taking down the enemies!!!

 Checking out were they would sleep.

 And Jeremy introduced Katie to her first sailor....I told him she was a little young to me talking to sailors. :)

Another day we went out in search of some dolphins. We took a boat tour down the intercoastal .

Relaxing with a friend

Chris and Lydia having some boat conversation.

Two of my favorite people...They are our family. :)

Keeping her eye out for some dolphins

We saw some out infront of us....all the kids were clapping and making noise to hopefully get them to come closer

There were six dolphins swimming all around us. A couple of them were babies.  They never came up to the boat but they got pretty close. It was hard to get a photo as they were up and down in no time. The kids and adults were beyond thrilled to have seen them. Such cool animals.

Me and my bestie.... love her!

After a fun filled week it was time to head back to the airport :( We decided to make a day out of our Raleigh trip, so we stopped off at one of the museums (don't remember the name...something about science and nature). Had to get one more photo op with these two cuties.

My girls....always with the silly poses. :)

The museum was really neat, not only because it was free but it had lots of amazing stuff to look at. Here is a picture of one of the many skeletons they had hanging from the roof. This is a skeleton of a whale...pretty incredible on how BIG it was. I was just hoping it was very secure it what was holding it up.

The big ole dinosaur...Chris and Katie look so small next too it.

We finished killing time at the museum and then had to head back to the airport to drop them off. The week flew by and it was sad to see them go. I had tears in my eyes as we said good by to them. It was just like saying good by over a year ago. BUT I am truly thankful for the we got to spend with them and hopefully soon we can head to OK to see them and all of our wonderful friends we left behind there as well. 

Charlotte Fun!

The week of July 4th we had a little mini vacation with just the 4 of us. We asked the girls what they wanted to do and they both wanted to go to a amusement park. We looked around at places to go and decided to go to Carowinds in Charlotte, because we got the best of both worlds amusement park and a water park in one place.

We headed up there on the 4th and we took are time. We stopped off at an outlet mall about half way and did a little shopping, but it was so hot that we didn't stay long. Soon enough we were in Charlotte unpacking at the hotel. The girls were beyond excited to go to Carowinds the next day. The quickly went to sleep and I thought they would be up super early but they both slept until 8:30.

Carowinds is in both North Carolina and South Carolina and the state line runs down the middle of the park. So who says you can't be in two places at once. :)

Quick family photo courtesy of some 9 year old boy standing close to us. We look well rested and thankfully so, because it ended up being a longer day then I planned for. :)

We had two days to play at Carowinds so we decided to ride most of the rides on day one. It was SO HOT that day but it worked in our favor. There was hardly anyone in the park. No lines for any ride, so the girls got to ride as much as they wanted.
We found some of the peanut gang...I think Snoopy is loved the most almost every kid ran to him first.

Riding some rides. They had a contest who could fly their glider the highest. Chris and Bree won! They got to stay on and ride again. Not that it really matter, there wasn't a line but she was excited that they won.

Katie was big enough to ride them all by herself this year.

Daddy told them that the only way to ride a roller coaster was in the very front.  This ride turned out to be Bree's fav.

Here is a video of them both riding it earlier that day. I love at the end how their heads are flopping all over the place and they have big grins on their faces. Click here

There were was only one ride in the kids area that Bree wasn't tall enough to ride, so she waited patiently for Katie and I to ride.

Here is the first roller coaster that Katie rode. Click here. She wasn't quite sure about it but wanted to try it...once it was over she had the roller coaster bug. She wanted to ride every roller coaster she could. She was able to ride all of them in the park except for 3 of them that you had to be 54 inches. So Chris and I took turns riding them with her. She loved them all! And we rode them all multiple times. It is hard to believe that she is big enough to be riding these fast rides.


Have to allow some time for the parents to have fun, so we traded off watching the kiddos so the other go ride some of the bigger roller coasters that Katie couldn't go on. This is one ride the Chris rode. It is called the Intimidatory. The drop alone made my stomach queasy....but he said it was an awesome ride. He tried to talk me into to riding this one, but I just couldn't get my courage up for it. I ended up riding the Voltrex (I think that was what it was called), anyway you stand up and ride it. Chris also rode the nighthawk, which you lay down as you ride it so it looks as if you are flying.

Bree and I passing the time while Daddy and Katie rode a roller coaster. I honestly can't say enough how good she was about Katie wanting to ride the bigger rides and she would wait...thankful not for long but still she was a good sport about it all.

Here is a video of one of the bigger roller coasters Kaite rode.  You can see it behind me and Bree above. Click here. Sorry you will have to turn your head to watch it. When I filmed it on my phone I guess I turned it and it will only show it one way.

Their favorite part of Carowinds

Just a glimpse of how they were going, going, going, going all day long. I really thought with the heat that by late afternoon we would hit our wall and the meltdowns would begin. They proved me seriously wrong. They didn't whine or cry one time all day. They just kept saying, let's go here, let's ride this one. I have to say we did keep them well hydrated and feed throughout the day and that probably helped. I made them stop and drink at least every 15 mins whether they wanted to or not.

After 11 hours at the park on the first day we told the girls we needed to head back to the hotel to get some dinner and get some sleep. The didn't want to go but I know they were ready and had to be hungry as it was 8:30.

After another good night sleep we headed back the next day to play in the water.

They loved playing in the wave pool. They thought it was so cool how you can have waves like at the ocean in a pool. We played alot here.

There were lots of water slides, a lazy river and other water areas that we went too. Sorry for the lack of pictures but I wasn't taking a chance of my phone getting wet and the water park was big so I wasn't going to run back and forth...so you'll just have to take my word that we had a blast. :) There was one water slide that both the girls could ride together in a double intertube. We also rode one that all four of us could ride together. It was fun watching their expressions as we zoomed and twisted down the slide.

We knew we were going to plan to stay for awhile at the water park so I reserved us a Cabana ahead of time. I am so thankful we had this. It gave us shade on another very hot day. The cabana came with satellite TV, a ceiling fan, lounge chairs and tables and chairs to eat at.



After a few hours of playing we took a break for lunch...it was so hot that the girls really didn't want to each much. The got big bowls of fruits and then later a Chick fil a sandwich.

After a more play time we told the girls we needed to get out of the sun and rest for a little while. I knew they were tired when they didn't fight it. Katie watched TV and rested, Chris napped on the ground and Bree napped beside me on the other chair.

After rest time we played until it was getting ready to close. Changed clothes and then headed back over to the amusement park side to ride some more rides. We hit up Bree's fav again...she literaly rode this ride 20 times or more while we were there.

Big brave girl in the front by herself. :)

We stayed late that night again to watch the light show and fireworks. Me and my girls waiting for the lights to start.

My two cuties

After the light show we waited for the fireworks to start and with all parks they have to sell all the stuff that lights up.  The girls picked out a souvenir.

After two very long days at the park we all were officially worn out. The girls are some serious hard core amusement park girls. I never imagined they would want to stay as long as they did both days. They had so much fun as did Chris and I. It was worth every bit of tired we felt. When we got back to the hotel on the 2nd day, Bree laid her head down and less than 2 minutes later she was out. She looked so cute all snuggled in and sleeping. :)

On our last day there...we had a recovery day before we headed back. We slept late to the point that we almost missed breakfast at the hotel. After we lounged around, the girls swam in the pool, we got dressed and went to Ikea. I have never been so when I saw it on the way in I knew I wanted to go before we left. I have to say it was a bit overwhelming and totally makes you want to redecorate and organize everything in your home. Kinda glad we don't have one close as we would be broke. :)

We finally made it home on Sunday and first thing Monday the girls wanted to get Samson from the Kennel. I think he was just as excited to see us as we were to see him. Doesn't he look all handsome, freshly bathed and cute handkerchief around his neck.

I have to say that this was a fun vacation. The girls are at the point where naps are not a must for us, so it is fun to be able to do more things with them. I think more amusement park vacations will be in our future.