We had a wonderful, grueling trip to NC.
6/4: We drove all the way to Salina, KS, with a stop at the Denver mall for lunch.
6/5: After driving the remaining 3ish hours to Kansas City, we enjoyed a BBQ lunch at Arthur Bryant's (as recommended by a friend). It was absolutely delicious! We then visited the WWI museum and rode to the top of the tower for an excellent view of KC. We finished our day by staying near St. Louis in some Star Wars pods, which were a lot cooler than I expected.
6/6: We drove into St. Charles for the Lewis and Clark Boat House and Museum. It was small, but cool. For lunch, we got Imo's, St. Louis style pizza. The manager there treated us like royalty and even gave us extra food. It was delicious too! We drove to Philadelphia, TN, to a home with a cool video game theme.
6/7: We explored Smoky Mountain Knife Works and stopped in Black Mountain, NC (the setting of a book series I read). After a dinner at Cook Out, we got to Myles and Skyla's home around 8:30 P.M.
6/8: I taught canning to Mara, Ceci, and Skyla. We did strawberry jam, pickles, and potatoes. Myles and Skyla bought us yummy BBQ from Smithfield's.
6/9: We attended church with Myles and Mara's families and watched Saturday's Warrior after dinner. I had never seen the new one, but it was pretty good.
6/10: We took the kids to the splash pad in Clayton for the morning. After dinner with Christian and Rachel, we did gel blasters with everyone.
6/11: Dad drove and gave us a tour of Columbia and Lexington, SC, where we used to live until I was 7. We visited my grandparents' graves, our old houses, and 2 favorite restaurants, LaBrasca's and Zesto.
6/12: Carmel and Matthew moved into their own apartment, so we helped with that. I gathered up old pictures, slides, and a few other miscellaneous things that I intend to digitize soon. Christian and Rachel fed us a yummy dinner, and then Rachel took family pictures over at a sunflower patch.
6/13: Beach day! We toured Ft. Macon State Park and spent the afternoon at Atlantic Beach. It was an amazing day with the perfect weather. No one wanted to leave. No one got sunburned either, not even me! We had dinner at Waffle House on the way back and stayed with Mara and Ricky that night.
6/14: After a delicious breakfast with Mara and Ricky, we headed over to Christian and Rachel's to do tie dye. I took random shirts that were mostly white, and all but one of them turned out. (One was polyester so it didn't work.) After lunch, we got some ice cream with Christian and Rachel, then headed over to Brinson and Ceci's for a relaxing afternoon and dinner. We played some board games afterward.
6/15: In the morning, Ceci, the girls, and I went to Colbey's baby shower. I made pinwheels the day before and helped set up and clean up at the end. It was pretty fun. We played some games, ate snacks, and opened presents. For dinner, we went to Phil and Laurel's. I knew Laurel as a youth/in college and James had a class with her in college. Some of our kids are similar ages, so they had a fun time playing too. We played some more games with Brinson and Ceci.
6/16: After attending church with Mom and Dad, we hung out with them in Apex. We met the whole family for a dinner at the church and took some pictures by the temple afterward. It made it convenient to say goodbye to everyone. After getting back to Brinson and Ceci's, we packed the car.
6/17: By some miracle, James tetris-ed everything into our car. Our first stop was with Claude and Tracey. All of my local Phenix cousins came! I've now met all of their spouses and kids minus one. The 2nd cousins had a wonderful time playing together, and we had pizza and caught up. It's like seeing old friends.
6/18: We drove to Salina, KS, and stayed at the same hotel as on the way in. The day was pretty uneventful.
6/19: Home at last! One small hiccup happened. When we stopped for lunch, I noticed that one of our tires was coming apart, almost like a slash mark, but likely caused by road damage. We drove .3 miles down the road, bought a new tire, and less than an hour later were on the road. It did set us back, obviously, but we were home by 11 and got a good night of sleep.
Though we never stayed at my parents' house, they came to dinner almost every day. Mom had also given every household a different flavor of muffins or biscuits for us to snack on while we were there. We also had the entire day in the car with Dad for the SC day trip. We didn't have as long with Mara and Ricky either, but James was able to go play games with him 3 times during the week.
I didn't sleep much and came back with a cold, but I'm so glad we made the sacrifice to make this trip. It was incredibly fun, and I fully believe that God watched over us every day. We felt especially loved by each family since we had a few days at each house. Everything we planned worked out, and the food was delicious. The car worked perfectly (minus the tire, but that's different), and we had a lot of fun.
Today will be the usual after-trip chores like shopping, laundry, and tackling this overgrown mess of a yard. We probably won't finish everything until tomorrow, but that's okay. I can't wait to sort through the pictures and remember it all over again.
