NC!!! Finally...

I know you haven't heard from us in a while... I really hate using Blogger on my mac. For some reason it just doesn't work very well & I can never get my pics to upload without it completely kicking me off of the internet. It has taken me 5 tries to get the pics on here! If anybody knows what I'm doing wrong... steer me in the right direction please!!

So I've finally gotten up the courage to write about the rest of our trip. The NC part was really great... we had such a good time hanging out with family & friends! The trip back was equally sucky as the ride out. But I'll get to that in a minute... Let's talk about fun stuff first!

We had lots of fun playing with cousins! I took about 30 pictures of these guys sitting on the couch thinking "at least one of those will come out". Not one of those 30 had all the kids looking in the same direction!! This was as close as I got:

Mom & dad's basement is a big source of entertainment for kids!! Johnny trying out the tambourine:

Miss Emily singing her ABCs:

I dare say with those long fingers, Pipey has a future playing the piano!:

Papaw & Bella snuggling with the boys:
I think this is my all-time favorite picture of Piper. This is the oh-so-tired, calm version that we rarely get to see. :)

This was Johhny's first time drinking water! He loved it. He chugged quite a bit then promptly puked up everything he had eaten.

Piper got her first hair cut while we were there! She doesn't look super stoked in this picture, but it turned out really cute.
More play time with cousins! Sharing a snack on the swing & chatting it up:

Bella was taking one for the team & doubling up to give the mamas a rest.

Swinging on Papaw's lap has always been one of Johnny's favorite spots. They usually spend hours doing this every time we visit. At home, Johnny only goes to sleep if the room is pitch black & there is a white noise machine on... But he fell asleep upside down on Papaw's lap while they were sitting there looking at the trees. Too sweet!

While I was home I got to visit with several friends, some that I hadn't seen since high school.

I went & hung out one afternoon with my friend Kim & her little girls, Azlynn & Rhonin. It was so good to catch up!

Azlynn - she's such a little cutie pie! Johnny had SO much fun playing with her toys.

Johnny & Rhonin (Kim's little miracle baby... she was uber premie).

This is my friend Melissa's little girl, Kayla. She looks *just* like Melissa. She was trying on Pipey's necklaces.
Haven't seen Melissa since high school and she lived IN COLORADO for 3 years. That's just crazy. But I'm glad we finally got to catch up.

Aunt Emily loving on Johnny. I *wish* we lived closer...
Mama Harriet reading a book to Piper & Fisher. Fisher was relentless in his quest for some of Harriet's halloween candy... He used the chinese water torture method I created years ago (Can I have candy? What about now? Now? Candy? I... want... candy!)
Then the last weekend we were there, the McGinnis side of the family came over. We had a full house!

Johnny snuggling with Uncle Jerry.

Kristin & Johnny with Teagan & Kristin.

Miss Em came over one last time & we got a group picture with the kiddos. :)

We were sad to say goodbye! Mostly because we miss family & friends & don't get to spend near enough time visiting. But also a little bit because we didn't want to drive back to CO. =)

Because of our fiasco driving out to NC, we decided we would only drive at night. This seemed like a good idea in theory. The first night wasn't so bad. We were both super tired, but we made it ok. We decided to stop in St Louis for the day & get a hotel room (with a pool). Then we could just hang out & nap before heading out again that night. The problem was that the kids had slept all night. So they were WIDE awake & ready to go right as Kristin & I were about to pass out. I think I slept an hour or two that day. The specifics have been blocked from my memory...kind of like child birth or any other painful memory.

The hotel did have a pool & Aunt Kristin took all of the kids in to play. This was Johnny's first time in a pool & he LOVED every minute of it. He kept dunking his face in the water.

I think this picture kind of says it all:

Fun fun!!

That night we set out for the final leg of our journey. The trip back did seem less eventful & had A LOT LESS crying. It was just so overwhelmingly tiring. We were both very happy to get back home & into our own beds. I think I may have actually kissed the floor in my living room when I walked in the door.....

Whew! Thanks for sticking that out with me. I took a ton more pictures. If you aren't on Facebook - you can view them on Photobucket: http://s1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd378/auryngurl/NC Trip Oct 2010/

xo,

Carly