Chapel Hill

After leaving High Point we headed for Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels were scheduled to play NC State in basketball at 4:00pm and we were going to attempt to take Charlotte to her first Carolina game at The Dean Dome. She had been to a game in Atlanta at the ACC Tournament, but never to one in Chapel Hill!

Our first stop was Franklin Street. We parked in our usual spot on Rosemary and wandered in a few shops and made a few purchases. Then we ventured onto campus and walked over to the Student Store where a few more purchases were made. You can never have enough Carolina blue gear in my opinion! We grabbed a quick lunch back on Franklin Street and decided to head over to the hotel to try and get Charlotte a nap before the game.

She was able to sleep for a little over an hour, and then we had to get her dressed for the game! We arrived just in time to walk through the tunnel and onto the court to get to our seats. Charlotte was quite impressed. She keep looking up at the players and saying "wow!" We got to our seats and Charlotte enjoyed watching the warm-up. I heard her say "yeah, in the hoop!" She got a little upset when the band was playing and people were yelling and screaming, but she got used to it quickly and seemed to enjoy herself. Since it was just Mom and I, there was room for her to roam around in front of a few empty seats. She'd occasionally clap when others were clapping and enjoyed watching the students jumping up and down and cheering. We didn't want to push our luck, so we left just after halftime. We grabbed a nice dinner down the road from our hotel and then it was bath and bed time for Charlotte.

Mom and I sat in the darkness of the hotel room for a while, but finally decided just to go to sleep even though it wasn't even 9! Turned out to be a good idea since Charlotte was up at about 5:30 the next morning! We grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and then hopped back in the car to head home. Lots of driving in a short amount of time, we I think we all had a nice time.

Heading South....again!

Fresh back from Disney World and we're off on another adventure! The snow had been plowed and the main roads were clear, so Mom and I decided it would be ok to drive down to North Carolina for the weekend. Steve and my Dad were originally going to come along, but work kept them both at home.

We left on Friday morning, after calling AAA to jump start my car (which only set us back about an hour). It was interesting, and refreshing, to see smaller and smaller amounts of snow as we drove south. Charlotte was a little fussy in the car, but with snacks and her music we made it through. After a quick stop for lunch, we were back on our way to High Point to visit family. Charlotte took a nice nap in the car during the last part of our journey. Even with the stop we made excellent time and arrived in High Point a little over 5 hours after we had left our house.

Charlotte was excited to meet Aunt Nancy and Cousin Hannah (who is in 1st grade). Hannah was impressed with Charlotte's knowledge and they have a fun time playing together. Charlotte also got to meet baby Hallie who is about 11 months old. We visited and played for a while and also got to catch up with Nancy's daughter Kimberly and her husband Jason.

Reading and playing with Aunt Nancy


Charlotte sitting in a rocking chair from Aunt Nancy's childhood


We headed out around 6 to grab dinner at a local restaurant. It was pretty busy and we had about a 30 minute wait. Charlotte did well during the wait, but once we were at the table it was a different story. We had to feed her bread and other snacks to keep her happy, and by the time the main course arrived she was just done. We quickly ate our food and left. And guess what it was doing when we walked out the door?! That's right...snowing! What?! I thought we had left this behind in Virginia!

On the way back to Nancy's house, we made a quick stop through the Krispy Kreme drive through. So good! And, the doughnuts were heart-shaped...so cute! We gave Charlotte a quick bath, she refused stories and we put her right to bed. Phew, what an evening.

In the morning Charlotte got to enjoy a doughnut. As soon as she finished it, even as she was still chewing the last bite on her plate, she exclaimed, "more!"



After breakfast, Mom and I got ourselves and Charlotte ready and we were back on the road to Chapel Hill by 10 am!

Last Day at Disney

Since our flight home wasn't until the late afternoon, we had time to pack our things and venture to Magic Kingdom one last time. It figures that on the last day of our trip we had the nicest weather and Charlotte was really starting to get into it. When we walked into the park all she could say was "castle, castle" and just oohed and ahhed over it the whole time. She also wanted to go on the tea cups again and just kept pointing and saying "tea cups, tea cups." I was wary of letting her go on any fast spinning rides because of the events of the previous day, so we skipped it and instead went on the Winnie the Pooh ride. She seemed OK with this one at the start, but it was too dark and too loud (here's that theme again) so she was a bit scared towards the end.

We spent most of our last day at the park just wandering around and enjoying the weather. We also made a few last minute purchases in the shops along Main Street USA. The bus to the airport was picking us up around Noon, so we hopped on the monorail bound for the hotel. It was sad to leave, but i'm sure we'll be back!



Another bus ride and we were back at the airport for a few hours of waiting. We decided it would be best to get to the airport a little early since there would probably be a lot of people trying to get back north between storms. There was ample time to grab lunch, wander around and peer out the windows at all of the airplanes. Even more time when we discovered our flight had been further delayed by about an hour. We tried to get Charlotte to sleep by riding her around in the stroller, but that didn't work. So, we just wandering the airport, colored in our coloring books, playing with the iPhone and computer and just tried to stay happy.

We finally boarded the plane and got on our way. The flight was blessedly calm and short, and Charlotte was able to get comfortable enough for a bit of a nap. When we arrived at Dulles is was unbelievable to see all of the snow. Luckily we had parked in the covered garage and were able to easily exit and drive home without much trouble. Main roads were clear, only issue was the road leading to our neighborhood. And of course our driveway had not been shoveled so we had to climb through 2+ feet of snow to get in the house.

Disney World - Day 3

Today was the day for everyone to venture to Animal Kingdom. It was an overcast and very chilly morning, so we all bundled up and caught the bus from our hotel to the park. There wasn't a whole lot we wanted to do at this park, so we just headed straight for the safari when we arrived.



After the safari we did a little wandering around in the gift shop and Jacki bought Charlotte a cute stuffed monkey. This is becoming a tradition since Jacki has given Charlotte a stuffed monkey each Christmas (all 2 of them that she's had so far in her life!) :) Now she has a third to add to her collection! We also walked through another nature path and saw several animals, birds and fish.

It was still pretty cold and the sun was nowhere in sight, so we decided to just grab an early lunch at Rainforest Cafe and then head back to the hotel. Charlotte was NOT a fan of the Rainforest Cafe...too dark, too loud (are we sensing a theme here?). But we had a nice lunch and then were on our way back.

During the little kid's naps, a few of us went back over to Magic Kingdom and I got to ride a few "adult" rides - Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean and Barnstormer (ok, this is not an adult ride, but Charlotte was too short to ride so I got to go on with Madeline). Upon returning to the hotel after this visit, I was surprised to find out that Charlotte had gotten sick after her nap - threw up ALL over Steve :( She seemed in surprisingly good spirits though, but I was nervous about what the night would bring. Luckily it was a one time occurrence, i'm thinking it was just all the junk she'd been eating and the traveling and other excitement. Or maybe just a SUPER QUICK stomach bug. Either way i'm glad it wasn't a major deal.

We were supposed to go to the Princess dinner at The Grand Floridian, but since she had been sick we decided not to risk it. I was upset that we were going to miss it, but realized that Charlotte would probably not get that much out of it anyways and we'd just have to come back and do it again when she was older. My niece Madeline had an absolutely awesome time, and when she came back she was just beaming! "Prince Charming kissed my hand!" she exclaimed.

All in all another fun day (minus the vomiting) at Disney!

Disney World - Day 2

Saturday morning started early - we had reservations for the Chef Mickey's character breakfast at 7:30! It was either that or 9:45, and the kids couldn't wait to eat that long plus we wanted to get started on our day!! Luckily we didn't have to go far to get to the restaurant since it was in our hotel.

The food was really good...I mean, you can't do too badly with a breakfast buffet in my opinion. It's my favorite meal of the day! Charlotte enjoyed her Mickey Mouse waffles and I believe she also ate a donut (or two). Not to worry, she also had some fruit! I think she would have been happy just eating breakfast, but no, extra large costumed mice, dogs and ducks dancing to loud music and swinging napkins above their heads had to come on by and TERRIFY her! She was clinging to me, or whoever else was nearby, so tightly. When the music stopped and things were a bit calmer, she was more at ease. Still not a big fan of the characters, but she was able to give many of them high fives at a safe distance and I handled getting her autograph books signed. Her cousin Madeline LOVED it and was in awe the whole time. Gabriel (whom Charlotte calls "Bagel") was mildly interested in the characters, but certainly not scared.

Here are a few pictures of Chef Mickey's



After breakfast we briefly returned to the room to regroup, and then headed to the monorail so we could get to The Magic Kingdom! We wandered down Main Street USA (one of my favorite parts of the whole park...just think it is so cute and fun), then walked through the castle towards all the rides we wanted to hit. Charlotte's first Disney ride was Dumbo, and she seemed to enjoy it. We also went on the tea cups, visited Mickey's Toontown and rode Small World.



I think the highlight of Charlotte's day was getting to meet Winnie the Pooh and Tigger! She was not afraid of these guys at all. I think since she had seen them on TV and in books before, she was more comfortable with them than she was with Mickey and Co.



Here are a few other pics from our fun day at The Magic Kingdom.







After our exciting morning, we headed back to the hotel to get Charlotte a nap. We ended up back at Magic Kingdom for dinner - hoping to go to Tony's sit down restaurant but ended up eating hot dogs at Casey's outside in the cold! Oh well, next time we'll be sure to make reservations for EVERY night of our stay ahead of time. Those restaurants get booked up fast!

Escaping the Blizzard...aka Disney World Day 1

We'd been planning this trip to Disney World for a few months, and of course on the day of our departure there was supposed to be a blizzard! The crazy snow was supposed to start around Noon, our flight was scheduled to leave at 8am. Thank goodness we made it out of town! The airport was jam packed with people trying to get out of town, since they had already cancelled all flights after 2pm. We had to get Charlotte up much earlier than usual, but she was in good spirits and ready for the journey.

Having a little breakfast at the gate after getting through security

Steve excited for the trip!

Charlotte showing off her special seatbelt - for anyone traveling with kids up to 44 pounds and you don't want to mess with a huge carseat on the plane, I'd totally recommend the C.A.R.E.S harness. The only FAA approved restraint device (besides car seats of course). It basically turns the airplane seatbelt into a 4 point harness.

Relaxing in her seat watching a little Elmo. Notice the legs are crossed!


We had a relatively uneventful flight and arrived at the Orlando airport in a few hours. Then the adventure began...we had to go catch the Disney Magical Express bus to the hotel! Charlotte was tuckered out from being up so early and dozed off on the 30 minute bus ride. Luckily our villa was ready when we arrived so we were able to get all of our stuff in the room, grab a quick lunch and then get the little ones down for a nap.

We weren't sure what our afternoon/evening plans were going to be because of the weather...the sky was getting darker and the clouds were creeping in.

View from our villa at Contemporary's new Bay Lake Tower. Rain, rain go away!


When the kids woke up from their naps, and the rain had slacked off a bit we decided to hop on the monorail and head to Epcot since we didn't have a whole lot we wanted to do there anyways. Charlotte was not in the best of moods, as is typical for her in the evenings, but we proceeded.

She was excited when she caught a glimpse of the "big ball" while we were still on the monorail. This was her obsession for the few hours we were at Epcot. If she would ever lose sight of the "big ball" she would have a mini meltdown..."big ball, big ball, big ball." Lovely. We rode the Nemo ride. It was too dark and too loud for Charlotte...but blessedly short. She did enjoy walking around the mini-aquarium and gift shop at the end of the ride however. We grabbed a quick dinner and then headed back to the hotel to put the kids down for the night, hoping for a fresh, happier and sunnier start the next day!