Family Road Trip

Our friends know we travel. It is just part of our life. In our second year of marriage we moved away from both our families (something I strongly recommend for all young couples). We are the only children in both of our families to move away. Whichs means when family functions happen, we travel home. When we lived in Nashville it was a short 3.5 to 4 hour drive. Easily done after work on a Friday afternoon. Now that we are in North Carolina it's a 10 hour drive on a good day! However, we have managed to get home for most events. When we aren't traveling home we are always going somewhere. We drive to Raleigh on the weekends sometimes because we now live in a small town with not much to do. Well, not as much as we were use to, being from Nashville. This weekend was no different. We decided Gavin was ready for a big boy bed. He has rocked the potty training thing and was ready to be a big boy. I found one I really liked at Ikea. Only problem...the shipping was more than the cost of the bed!! SOOOO...we loaded up this past Saturday and drove to Charlotte. We made a first stop in Durham at REI to make a return and get Lily and Chaco collar and leash. Yes, even our puppy came along for the ride. She is a decent traveler, plus we need to break her in for the longer travel times! Our next goal was the US National Whitewater Center. This place is pretty cool! It is an Olympic training site and has so much to do, from hiking to whitewater rafting. Not to mention great food and drinks! We went for the hiking and discovered that Emory wants to zipline! Who knew?! We told her we would have to go back one day when it was just us and her and we could spend the day there. There is so much to do that you could easily be there all day and not participate in all the activities!

We ate lunch outside by the "river" so we could watch the whitewater rafters and the kayaks. 

Well, we also ate outside because we had Lily with us.

Isn't she the cutest?!

Emory trying out the climbing rope.

Gavin had to try it out too!

A little help from sissy!

Sitting by the "river" watching the rafters!

So cool! I would love to spend the day here!!

Riley loved being in the carrier like a big girl!

Lily found a nice shady spot to rest.

After spending most of the afternoon at the whitewater center, we headed to Ikea to get Gavin's big boy bed. So we had checked the Ikea website to double check if Lily would be allowed inside. It said yes as long as she was in a carrier. However, the sign on the door says "service animals only." So long story short, I ended up going through the maze that is Ikea with 3 children! Gavin felt the need to try every sofa in the store! I thought I was going to go crazy! I located the bed we wanted, took pictures of the tags so we could find it, and got out. Chase went in and got the boxes, we loaded up and headed out! It was a very long day but so much fun!