This Could Mean Trouble

We've been having a lot of fun celebrating Christmas and the New Year at Gram and Gramps house and those posts are coming soon.  However, we have to interrupt our regularly scheduled holiday posting for a bit of a mystery.

The mystery began one afternoon when Ian and I had gone out shopping and Gram and Gramps were staying home with the boys.  Ben was up sleeping in his room and Evan was relaxing in the recliner watching a movie.  Sounds like a pretty typical naptime routine.  However, this is where it gets weird.  Evan looked at Gram and said that he was really sleepy.  He said he needed to go up to his bed and take a nap.  This never happens!

So, Gram and Gramps obliged and took him upstairs, tucked him in bed, and left the room.  Soon after, Gram heard Benny fussing, so she popped in his room and settled him.  While she was upstairs, she decided to check on Evan.  She peeked in his room and he was gone!  Needless to say, Gram was concerned and spent the next few minutes searching in every nook and cranny upstairs because she knew he couldn't open the gate to get downstairs.  Evan was nowhere to be found!

Gram was getting very nervous.  Where could Evan be?  Then, she thought about the only place she hadn't checked, Ben's room.  She went in there, and sure enough he was hiding behind the bed.  Evan immediately burst into hysterics because he knew he'd been caught.  Once he calmed down he admitted to hiding behind the curtains and the bed when Gram came in to settle Ben.

We still have no idea why he went in there in the first place.  This was the first time he had really ever left his bed while he was supposed to be sleeping without calling to us first.  And why did he want to go upstairs and take a nap in the first place?  The mystery doesn't end there.  That night, when Evan got ready for bed he was no longer wearing his underwear.  We couldn't find them anywhere and Evan didn't know where they were.  Sure enough when Ian looked in Benny's room behind the curtain, there they were!

Who knows what Evan was thinking!  However, it leads me to believe that 3.5 years old will be a very interesting age.  We're waiting to see what he does next!

(Evan shows off the "big boy pants" in TN several days before he hides them behind the curtain.)

Another View of Tennessee

So, in my transition to my new fancy blue camera (yay), I neglected to pull off the last few pictures.  Thankfully, I have found them, and here are some more wonderful pictures from Tennessee for your viewing pleasure!

(Jack plays with his buddy Uncle Ian.)

(another great picture of boys in a box)

(Are Evan and Great-Grandma watching Tom and Jerry or Judge Judy?)

(Evan the hairdresser styles Great-Grandma Rose's hair...beautiful!)

(Great-Grandma Rose and her boys--Love this one!)

Christmas-Heatherly Style

This Christmas season we were lucky enough to get to visit both sides of the family.  So, our first stop was about 10 hours down the road at Great-Grandma Rose's house in Jackson, TN.   Our alarm went off at 5am and we piled the kids in the car as quickly as we could.  This way, they would sleep for the first couple hours of the drive, or at least this was the intent.  While Benny quickly passed out, Evan was awake for about an hour and a half before he finally went to sleep.  Oh well, the rest of the drive through the mountains and then plains of NC and TN went smoothly.  We made record time-arriving in Jackson at around 2:30 that afternoon with fairly cheerful boys.

After the uneventful drive we got to spend a wonderful few days enjoying our family.  It had been several years since Ian had been able to get out to TN to visit Grandma Rose and almost a year since the boys and I had been, so we were all glad to get back.  The Mhire Family was there, so the boys were definitely glad to see their cousin Jack again so soon.  They were also really looking forward to seeing their Grandma and Grandpa again, Ben had been saying Grandpa over and over again for the few days before we arrived and once he saw him he didn't want to let go. 

The boys had a wonderful time at their Great-Grandma Rose's just as I have had my whole life.  I always so looked forward to vacations at 49 Bayberry Drive and have so many wonderful memories there.  It was so nice to see my boys making the same happy memories-memories of dumping out hundreds of Grandma's old keys over and over again, memories of hugging the Santa Claus that has always sat in Grandma's house every Christmas, memories of watching Tom and Jerry on Great-Grandma's lap, memories of styling Great-Grandma's house as she sits on the floor, and so many more. 

We also celebrated Christmas with this side of the family while we were there.  The tree was stocked with presents which we all happily investigated.  The boys thoroughly enjoyed all of their goodies from The Mhires as well as Great-Grandma.  We also had a great time, as always, digging out of Great-Grandma's boxes of goodies.  She always has one for the boys and the girls.  The highlights were two "lovely" wrap shirts that Audra and I selected and modeled (we're not quite fashion models yet) and a light up remote control car for Ian.  Great-Grandma is always far too generous and I absolutely loved the handkerchiefs from when she was younger (one that she received at a shower and one that belonged to her mother) as well as several beautiful necklaces that she had made herself.  The boys were completely spoiled with goodies every step of the way with books and bath toys.  However, the best part, as always was just getting to play and have a good time with family.

Of course, we ate well too!  The famous Bitler tins of goodies had made an appearance again filled with cookies, crackers, fudge, and homemade candy bars of all descriptions.  The cheese logs came out for snacks, and we feasted on waffles, noodles, roast, ham, corn casserole, jello, and much more.  Needless to say, I never need to eat again!

Oh, but don't worry the eating didn't stop there, we also were lucky enough to visit the Heatherly household and visit Aunt Beth and Uncle Roy.  They were gracious hosts, let us stay at their house one night, and fed us with homemade lasagna accompanied by many delicious goodies.  Their house was beautiful and the whole night was lovely.  However, I have to say that the highlight was when Uncle Babe (Roy) tried on some boxers over his pants, and Evan just had to follow suit and put his briefs on over his jeans.  They were both quite stylish. 

Family is so important, and I feel so lucky that our family and my boys are surrounded by such wonderful family on all sides.  They felt so loved while they were in TN and came home feeling the same love that I felt for Grandma Rose and the house on Bayberry Dr.  I already miss my family, and I can't wait until the next time we get to see them.

What a great holiday...and just wait until next time with more tales from the Davis family holiday 2011!

 (One of many delicious family meals)

 (Grandma and Evan enjoy some breakfast goodies.)

 (Great-Grandma and Evan have a deep conversation during an episode of Tom and Jerry.)

 (Present time...)

 (Yum, chocolate...)

 (...please don't touch Great-Grandma's couch...)

 

 (The best present is always the box!)

(Tommy, Audra, and I model our stylish items from the goody boxes with Grandma Rose.)

Merry Christmas!

We've been so busy having such wonderful holiday adventures with all of our family, and we can't wait to share all of them with you.  However, it's Christmas Eve and getting late, and the boys will be up early.  So, we'll just leave you with this little holiday greeting:

 Merry...

Christmas!

Three and a Half

Sometime during this busy holiday season my big boy Evan turned three and a half.  I can't believe it! The next milestone that we celebrate will be his fourth birthday.  I don't think I'm ready for him to be that old.

This 3.5 year old is definitely a little boy now, and as with almost every little boy, he now has a special affinity for anything relating to the potty.  Apparently him and his little preschool buddies love to talk about all things "poopy".  We've had to institute new rules at home banning certain words around the house.  However, you'll still catch him whispering these illicit phrases to Ben whenever he thinks that mom isn't looking.  Sigh, I suppose it will only get worse as he gets older.

Evan the 3.5 year old is also one of the most verbal kids I've ever met!  He is frequently telling me things like, "mom, you are a delicate flower about skydiving" or "I'm a one man show", or "it's a party in my nostrils".  I never know what's going to come out of his mouth next.  He also loves writing his name and getting my help to write other things like the new sign on his door that says, "Be nice or leave!".

Evan the 3.5 year old also loves to read.  Now that his brother has also developed a love of books I'll frequently catch them fighting over some book or another.  He also has the most amazing attention span.  He would listen to story time for hours if someone would read to him.  His favorite during this time of year is "The Grinch who Stole Christmas".  He can sound out and read a few words on his own.  He knows some sight words like his name and his brother's name, and he can sound out little short vowel words like "cat" and "snap".  Even though I'm a teacher, it amazing to watch my own kid as he starts to read little books.

Evan the 3.5 year old has never been a real physical kid.  However, now he's beginning to figure out how fun getting out there and moving can be.  He's finally started to run up to the top of the play structure and slide down the slide on his own with no hesitation.  He's started to enjoy wrestling with his friends and daddy as well as jumping on the bed and onto or off of a variety of furniture.  He races around the cul-de-sac on his Strider bike and is beginning to get good at his pedal bike.  While he still needs the occasional push, he's getting to the point where I'm thinking knee and elbow pads might be a good idea.

This 3.5 year old goes to preschool three days a week and played on the soccer team in the fall.  Now, when I saw "played soccer" I really meant stood on the field and rolled around with his friends.  But he had a good experience, which is all that counts.  We're still trying to figure out what sport he might like to try this spring, maybe gymnastics?  I can't wait until he's old enough to try his hand at tennis, and he can't wait until he can learn to play the guitar.

Evan is a wonderful, wonderful little boy and I definitely couldn't imagine life without him.  We can't wait to see what he thinks of next!

Santa! Santa! Santa!

Although we had already visited the Santa Train and spoken a few words with Mr. Claus, we hadn't had enough of Ol' Santa.  I asked Evan if he wanted to go see him at the mall and he said yes.  Ben had been pointing him out in books, on the Christmas tree, and in people's yards and saying, "Santa", so I figured he might be up for it.  We dressed the boys in their Christmas finery and headed over to the mall.

We had tried to go the previous weekend and worn the nice clothes again then.  However, the line must have circled Santa and his tree several times so we decided to pass and have lunch instead.  The lovely Christmas shirts paid the price, wearing pizza and crayon by the end of the lunch.  Lucky for us, Spray and Wash works wonders and the shirts were ready to go again by later in the week.  Ian, however, was not.  He said he was totally fine with us heading over without him while he was at work...thanks Ian.

We arrived at the mall and saw the small line.  I was cautiously optimistic.  Although I knew that Evan had gone into a hysterical fit when he saw Santa at Ben's age, I was hoping that Ben's enthusiasm about seeing Santa would extend to meeting him.  We waited in line and the boys happily watched Santa interact with the other kids. 

We got close to the front and Evan kept trying to inch past the elves and get to Santa a little early.  Meanwhile, Ben asked to be picked up, started to keep a little firmer grip on my arms, and started repeating "no".  This was not going in a good direction. 

It was our turn with Santa and Evan got up next to him and started having a conversation.  Ben on the other hand started throwing a complete fit and clinging to me.  Unlike Evan at that age, I couldn't even pry him off of me to get the traditional kid-screaming-with-Santa picture.  Once he was back out of Santa's reach, he dried his eyes and started pointing at him and saying "Santa" again.  At least there were no hard feelings. 

Guess will try again next year.  Until then, we'll have to settle for pictures with the plastic reindeer...

 (Evan meets Santa)

(Brothers at Christmas)

Oh, Christmas Tree...

So, once the Christmas season began one of the first things we had to do was get a Christmas tree and decorate the house.  We headed down one evening to the Christmas tree lot.  It was fun because Evan had some opinion in picking out the best tree.  (Actually, he liked every one that he saw, but that was his opinion.)  Finally, we found one that mom and dad approved of as well, and kept Benny from running out in the road, so our quest was success.

We brought the tree home, put it in the living room and commenced with the decorating.  It went something like this-Ian puts the lights and tinsel on the tree, I get out and unwrap the ornaments and decorations, Evan starts putting the ornaments on the tree, Ben takes the ornaments off the tree.  Needless to say it was not a quick process.  However, both of the boys had a lot of fun examining each of the ornaments as they came out of the boxes.

Now the tree happily sits in our living room fully decorated.  The boys love looking at it and playing around it. Lucky for us, all of the breakable ornaments are strategically placed on the upper portion of the tree.  Quite a few ornaments typically surround the tree on the carpet because Benny likes to examine the bottom of the tree.

Just today, the first presents were put under the tree, brought home from preschool-from Evan to mom and dad.  Now, our festive tree is complete, and I can't wait for more holiday fun!

(I can't seem to find my Christmas tree pictures, so everyone will have to settle for this little bit of holiday cheer...)

(Santa Ben says "Merry Christmas"...this is how he chooses to wear his Santa hat.)

Santa Train 2011

One of our new holiday traditions last year was to kick off the holiday season by riding the Santa Train at the Museum of Life and Science which includes a visit with St. Nick himself.  We were excited to go this year because Ben would really be old enough to pay attention to Santa and Evan is really getting enthused about all things Christmas.  It didn't disappoint, a good time was had by all.

We headed over after dinner and met Ian on his way home from work.  We walked in through rows of Christmas lights as holiday music was being piped in around us.  The boys were a little extra excited just because of the sheer fact that they were in the museum at night, a new and different experience.  We hopped in line for the train and met our friends Amy, Gary, and baby Gary.

The train, covered in twinkling lights pulled up and we hopped on.  It was a simple several minute drive through the woods and we arrived at where Santa, Mrs. Claus, and his elf had parked the sleigh.  We sat in the train while they came to us for a visit.  Evan immediately had that excited Evan look that he gets on his face where he gets very still and just watches everything.  You could tell he felt like he was meeting a celebrity, and he couldn't really come up with anything he wanted for Christmas but said had been a good boy.  Benny wanted to climb out of the sleigh at times, but he also seemed to be in awe of Santa, not scared at all.

On the way back to the depot we watched for Rudolph's red nose in the woods and yelled in the tunnel as we went through.  It was a lovely train ride.  Afterward, we all enjoyed some hot chocolate complete with marshmallows and chocolate chips, yum!  Evan didn't want to do any of the crafts or face painting.  I was determined that someone would try it out though, so Ben got a little red reindeer dot on his nose which he promptly rubbed off.  Finally, the boys were given candy canes and we headed to the car.

The holiday season has begun and we're all ready for it!

(Evan and the lights)

(Benny and the lights)

(Choo-choo...the train!)

 (Our friends Gary, Amy, and Baby Gary)

(Our happy little family)

Jingle Bells

After the marathon, I took about two weeks off of running.  Amazingly enough, when I finally got out to run over Thanksgiving, it was so nice to just get out there and run.  I've discovered that I really enjoy running, especially when it's not for multiple hours. 

What makes running even better is being able to run with your friends and family.  So, I was thrilled when I got to go out to the Jingle Bell Run 5K last weekend and not only run another race with my marathon buddy Bob but bring in his wife Liz for her first 5K, Ian who's long term foot injury was finally feeling better, and the boys who don't mind sitting in a jogging stroller if it's not for too long.  The weather was beautiful, it was for a good cause, and everyone was wearing jingle bells....what could be better! :)

Everyone did very well and ran the whole way, the boys loved being a part of the race, and I managed to push that silly double jogging stroller the whole way.  I remember several years ago in Seattle, Bob, Liz, Ian, and I raced in the Pineapple Classic where we had to carry a pineapple through an obstacle race.  It's great to have the running team back together with a few new additions!  Next stop, the Krispy Kreme 5 Mile Challenge...

Fun with Grandma and Grandpa

After our fun in Dallas we weren't ready for our Texas fun to end.  So, we hugged our Dallas family and Ian (who had to go back to work) goodbye and headed down to Boerne to spend some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa.

On our way down we were lucky enough to meet up with my friend KC from high school and her lovely family.  It was great because we had never met her kids before.  It just goes to show that some friendships stand the test of time.  Our kids got along great, and it made me wish we lived closer.

When we got to Boerne and settled in at Grandma and Grandpa's beautiful house in the hills we had some time to relax and spend time together.  It was lovely.  We played with some of my favorite old toys, read stories, explored the great outdoors, and ate some great food.  We also visited the Boerne library where mom volunteers and ate some delicious Tex-Mex which is a must when you head down to San Antonio.  The boys loved their chips, and freshly-made tortillas, and of course, I loved everything, especially the margaritas.

On our last day we were lucky enough to get to see more family.  We were able to eat lunch with Papa and Marianne who live just down the road.  It's such a happy coincidence that my parents live so close to Ian's grandparents.  The boys had a great time seeing them, and it was so nice that we could all get together.

It was a great trip, and I'm so glad that we were able to spend the time with our family.  Evan said that he wanted to stay there for twenty and a hundred and ninety nine years.  We can't wait to see our family again at Christmas!

 (A delicious BBQ lunch with KC and family)

 (Evan samples a little Tex Mex.)

(Ben digs in!)

Ice, Ice Baby

On the last day of the Dallas portion of our Thanksgiving vacation, we decided to venture out for a little family adventure.  We headed to the Gaylord Texan hotel which was built by the same people as the Opryland.  The hotel itself was huge and there was so much to look at with waterfalls, model trains, and Christmas decorations.  But we did not come just for the hotel.  They had an exhibit in the hotel that was absolutely wonderful.  We went to see Shrek in Ice, not Shrek on Ice.  The exhibit actually takes about 40 Chinese ice carving experts and brings them to Texas to carve the entire world of Shrek in the hotel.  They color the ice and create sculptures that look exactly like the characters as well as the backdrop and even structures like slides.

In order to enter the exhibit you have to put on one of their blue winter coats because they keep the exhibit at about 3 degrees...brrr!  Everyone else in the family patiently waited to put on their coats and head in, but Benny wasn't so sure about everything.  He doesn't like standing in lines, crowds, or feeling confined so he was not so into it.  However, we forged on and hoped that he would perk up once we got inside.  On the other hand, Evan was thrilled with everything.  When he gets really excited about something, he gets really quiet.  He doesn't say anything and he just stares.  We've seen a similar reaction several times-when he actually got to ride on Thomas the Train and when he got to ride the subway and the light rail.  Grandpa was worried that he wasn't having any fun, but I reassured him that the silent stares meant that he was just soaking it all in and having a ball.

When we actually went in, it was awesome.  We saw Shrek and all of the other characters, Evan and Jack rode down the ice slide (Benny refused), we were almost eaten by an ice dragon, and sat in an ice outhouse.  It was on such a large scale, but the detail was amazing as well.  So much fun to see!  Plus, we got to top it all off with some hot chocolate at the end to warm us up.  It was another great Bitler family adventure to finish a fabulous week.  We miss everyone already!

 (A view of one of the ice rooms complete with ice Shrek, ice walls, staircase, and slide)

 (Grandpa, Evan, and Ian in front of a large ice ogre)

 (Our family enjoys the ice scenes-or at least Ben isn't screaming at the moment.)

(Oh no, we're about to get eaten by an ice dragon!)

 (Our family discusses the mice-don't know why, but I really like this picture.)

 (The ice Shrek family)

Thanksgiving in the Lone Star State

After our eventful plane journey, we arrived in Dallas for our Thanksgiving vacation.  It was great to finally arrive and get to finally see the Mhire's new house.  It is beautiful, it had plenty of space for toddlers to run around and grown ups to try to get some sleep, and we knew it would be the perfect place to spend a great family Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was spent relaxing, watching some sports on TV and whatever trashy reality shows Audra and I could turn up, eating delicious munchies and meals, and watching the boys play with each other.  Mom had made our traditional stash of Bitler family tins filled with all sorts of delicious munchies.  Immediately after I got there I think I had done in several of the famous chocolate chip cookies and an entire cheese log.

The dinner itself was delicious.  We had traditional turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, mashed sweet potato with bacon and blue cheese, dad's onions, homemade noodles, and crescent rolls!  Yum!  This year, I think I had thirds or fourths of the sweet potatoes.  We gave the boys a little of everything to try, but I have to say that their favorite was definitely the noodles.  I think Benny had sevenths, a man after my own heart.  Oh, and lets definitely not forget the four pies waiting for us at the end of the meal: pecan, pumpkin, chocolate pecan, and peanut butter.

The boys had a fantastic time playing with each other.  From the minute we got off the plane, it just continually  warmed my heart to see all three boys crowded around some toy or random interesting sight playing together.  I can't wait to see what these cousins do as they get older.  While there were a few squabbles over toys, there were also lots of laughs and hugs.  Evan tried to boss everyone around, Jack held his own and wouldn't be pushed around, and Ben just blustered straight through everything doing whatever he wanted to.

It was a great trip and it absolutely flew by.  At the end of our trip we had a great adventure that left us a little chilly, but I will save that for another post...

Happy Thanksgiving!

(Yum...)

(Yum...)

(...Yummy!)

(The whole family enjoys the feast!)

(Oh yeah, and there was pie...)

(...lots...)

(...and lots of pie!)

(Grandpa does a bit of weightlifting.)

(Grandma prefers to relax with the boys!)

Adventures in Flying with Toddlers

So, this Thanksgiving we were lucky enough to be able to fly down to Texas to visit my family and stay at my sister Audra's house in Dallas.  Evan had been talking about flying on an airplane to get to Texas for several weeks and kept asking us if it was time to go to the airport yet.  Finally, that time arrived.  Unfortunately, the boys were feeling a bit under the weather with pretty bad colds.  In fact, all of the congestion had been making Evan throw up for the past several days, so we were a bit wary about the whole thing.

When Ian got home from work, we headed to the airport.  First, Ian dropped us off-two kids, a stroller, two suitcases, and two car seats-at the airport so that we wouldn't have to haul all the luggage on the shuttle.  I hobbled very slowly over to the check-in counter and got everything checked in.  When Ian arrived, we put all our liquids in a clear bag, took off our shoes, and got ready to go through security.  It was nice, they saw us coming and ushered us into a less crowded line.  Boys did great going through security and we headed on our way.  We ate dinner at a fast food area and headed down to catch our plane.  Too easy, right?

Evan had a ball on the moving walkways getting down to our gate.  I went up to the counter and was trying to gate check my stroller as they started boarding when I heard my phone ring.  I answered it and it was US Airways calling to tell me that our second flight that day was cancelled due to mechanical issues.  I couldn't believe it!  So, I turned to the gate agent and asked what on earth we should do.  She set about finding us another way to get there, and while she was working the boarding of the plane continued until finally they shut the doors of the airplane and it left with us still sitting at the counter in the terminal.  At this point I was beginning to panic, and Evan was getting a bit disappointed when he began to figure out that we might not be getting on a flight after all.

Finally, the woman at the ticket counter rebooked us on a flight out at 6am the next morning on another airline.  That sounded great.  However, our car seats were happily on their way to Charlotte, so we had no way to get the kids home.  We had to head down to baggage and pick up two car seats from them to use.  As we were walking down the almost empty terminal on our way to get our loaner car seats, Evan was just bolting ahead of us onto the moving walkways, having a great time.  Then, he would occasionally stop, turn around to us with a certain look on his face.  We would have to run up and put him over the trash can so that he could throw up.  Poor baby!  Then he would continue running on down the terminal.  Sigh.  Ian and I just had to laugh at the situation by that point.

We got home, put the boys down late, and got a little sleep.  However, we were not feeling rested when the alarm went off at 3am for us to wake up and get to the airport for our next flight.  Even though we kept the boys in their PJ's, they were wide awake and ready to go at 3.  We made it to the airport for Thanksgiving take 2, and this time it went more smoothly, but needless to say we were ready to drop when we finally arrived in Texas.

We were so glad to make it and glad we had a much more relaxing Thanksgiving, but that's a tale for another day...

Friends from Afar

This summer, we unfortunately had several of our good friends move away.  One of the families that we miss terribly is the Burt Family.  We met them when we all started our little boys playgroup when Evan and his buddies were less than a year old.  The boys, Carson and Evan, and their families became great friends.  Then, last summer, they moved had to Yosemite in California all the way across the country.

It hasn't been the same without them, so we were thrilled when the family came back last week for a little visit.  We all got together for a dinner at our friends the Offenbaker's house, and it was like times hadn't changed.  We almost couldn't believe that they had to go back to California.  Evan enjoyed hanging out with his old friend Carson and his buddies Nathaniel, Quinn, and Jonas.  Benny enjoyed rekindling his romance with his first love, Carson's little sister Amelia, and the adults certainly enjoyed getting a chance to talk to each other.

Just goes to show that friends are friends no matter how far away they are!  We can't wait until we get a chance to see them all again.

 (The boys play with their buddy Carson.)

(Everyone does a little car racing.)

 (Little drummer boys)

(All of the kids (including Brian) enjoy a little pizza dinner.)

More from the Outer Banks

We're not quite ready to leave our tales of the Outer Banks quite yet.  While I've told you about the actual marathon and our adventures in the sand the day before, we still have a few more cute pictures (as always) to share.

After the big race we all headed back to our house to have a little rest and clean up.  However, once Benny woke up from his nap Bob and I's legs actually felt like they could  move again, so we decided to head out and enjoy the Outer Banks while we had the chance.  This time, we wanted to check out a lighthouse.  After all, what it a visit to the Outer Banks without a stop at a lighthouse.  So, we headed down to Bodie Island lighthouse just down the road.  Unfortunately it was closed and the air around it was somehow filled with little mosquitoes or flies, so we didn't stay long.  Regardless, the boys really did like seeing it and running around at the base.  After that we had a great dinner at a local seafood place and headed home for the wine, ice cream, and sleep that was waiting for us there.

The next day, we unfortunately had to go home.  However, before we did, we had one last stop to make.  Since we have a membership to the zoo, it also gives us access to all of the NC aquariums, and there was one about a miles away from our little house where we were staying.  Bob and Liz headed on home and we headed on over to see some fishies!  The place was pretty deserted so it was nice to basically have it to ourselves.  Evan loved the room where he could "rescue" some plastic turtles, fix their wounds, and return them to the ocean.  Ian's favorite was definitely the huge shark in the floor to ceiling aquarium complete with scuba divers answering audience questions.  Benny, of course, liked the turtles as well as frogs.  I have to say my favorite was the huge green moray eel that we saw peeking out of a log.  We had a great time, and it was the perfect way to finish a wonderful weekend!

 1. Evan and Ben watch some fish

 2. Oh wait, here are the real fish

 3. Evan watches the turtles

 4. Turtle riding

5. This is fun!