“Go Harvick” Tour

Since we were going to be in the western part of NC for the Taylor Swift concert, Karl very happily decided to go visit a couple of NASCAR shops. Both of the shops are associated with his favorite driver, Kevin Harvick. NASCAR teams have shops where they are working on everything from cars that will race in future races to tweaking pit strategies.

 

First stop was the shop owned by Harvick in Kennersville. This shop houses all the cars that Harvick ‘owns’. The car he races however is owned by someone else, confusing I know.

 

Here is the view of all the garages at Kevin Harvick, Inc.

Love this picture of Harvick as a little boy racind and the tiny jacket.

Observation tower: Reese was throwing one of her 2 year old type tantrums until we walked up here, she LOVED it. After we left, she asked to go back up to watch again; of course, Karl obliged.

The girls posing by one of the trophies Harvick won a couple of months ago. Yes, NASCAR does give some weird trophies.

 

Next stop, RCR museum in Welcome, NC. RCR stands for Richard Childress racing, may mean nothing to the average person, right. He is the owner of the car Harvick drives. But this is the same person that Dale Earnhardt drove for. So the museum has all the cars and trophies from his racing career.

 

Brady stood on the rail at every car, pointed at it and told us to take a picture of her.

This is the car from Kevin Harvick’s biggest win, Daytona 500! I like how there is still confetti all over it.

Here is Reese by her namesake. Yes, she was named after the sponsor of a NASCAR vehicle. This is how obsessed Karl is with NASCAR.

 

Karl really enjoyed this tour with his girls and their excitement starting to peak about the sport.

 

I like the shirt I got at the shops. it says “I wear the firesuit in this family”

Car Time with Preschoolers

I want to know about our nine day trip to NC and VA.

 

Number of hours spent in the car on highways…

 

Day one: 10 hours (Pensacola, FL to Guaffney, SC)

Day two: 5 hours (Guaffney, SC to Raleigh, NC and then to Crabtree for dinner)

Day three: 5 hours (around NC for NASCAR time and concert)

Day four: no highway time this day

Day five: 2 hours (Eno River Festival in Durham)

Day six: 2 hours (Durham Museum)

Day seven: 3.5 hours (Raleigh, NC to Williamsburg, VA)

Day eight: 10 hours (Williamsburg, VA to Winder, GA)

Day nine: 6 hours (Winder, GA to HOME!!!)

 

Add that all up to get almost 44 hours of car time.

 

Guess how many movies were watched during this time….ZERO! But guess how many times I sang “The Wheels on the Bus”….

 

Yep,  I am still balking on the DVD player in the car because I want family vacations to include the bonding during the car. I loved observing the creativity of the girls. At one point they removed their shoes and they become dolls for them, where one shoe was the mom and the other shoe was the kid. Brady would read books to Reese and then they would switch roles.

 

I will say about day six when we first got on the highway, Brady starting kicking and saying “no more highways”! But really they handled it VERY well. I am proud of my entire family for making this trip (and all of our trips) movie free!

 

So for those who want to know, we entertained the kids with:

-CDs

-singing together with no music, kids find this more entertaining than CDs

-Color Wonder markers

-sprial notebook to draw whatever they want

-color books that help the imagination out a little

-lots of children’s books (and a doll or stuffed toy to read to)

-snacks

-naps of course

-discussing what we see outside, like the giant peach water tower, or them helping us look for a hotel

-counting cars or sometimes we would count to 60 (to make minutes pass)

Taylor Swift Concert

So most of you know I recently took a trip to NC and VA. The reason for the trip was to see Taylor Swift in concert. So I will start by detailing the concert for you and then blog about the other details of our awesome trip in later posts.

 

First, I have to thank my mom for getting us SECOND ROW tickets!!! I really think this made a difference for the girls. We had gotten the 34th row when purchasing them from ticketmaster. My mom was able to find GREAT GREAT sits on stubhub three days before the concert. Look how close we were to the stage!

 

For those that don’t really know about Taylor Swift, one of her signature things and shaping her hands like a heart. The girls both know how to do it! Look at this awesome photo spot outside the Greensboro Coliseum.

And then the first time Taylor Swift did it on stage, Brady flashed the hand sign right back at her. Look at the pure joy and admiration on her face!

Then TS walked RIGHT by us to go through the crowd and sing on an auxiliary stage in the back. Here is Brady’s reaction to being a couple feet away from TS. The magic was definitely there for her that night.

Reese ironically watched the jumbotron screens more then the actual singer, but I think this was because it was easier to spot.

While TS sang in the back of the colesium, The front rows say down and all watched the screens, but Brady thought this meant it was time to perform herself. Side note: the tall guy in the background is a NBA player for the New Jersey Nets, Brook Lopez.

There was lots of dancing in the show, but there was one tap number and one ballet dance. This really made it extra special for the girls.

One of my favorite stories is about the guitar player Paul. He spent most of the concert position directly in front of us. I think to pass the time of the concert every night he just enjoys scanning the fans right in front of him, thus we made eye contact with him several times. I think he enjoyed seeing the girls reactions to lots of things. Well, after each song all the guitar players throw their picks into the crowd. The girls got three of them from him. One time he had the bodyguard hand it directly to Reese. Reese felt pretty special. She held onto it for the rest of the concert. Then she would catch his attention, smile and hold it up by her face. Very fun interactions!

 

One of the neatest parts of the concert was in the encore when Taylor got into this floating balcony and drifted over all the fans.

Here is the whole gang after the concert…at 11:20 PM!!!! Yep, the girls stayed awake for the entire show and we all had a BLAST!!!

 

 

A couple of interesting things after the concert:

1. Taylor cancelled a week and half of shows two days after the one we went to, phew that was a close call.

2. Currently in the mail to Taylor Swift is a letter Brady wrote and addressed. She said she was asking Taylor Swift to come and visit us in Pensacola…I will let you know if we get a playdate set up

blogger’s Block

I know you are out there and waiting to see posts about my recent trip to NC. However, every time I sit down to write, I type one sentence and lose my motivation…

 

Please bear with me while I take a blogging break! Check back in a few days, until then enjoy these pictures!

 

 

Seven Year Itch?

I THINK NOT! Well, today marks seven years of being married to my best friend and soul mate. And I can tell you there is not itching to scratch here. We have had a BLAST! I will say I love the fact, that even seven years into a marriage you still learn new things about your spouse.

 

So in honor of our seven years as husband and wife, I want to list my seven favorite memories we have experienced as a couple. (In no particular order)

 

1. Our getaway to Key Largo when we had two babies. Though short, we packed a lot of fun into our time there.
2. On that traveling note, I will have to say our honeymoon to San Francisco was a blast. We did so much in nine days but I still want to go back there to visit again. And yes, Karl has converted me to a Giants fan, so I loved seeing them play three games, two in the stands and one in a kayak!
3. The journey of parenting with Karl has been GREAT! We are on the same page and has thus raised two amazing little girls.
4. Karl’s return from Bahrain the second time. There was a couple months that I was so high on cloud nine that I just couldn’t get my feet grounded. They say deployments create honeymoons all over again.
5. When Karl accepted his current job in the Navy. It was not the best career move for his making Commanding Officer 15 years down the road, but he wanted to balance family and career. I know that may not sound like a lot to some of you, but they discourage this in the military. Karl was told once “Navy comes first, family comes second”
6. One picture stands out in my mind, and it is Karl sucking on a lollipop like he has no cares in the world. Well, he happened to be driving to the hospital to have our first child. I was a nervous wreck and there he was calm cool and collect. Other words, while I don’t sweat the small stuff, Karl keeps me grounded while I DO sweat the big stuff.
7. My favorite memory is the realization every year around this time, that love does get better with time! We may not run around like little love birds holding hands every where we go like we used to, but we love each other so much more and greater than we did 7 years ago!

I love you KSO!

Ten Years Ago…

I called my father from Cambridge, England. As soon as I heard his hello, I knew something was wrong. He spoke as if he was looking as a ghost. He didn’t recognize my voice. Turns out he was waiting for the Fire Chief of Cary, NC to call him back with more information. My family was at the time share in Hilton Head. Everyone was off grocery shopping except my dad when he first got the news. I was actually the second person in my family to know (even though I was across the ocean). Our house was on fire. That was all I heard from my dad for about 12 hours. Devastated to be aboard and not with my family, I struggled to make the most out of my short time there.

 

I learned a lot from that experience. Most importantly, I learned that memories go a lot further than all material things. Not a soul was hurt in the fire, and therefore we considered ourselves lucky!

 

The adjustment in the months to come was interesting. I found myself digging through my closet and then my dirty clothes looking for ‘that’ shirt. Well, I would have to stop and think, was it a shirt that was ‘pre-fire’ or ‘post-fire’.

 

I remembered this 10 year anniversary because of something that happened to me just last week. I was walking down my long hallway in my current house. I kinda did a little skip step and threw my hand up in the air to slap an attic string (you know how they all have the little plastic bell on them, and it you hit it hard enough it clanks on the ceiling). Then I was like, what am I doing, there is no attic string. I thought back, the only house I have lived in that had a hallway attic was my house on Madison Ave. It freaked me out, that after 10 years this behavior emerged. 

 

Here are pictures of the aftermath of the house fire on July 1, 2001…

 

This is the room where the fire started. In this picture you can see the bones of a leather sofa. Also, interesting is these walls were magenta pink…not anymore.

This was my favorite part about the whole fire. This is the wireless phone sitting on top of the microwave. It truly looked like a piece of art.

This is the TV room, it had the good ole wood paneling walls, which I am sure helped fuel the fire. Look at that sofa!

The fire stayed mainly downstairs, but upstairs had smoke and water damage. This is a view of my room.

I was the only one present during this heart wrenching step in the process.

But remember all those things are material. I remember the good days I had there.

Wordless Wednesday: Beauty of Summer

MSP Summer Camp

We are sending Brady to two camps this summer. Karl and I both have fond memories of our summers and the camps we attended so when Brady’s Montessori school offered camps over the summer we jumped on the opportunity.

 

Recently, she attended sewing camp. She completed two very awesome projects. A gold metallic pillow that she has now given to her baby doll and a bracelet which has a button and button hole.