fun times in Durham

During our trip up to see Taylor Swift, we had a chance to visit with both sides of our family. While in NC, we spent two days in Durham and enjoyed the Eno River Festival and the Durham Museum of Life and Science. Let me just say to all my Raleigh mommies, Durham museum of Life and Science is a must for preschoolers. We could have spent two full days there. We only got to see half of what was out there.

Here we are at the Eno River Festival:

Henna Tattos

Bonding with Uncles

Ice Cream with Kaddie

Arts and crafts

Giant tinker toys

Dip in the Eno River

Now, I love the look this owl is giving you, but let me tell you about this owl. Early this morning Karl heard Reese screaming bloody murder he ran to her room, and she was crying because the owl was getting her. Then during breakfast, out of nowhere she broke into hysterics and told me the owl was getting her toes. This is out of no where, 2 weeks since she has seen this owl!

Durham Museum of Life and Science:

I love my family, and for some reason this picture makes me smile!

Brady has been asking to do this for a while, and she finally is four and got to do it!

Reese asked for her turn, and I told she had to be four. In this picture, she is saying “I’m four”

The butterfly house is awesome especially when you go at the daily butterfly release. They take newly hatched butterflies from a bag and place them on your hand. So when they fly off your hand it is the first time they have ever flown. So fun!!!

Well, it is so fun until they crawl up your neck

We didn’t capture half the awesome fun stuff at this museum, do visit!

 

Some other random tidbits from Raleigh visit:

-Grandma can make some pretty awesome 4th of July outfits. Reese’s dress was one of my favorites ever.

Collecting the confetti at the Taylor Swift concert provided HOURS of fun the next day. I spent the whole time recollecting it so they could throw it down again.

Buddy didn’t seem to be having as much fun as the girls.

Also, Brady got to sew a skirt with Grandma. This was special for her.

Look at her matching skills!

Can’t wait to get back to Raleigh, miss it already

Wordless Wednesday: Shoe-cute and WHOAH how old is he?

“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