Happy belated birthday to me & our trip to NC

I started this post on Tuesday, but am just now getting around to posting it (Friday). For several days leading up to leaving, I kept telling Bryson that we were going to fly on a plane to visit Sabrina. Friday morning, Shane brought us to the airport and B happily waved good-bye. I let him run around the airport a little in hopes that he would burn off all his energy before boarding. We first sat near the water drinking fountains, so we had to move seats. Then we sat near the snack cart and before I realized it, B had ran off with a bag of peanut M&M's. Right before they began boarding, I pulled out our boarding passes and set them on top of our bag. I turned my head for one second and I guess B thought they were garbage and was off running to throw them away. I tried catching him, but wasn't quick enough so I had to dig them out of the nasty garbage can. I can't tell you how relieved I was to finally board that plane. B did so well on the flight there! I really was amazed. He sat contently in the seat the whole time and occasionally looked out the window. We played with a few toys I brought, he took a 15 minute nap and before we knew it, we had arrived in NC. We just let them play around their house Friday night and once the kids went to bed, we had our late night talks.

Saturday morning, they played on Sabrina's playset and trampoline. That afternoon, we took them to Monkey Joe's which has indoor bounce houses and slides. Sabrina had a ball there, but B was not that interested. He preferred playing the arcade games, mainly the bowling one. We went back to the house and all took a nap. Later that evening we went to the mall to walk around and let them ride on the carousel. As we were walking, a train drove by us. Since they both love trains, we all rode on it. Once we decided to leave the mall, Cam went to get her keys out of her purse and realized they were not in there. She locked them in the car and her husband was out of town. By this time it's 9p and we decided to call a locksmith. After almost 45 minutes of waiting, we call them to find out where they were and they said we will need to call someone else because their guy had been called on an emergency. Our second locksmith arrived after 10p and we finally got back into the car. Despite waiting in the mall parking lot of over an hour, the kids did pretty well. We could do nothing but laugh about it and at least now we have a story to tell.

Sunday we decided to go to Carrowinds, an amusement park in Charlotte. We just stayed in the kids area and rode several of the rides several times, the carousel (Sabrina's favorite) and a cars ride (B's favorite).

Monday morning, I packed and we made the drive back to the airport. We dropped Sabrina off at her aunt's house so she didn't have to make the long drive to/from the airport. The whole drive to the airport, B kept asking where Sabrina was. On the flight back, the novelty wore off and B was much more antsy. He cried a couple times and wanted to sit on my lap for a great deal of the flight. My 31st birthday was also Monday, but it was pretty uneventful as we were in airports and airplane most of the day. I must have caught something on the flight because by that night, I had a cold and felt awful when I woke up Tuesday morning. This is what happens when you have a bored 2 1/2 year old on a plane:

We had such a great visit with Cameron and Sabrina. I can't begin to tell you how well they both played together. Sabrina was so great at sharing her toys. We hate that they live so far away! Cameron said Sabrina has asked where "Dyson" is every morning. She really had a hard time with us leaving.