Raleigh Visit

(from Nov. 24)

Last week, the boys and I flew down to Raleigh to visit Erika and Richie - it had been a while since we had gone to NC and I just wanted to get a way for a weekend.   After a 2.5 hour delay (and the lady behind Ryan getting kicked off the plane for being a crazy nut), we were all happy to arrive and get settled in. 

The first night we just went back to Erika and Richie's and the next morning, we got up early and headed out to the Annual Raleigh Christmas Parade.   Despite Erika's warnings to me to "manage down my expectations, this is not the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade", I was really excited!!  Richie found us a perfect spot and we set up our blankets/chairs and waited for the parade to start. 

 

I think that everyone will agree that the parade was much better than we were expecting.

It was funny though because there were definitely some signs throughout the parade that showed we were not in the north anymore (lots of religious groups, tractors, beauty pageant floats etc).

The highlight for the kids was that many of the floats threw out candy or goodies to the crowd.   My kids were like little beggars despite all of the snacks we brought and while Ryan saved all of his until the end, I am pretty sure Dylan had 3 candy canes in his mouth at one time.

As great as the parade is, the same can not be said of Wendell Wonderland.  We went the night of the parade and I don't really know how to describe it other than a Christmas light show in a field - I had read that it was the biggest Christmas lights show in Raleigh and really, it was just bizarre.   We were there about 3 minutes before the kids wanted to leave and I am pretty sure Erika and Richie would have left before getting out of the car if I said ok.  2 pictures and 15 minutes later, we were out of there. 

Of course, no trip to Raleigh is complete without the stop-off at Marbles and no trip is complete without a small incident:  For those of you going to Marbles, please keep in mind, you are not allowed to bring coffee past the lobby.  (as a side note, if you tell them "I am not throwing my coffee out until you get the guy drinking coffee upstairs to throw his out", they will leave you alone)  Once we were fully-caffeinated, the rest of the day was great.

 

 The kids got a chance to visit all of the rooms and we were even back to the house in time to watch the Jets vs. Rams game, hoping to see a victory (we did!) and to see Mike, Dad and Mom who were at the game (we didnt)

The kids and I even had some fun during halftime.

As always, we had a great time with Erika and Richie and were sad for the trip to be over - amazingly, I didn't cry when we left (I came close) but that was probably due to the fact that our flight was at 6 am and I was exhausted!!  One boy slept the whole way home, the other not at all.

Erika and Richie - can't wait to see you again soon -  We Love You!!!! xoxox