Third Stop - ???

So...during the time that I would be in North Carolina, it was planned that I would got with my mom to see her sister, my Aunt Candy in (Chattanooga, Tennessee). My younger sister, Maria, was going to fly out with her 4 month old to go along also. First, Maria couldn't make it because her baby was sick. Then, the day before we were supposed to leave for TN, Mom was rear-ended and needed some recovery time, so we changed the trip to the following weekend. So after spending time in Benson, I went to Wilmington (as I explained in the last post).

We planned to leave for Tennessee [that following weekend] on Thursday, but I didn't want to drive 2 hours back to Benson, just to switch Jack to another car and drive 8 hours...so I decided to drive the 2 hours to Benson (Mom and Papa's house) Wednesday night. I left after Jack had eaten dinner and had his bath and was dressed for bed, that way he could fall asleep on the drive (which he did), and I could put him down for a good night's sleep before the long drive to TN the next day.

I don't even think it had been an hour after arriving in Benson that I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. I threw up a couple times that night and then spent basically all the next day in bed. My parents and brothers and sister were SO awesome and took care of Jack the whole time I was out of commission. I had been feeling like maybe we shouldn't go to TN, but I wanted to go so bad that I kept ignoring the feeling. But with me getting sick all of a sudden, I knew it was strike three and not just a coincidence. When I finally admitted that "maybe we should cancel the trip" (on Thursday night), I started to feel better. I was still recovering for the most part on Friday, but then Mom suggested we spend Saturday at Busch Gardens since we were all sad about not getting to see Aunt Candy.

It was about a 4 hour drive to get to Busch Gardens, and we had a lot of fun! This is Mom and Carly on the sky lift.


Me and Jack on the sky lift.


I wasn't able to catch it on camera, while we were in line for the sky lift, Jack was SOOOO impressed with the loud, fast and exciting rollercoaster that passed by overhead. Once we got on the sky lift, we told Jack to hold on tight. The sky lift doesn't go fast at all, but getting past the first roller can be a little fast with a downhill slope. When we started that downhill slope, Jack's face was CLASSIC!! It was pure excitement and surprise; eyes wide with eyebrows lifted as high as they could go, with his jaw dropped into the biggest open mouth you've ever seen. We were pretty sure he thought he was riding that really exciting rollercoaster. But then he figured it out and was a little disappointed.


Carly was so awesome to play with Jack in the young kids area!

I couldn't get on with my huge prego belly, but Grandma and Carly rode on this fun ride in the young kids area.

Jack loved the show that the sesame street characters put on (in the background)!

A really slow water ride (I think Jack was really hoping we would let him on the rollercoaster)

After the show, the sesame street characters were available to "meet". He got a little freaked out.

So, kids aren't the only ones who get freaked out by these characters. Getting up close and personal with them kinda wigged me out too - funny, huh? Jack would only get close to them after I was willing to. I also sidled in for a hug with Bert and that's when Jack got the closest...I guess he thought he could handle it if mom could.

Also, this is an official prego picture (definitely not flattering), but here non the less!

Jack was incredible enough to take a nap in the stroller just after this picture was taken. We had fun grabbing a couple treats in "Germany" and then catching a couple shows (the Irish dance show was excellent) before there was an announcement for inclement weather heading our way. We started for the front of the park, but didn't get very far before the downpour hit. We were all drenched through and through except for Jack who sat in the back of the stroller with a bucket of popcorn and a slushie drink...just chillin' the whole way under the canopy and completely dry. It was pretty funny.

We were able to get our flights changed to Monday, so after resting up on Sunday, Jack and I headed out from Raleigh to New York. We had another 7 hour layover, but it wasn't that back because Jack feel asleep for a 2 1/2 hour nap (in the stroller again) right after we got there. Then we spent the rest of the time playing in this little kids play area, finding something to eat for dinner, going for walks in the terminal, and giving Jack a "sort-of" bath in the bathroom before dressing him in pajamas...and of course lots of impromptu potty breaks in between.

After this it was just a 5 hour flight to Salt Lake and we were home! It was so nice to visit with family and have all that fun, but it was also great to be back at home with Britton again...