Trip to North Carolina

Here is the star of the story! Isn't he gorgeous?
We left early Friday morning (4:30 a.m.) so that we could arrive with Carl's family by lunchtime. They left that morning to go pick the kids up from her parents who had been taking care of them. We met at a Chick-Fil-A near their home and had lunch together before heading back to their house (after a trip to BJ's to purchase a gift for Nathan). Then we spent the day playing with the kids, holding the baby and hearing Nathan say about a thousand times, "It's my birthday tomorrow!" It was so funny to watch the kids with their new little brother. They couldn't keep their hands off of him. Daniel especially was funny--just wanting to get in Samuel's face, pat his head and grin.

We started Saturday by taking Nathan out for breakfast--just he, NiNi and Dad-Dad. He chose IHOP and was so excited that he actually got up and got dressed before we were up. This is very unusual for Nathan who typically can't be dragged from bed. He chose the restaurant and announced to everyone he passed that it was his birthday and he was six today. He would put his hand out to show how many fingers represented his age and then would hesitate realizing he had to add a finger from the other hand now! We found that IHOP gives very generous portions and that we had overordered and asked for a box. Nathan had pretty much consumed his meal but insisted on adding his two bites of egg and three bites of pancake to the box with Dad-Dad and NiNi's!

Then it was back to the house to bake Nathan's birthday cake (a tradition with NiNi). Nathan had chosen lemon cake with lemon icing (not sure why he chose that but it was very tasty). Of course most of the fun in baking is getting to lick the bowl which he did with relish. Of course while we were in the grocery store there were balloons on display and when Nathan saw the Spiderman one he begged for it. Happily for him NiNi is a soft touch so we went home with a really cool Spiderman balloon--actually a double balloon, a spiderman inside a clear round balloon spider web. It really was cool--even at that price.
That afternoon we went to the Garner firefighter parade a little fair. Here is a picture of Esther in the bouncy tent. This is just before the bouncy slide right next to us fell over, trapping me between the two attractions. I turned to see Nathan crawling over the plastic towards me. It turns out that he and Alex and several other children were on the top when it went over (because apparently it wasn't being monitored very well). No one was hurt and all Nathan was concerned about was getting back on and finishing his bounce. They later said that it was really cool (tumbling over). Esther was a little traumatized and exited the ride quickly and coming around to me looking pale and a little scared. A few minutes later though she was begging to get on the bouncy slide! We decided this was a good time to have a few hot dogs and collect our wits. Then it was time for the parade--the favorite part of this for the kids was that just about every float had people tossing candy into the crowd. Nathan even got a stuffed cow with a coupon for a free Chick-fil-A sandwich tossed from the Chick-fil-A float.

We enjoyed watching the kids ride their bikes--Nathan just learned to ride without training wheels and was a whiz. We ended the day with dinner at Chili's which was quite an experience with six kids and four adults. We planned to attend church with Carl and the kids in the morning; however, Nathan and Esther both decided to empty their stomachs during the night and we made the decision that it would be better for us all to stay home that morning.

Happily, there were no repeat episodes so we were all able to attend the evening service.

Following the service there was a baptism and William was able to give public testimony of his faith in Christ that night and we were able to witness this. Kimberly's parents also were present for the baptism so it was a special night for William.

Afterwards we all met at Wendy's to celebrate. The end of the weekend was Monday morning. Carl and Bill took Alex and William to McDonald's for breakfast, bringing the rest of us home some. So I had my last visit with Esther and Daniel. Nathan could not be budged from his bed so I had to kiss him good-bye and leave his breakfast on the table. A last snuggle with Samuel and we were off by 10:00 a.m.

We made it home before 5:00 p.m. and were able to have dinner with Dad. We had taken Oliver with us because the kids were anxious to meet him. He made the trip well although on the way down he was very nervous when we made pit stops. The traffic whizzing by was a new phenomenon for him. But when he met the kids he was a happy little fellow. Daniel wanted to play with him and learned that he liked to play with a little stuffed dog we had brought. This is how they played all weekend--Daniel running around with the stuffed dog and Oliver holding on for dear life.