2012 Trip Home Part 3: Raleigh, NC & South Boston, VA

We set off from Meepie and Pap's house on a Thursday evening after the babies' bedtime routine.   Again, they slept through the whole ride from the mountains of Virginia to Raleigh, NC (about 5 hours).  Chloe did have a pretty animated conversation with someone/something in her sleep for about 10 to 15 minutes around 1 AM, but other than that we didn't hear a peep out of them.

We had a great time on our visit to Raleigh at Nana and Doodah's house.  Here are some highlights of our visit:

• We had lots of fun with Nana and Doodah and their dogs Wooby and Tux
• We got lots of quality time with Aunt Gigi, yay!
• Chad and I got to go out for a date night to our FAVORITE Italian restaurant anywhere, Casa Carbone.  When we were dating and living in Raleigh we used to live right down the street from this place, and we actually had our third date there long ago.  It was even better than we remembered!
• The babies got to meet their second cousins Hailee, Zach, Cole, and Cearra for the first time and play together!  They also got to see their 2nd cousins Elijah and Clark at the wedding (they had met them before).  I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of all the kids together!  Boo!
• The babies went to their very first Chuck E Cheese birthday party to celebrate their second cousin Hailee's 8th Birthday!
• We attended the beautiful garden wedding of my cousin Hannah, who looked gorgeous.  The wedding was in my uncle's backyard and it was just so pretty!  (Again, why do I not have any pictures of the actual wedding?!?)  I was very busy chasing two toddlers around, so that hampered my photography opportunities.  
• The babies did not make a peep during the ceremony and I was so proud!  We were all holding our breath.  I think we might have let Chloe eat some hay, but whatever works.  

Here are some pictures from our Raleigh visit:

Having fun celebrating Hailee's Birthday at Chuck E Cheese!

These are all the pictures I managed to take at the wedding...toddlers running around.

We got a few family photos:  Nana, Aunt Gigi, The Babies, Me, Wooby & Tux are in these.

On Sunday after the babies' afternoon nap, we decided to drive just an hour and half from Raleigh to visit Chad's Aunt Debbie, Uncle Allen, cousin Meagan, and her husband Tony in South Boston, VA.  We got to spend the afternoon, evening, and the next morning visiting with them before we had to drive back to Raleigh to the airport to come back home to Texas.  Although our visit was short at Debbie and Allen's house, we had a lot of fun!  Here are some of the highlights of our South Boston visit:

• The babies got to meet Debbie, Allen, Meagan, and Tony for the first time!
• They went on their first lawnmower ride on Chad's grandfather's (Papaw) old mower
• We went on a walk around their neighborhood in the evening and saw a lot of trucks and bunny rabbits!
• Debbie made an amazing strawberry dessert and peanut butter cookies after a wonderful spaghetti dinner.  The babies ate until I thought their little bellies would pop!
• It was great to get to spend time with the family!  We weren't able to see them on our visit last year because Debbie had surgery and we were all very sick with a cold by the end of our trip, so we were so glad we could see them this year!  

Here is a collage of our time in South Boston:

Top row: Debbie & Brady, Allen, Chad, & Brady on mower, Meagan & Chloe
Bottom Row: Debbie and Chloe

That was the end of our trip.  The next morning we headed back to Raleigh to the airport and said goodbye to NC and VA once again.  We had so much fun with all of our family and friends on this trip, and we already miss them dearly.