Ty’s Weblog

We’re back safe at home after a wonderful trip to Kate’s parents over the last few days.  It’s about 500 miles each way, but it was worth the effort to get the kids down there.  We had a great time, but it is still nice to be back in our own house again.

We had a wonderful day at Biltmore house today.  The kids both enjoyed the tour, expecially with the teasure hunt that they give for the kids to do.  We were able to make it though the whole house.  Then we had lunch in the Stable Cafe before heading out.  Kate and I went ahead and got the one year pass.  We might come back around Christmas and let the kids see what Biltmore looks like all decorated.

We spent most of the day yesterday in the car making down here to visit Kate’s parents.  It’s a lot longer trip than going to my parents, but the kids still did a great job with it.  We’re having a good time, despite the cold and sore throat I’ve had since Wednesday.  We’ll be staying here till Sunday and leaving Monday morning for the long ride back.  We’re looking forward to having Grandma’s Onion Rings for dinner tonight, which is always a hit with the kids (and with Kate and me).

We started the morning having the fish the kids caught yesterday for breakfast.  Then it was time to pack up and head home.  It was a long day in the car, but the kids did a great job with it.  We’ve all had a great time, but it’s wonderful to be back home again.

Mira turned 5 today.  We had an awesome day at the beach for her party.  In the morning, her uncle took her and her brother and cousins out fishing.  Mira caught a baby shark!  Xander caught a bluefish!  We spent the rest of the morning playing out in the sound.  Then we came in and had lunch and had some time indoors to rest up and get out of the sun for a while.  In the afternoon we had one last marathon session out in the sound.  Then for we had a birthday dinner made up of boiled shrimp, corn on the cob, baked beans, and bean dip.  Then we had birthday cake and Mira opened the presents from this half of the family.

Mira had a wonderful birthday, and so Kate and I had a wonderful day too!  Mira got to have her “birthday at the beach, with my cousins, and shrimp” that she’d been asking for since February.  It was a wonderful day that will be long remembered!

We had a wonderful time with Kate’s parents.  We all met up (that’s Kate and me, her parents, and my parents with the kids) around noon and all went out for lunch together, which was a lot of fun.  My parents headed back to Clinton after that.  Then we spent the rest of the afternoon with Kate’s parents.  We took the kids out to a park till the weather starting threatning rain.  Then we spent some time in a Barnes & Noble and got some nice haul of new books for all of us to read.  We then had dinner at Rockfish Grill, which was excellent.  We got the kids in bed and I stayed with them while Kate had some extra time with her parents.

We met up again Sunday morning and had a light breakfast.  Then we hung out in the rooms and visited till around 11am.  We went out for lunch at Red Robin and then went out seperate ways.

It was great to get both sides of the family in one place.  The kids thought it was amazing!  We all had a great time.

We headed back to Clinton yesterday afternoon and the four of us will be heading to the beach this afternoon to spend the week there.  Various family will drop by, but it’ll be fun to have some time there by ourselves as well.  We’ve not done that very often, since we usually are trying so hard to spend a lot of time visiting.  We’re looking forward to a fun week.

Kate and I made our way down to the Triangle area today.  We are going to be meeting the kids here tomorrow and seeing Kate’s parents for the weekend.  Then we’ll head back to Clinton and then the beach.  We had a leisurly day getting ready to go.  We weren’t in a hurry, so we just took our time.  We went out for a nice lunch and ran some errands before getting home and packing up.  We ran into a lot of traffic on the way down, since we left too near rush hour, but we still had a great time together.  We got in a little after 10pm.

My brother and his wife were celebrating their 25th anniversary this weekend.  They were having a pig picking at the beach.  We loaded up on Friday and headed down for the party on Saturday.  We had a great time.  The food was excellent!  We had a great time playing in the water with all the kids that were there, and hanging out and talking with all the friends and family.  It was a truly wonderful time.  This afternoon, Kate and I packed up and headed back home.  The kids are going to spend the week down at my parents, and we’ll head back down to get them this weekend.  We talked to the kids a little bit ago, and they sound like they are having a great time!

So the kids had one last day out of school today for Spring Break, so I went ahead and took the day off from work.  We didn’t do anything particularly special, we just enjoyed having another day together.  We got the Dancing With The Stars from last week watched, and Xander and I spent some time playing Super Mario Galaxy while Mira watched.  We just had a great time being together and playing before things get back to normal again tomorrow.  It was a vacation day well spent.

We just walked in from picking up Xander from my parents. He seems to have had a great time. Such a great time that he slept half the way home! I’m glad he had so much fun, but I’m even happier to have him back home with us again.

So I took Xander down to our meet point with my parents today to drop him off with them.  They called a few minutes ago (and I just walked in the door) to say they had made it back to Clinton and Xander is already out riding the go-cart.  He’ll be there for most of the week.  Mira has been sick the past few days, and elected to stay home with us, since she still wasn’t feeling well.  I’m proud of both of them, actually.  Xander, for being able to go on a trip like this all by himself, and Mira for being able to decide to not go on it even though it meant a week without her brother.

We just got home from a trip to my parents.  We were there celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary.  The whole family was there, of course.  We’d (heading up by one of my sisters) organized a big party for them on Saturday, which went great!  There were lots of extended family and friends there and Mom and Dad seems to really enjoy themselves.  We had a wonderful time setting it up and enjoying the part ourselves.  We also had a wonderful time seeing all the family and seeing all the kids playing together.  It’s been a long couple of days, but it was all worth it.

We went and met my parents in Colonial Heights today to pick the kids up.  They’d had a great time visiting, but were happy to see us as well.  We all ate lunch together and then went our separate ways.  It’s great having them back home.  I’m glad they had fun, but I still like having them back home with us again.

Kate and I got home yesterday from visiting my family.  We went down on Wednesday last week to Clinton.  Then we went to the beach on Thursday and stayed there till Saturday night.  Xander and Mira had a great time playing in the water and riding the boat.  Joey even taught Xander how to fish!  He caught 9 fish Friday evening from the end of the pier and 6 more Saturday morning.  He had a great time doing it!  We were back in Clinton on Sunday and Xander got to ride the go-cart some more (he’d ridden it some on Wednesday also).  Mira had a great time playing with the dogs.

Monday Kate and I left to go to Durham for a couple of days and we got back home last night.  The kids are with my parents for a few more days and we’ll go pick them up this weekend, most likely.  All reports are that they are having a great time down there without us as well.

Home again!  It was a rainy day today, so our activities got moved inside.  We learned about birds and how to use a compass, then the kids got to pain the animal tracks they made on Wednesday.  Then they started up “Shrek 2″ in one room for the kids to watch and had board games and had board games and ping pong in another.  Xander has developed an interest in Chess on this trip, so we played that.  We had lunch around noon.  Then back for more games and movie till the bus arrived.  It got there around 1pm and we were pulling out at 1:15pm.

We made it back to school around 2:40pm.  We’ve had a great time, but it is still nice to finally be home again.  Xander and I are both very tired.  We should sleep well again tonight!