Leaving Charlotte

Wow! Where does the time go?
We arrived in Charlotte NC a little bit later than I had planned on Thursday.
We spent Wednesday with Poppa John and Grandma O in Raleigh.
Had a great time with them, even though on this leg of the trip, it was only a one-nighter.
The kids had fun at the pool, swimming. There are new rules for the water slide now.
One is that they open at 12 instead of before, they opened it and turned it on as soon as someone showed up to swim.
Another new rule is that kids can't go down with floaties (arm ones, or wings?) on. They can go down with a vest on, though. Apparently they can be pulled under with the arm floaties, but can't be pulled under with the vest? I don't know.
Anyway, part of the reason we were late to Charlotte was so that the kids could do a couple of times down the slide at noon.
We got into Charlotte on Thursday, around 5. I hit a lot of traffic, and I was not happy about it, but it was a really pretty drive.
I am happy to say that the kids, due to Bailey's vomit incident in NJ, haven't been playing Gameboy in the car. They actually have been looking at the scenery and been playing with each other. It 's been nice.
Don't get crazy now though. They have had their moments.
The last few hours of a leg of the trip seems to be when they start to get louder, punchier, or wahtever, but really, overall, it could ALWAYS be worse!
The weather here in NC so far has been extremely pleasant. Very LOW humidity, and actually cool and slightly cloudy.
It rained a bit on our way in, but I am used to the rain (thank you NH) so it didn't phase me a bit.
My sister, Suzanney, has a house in Charlotte. It is GORGEOUS, as is SHE!
Her and my Momlette and Ed have hosted us for two nights now! I am sure they are ready for some quiet. It was great to see my family. I still have a big hole in my heart, as I miss my daddy so much, but we talked about and laughed and cried about him quite a bit over the last two days. He is sorely missed by all of us.
One thing I am not happy about is the fact that I forgot to bring my camera to Suzanne's house, so I have no pictures to post right now. Uncle Brad thinks we will be able to swing back through Charlotte though on the way home, so I am going to take tons of pix then!

The kids swam in the hotel pool today and had a great time, I think.
We went to Zanney's around 5, and had a great meal and a great time.
Met a ton of people, and am teaching the boys about being southern gentlemen!
Tomorrow we head to Birmingham, AL.
Bailey is SO excited because his state report was on Alabama, so he can't wait to be in the state he did a report on.
Our next stop takes us to Lori T's house. She is actually Lori C and Todd, and we can't wait to see her and Todd and the kids. Ryan and Bailey are 6 days apart in age, and Ethan and Eric are just a couple of months, I think.
Can't wait to be HOT AND SWEATY!

Miss you so much it hurts a little! Boys keep wanting to "blog" you, but we have been getting in too late for that.
Love you dearly.