Adventures in North Carolina

This should probably be titled adventures to North Carolina. This was the first year we did the drive with both kids. That's right, we packed a 3 1/2 year old and nearly 2 year old in the car and told them they were going to be in it for a LONG time. We brought some DVD's and packed plenty of food. They were actually amazing. We left at 6am and didn't stop until 11 for some lunch. Played a little, got some ice cream and we were on our way again. It was at hour 9 that the highway came to a standstill. We were slowly creeping along and took an hour to go probably not even a couple miles. Ouch. From my phone I was able to see that a tractor trailer caught on fire about 9 or so miles ahead of us. With the navigation we were able to see there was a road that parralled the highway. So we got off and were cruising until we hit the traffic of everyone else that had gotten off the highway and were trying to get to the exit past the accident to get back on. Found another back road (now we're really in the back roads of Virginia) and finally got back to the highway...two hours later. So now we're on hour 11 and still have over 3 hours to go. We called it quits. First time ever since doing our yearly vacation there (starting in 2006) that we didn't make it in one day. We found a hotel with a pool, took the kids swimming, ate some dinner and then called it a night. Off again in the morning for the rest of the trip which was luckily uneventful. I wish I had pictures of all the traffic and our travel day but I was too tired to deal with that. We did get to see a lovely sunrise and sunset.

We made it to Aunt Julie and Uncle Mikes. They live on Lake James which is absolutely beautiful. The kids had a blast playing in the water and swimming all over the place.



Their kids are older but they had a few boxes of toys. The boys loved playing with the trains and there was even a big pirate ship that Mason loved!!



Neighbors of theirs have this great little beach area and let us use it while we were there. The kids loved just being able to walk into the water. They even brought us down some sand toys. Such fun!



Here's the gorgeous house we stayed in!