North Carolina Weekend

Rapid Rover was due to come for Steph and I between 0600 and 0615. Steph decided to sleep in her own bed and come over in the morning. At 0550 I started to get really worried- I'm the one who is always early for everything. I got her on the phone at 0555, and she was in the next town. She walked in my door at 0559! Rapid Rover got here about 0610, and we were the only passengers. We got to the airport and thru security by 0700, and had time for breakfast sandwiches. The plane boarded at 0800 and left right on time at 0830. As soon as we were in the air, we both went to sleep, and slept for the whole hour long flight. We got in right on time, and met Manda, who got in 5 minutes after us.

Charlotte airport is beautiful, unlike Philly. Lots of nice stores, bright, airy. We went to baggage claims and Heather picked us up shortly. She had Julianna with her. We all piled in the car, and Julie looked around at us and started to cry! It was a few minutes before she relaxed, but wouldn't talk to us.

Our first stop was a bridal shop, where Heather and Steph tried on dresses. The shop worker took a liking to Julie, and dressed her up in a tiara and bracelet. The brideswomen found a dress they liked, and the shop opened a file. Rebecca will try the dress on, and if she likes it, they'll be ordered.

We went off to lunch at O'Somebody's (I forget the name), then headed to Heather and Ed's house. Manda and Steph hadn't seen it before, and were very impressed. Ed barbecued steaks on the grill, and we had a delicious dinner.
After dinner, we sang Happy Birthday to Eddie- I can't believe he's 6! What a doll he is. Pleasant, well behaved, and adorable, all thanks to his parents' hard work. We had strawberry cake, pumpkin pie, and ice cream. Of course we all sat up and talked- lots of wedding talk!

Sunday Eddie and Julie jumped into bed with Manda and me. Steph had wisely slept in Julie's bed, since Julie usually ends up with Ed and Heather. Heather made a huge breakfast for us all, and after everyone showered and dressed, we were given a tour of the yard. Ed has been working very hard in the yard and fields, and it shows.

In the afternoon, the girls and the kids went to a corn maze. Ed worked in the yard, and I napped on the couch.
Ed barbecued again, this time hamburgers, hot dogs and pork chops. He also made his mom's recipe of potato salad, which came out great! More cake and ice cream rounded out the meal.
The kids take mealtime very seriously! After dinner we watched the movie 27 Dresses, which was cute.

Monday Eddie went off to school. and we packed up. We headed out to Concord, where we went to another bridal shop looking for shoes, but the didn't find what they wanted. We went over by the mall, and went to McAlistair's Deli for lunch, then I went in a fabric store conveniently located next door, and the girls went into several shops. From there we headed to the airport. We had some time, so we got cookies and had a final visit before splitting up for our terminals.

The flight back to Philly was the roughest I've been on. Lots of bouncing around, and we had to circle because of backup due to the storm in Philly. We finally landed, and were held on the plane another 15 minutes. Our 7.30 arrival turned into 8.30. There were people on board who had to get a connecting flight to England, they were being paged as we finally got off the plane. They had landed us in the International Terminal, the first I'd ever been there. It's much prettier than the rest of the airport!

Kate picked us up, and we got home about 9.15. Ralph had ordered pizza for us, and it got there right after we did, so we had a late dinner, then Steph and Toast headed home.

It was a short visit, but a really fun one. With Julianna only being two, I feel like we need to visit as often as we can, so she remembers us.

The rest of the week was busy. Tuesday was accupuncture, Wednesday was back to school night, so I had to be at work til 7.30 p.m. Thursday I food shopped on the way home from work, and Friday I had stacks of laundry to do. No sewing, and only about an hour of crocheting.

And the beat goes on!

Holly