Carowinds and Lake Norman

Yay for Usborne books! 

The boys and I had a long weekend in Mecklenburg County (Charlotte), NC in July! We left late on Thursday, spent the night at Uncle Brian & Aunt Nancy's house and headed to Carowinds early Friday morning!!

The boys had been watching YouTube videos about all the various rides available! We headed to Camp Snoopy right away!

First ride - the Hot Air Balloon! Wish I planned this better and had them sit facing forward!!

All smiles though - they loved it!

Snoopy vs. Red Baron!

Hands down, their favorite ride at the park!

After a few more rides, it was time to fuel up! (And get some air conditioning time in!)
Brock devoured one whole FOOT long hotdog!

Lunch and a show!

After lunch, we headed over to the water park area and alas, no pictures here - phone was stashed away in a locker. I will note that Brock was even more daring and went on a few tube rides all by himself! Kade tried a few water slides solo, but not such a fun when he was dunked under at the bottom (Don't fret - I was there to pull him right back up!)

We stayed just long enough to properly cool off - one was going one way and one was going the other. Sure, plenty of lifeguards around, but only one of me! Time to change back in to street clothes!

We headed into the "big boy ride" territory as Brock was tall enough to ride a few solo!

He ASKED to ride on that one. Kade needed some stroller time, so I said sure - go ahead! My brave 5 year old!

WHAT?!? I was nervous for him on the ground! He said he only got nervous in the very beginning, but he loved it!

A sugary treat!

Kade was such a trooper for hanging on as long as he did! A few more rides as we made our way around to the exit.

Such an exhausted boy!

Haha - order of operations! At the end of the day, we did the proper measurement. Yup! 48 inches!!

North/South Carolina!

Of course we were also in Charlotte/Huntersville to visit with our fabulous cousin, Maddox!!

Kade's  a little unsure about this sharing with smaller people.

On Saturday, Brian & Nancy took us out on a boat ride on Lake Norman! When I informed Brock where we were going, he asked "Did Uncle Brian forget he had a boat?" Haha not quite Brock - they do the boat lease thing from the marina and they don't have to handle all the hassle of cleaning/maintaining the boat afterwards! ;)

Nice to hang out under the shade!

Even got the big one to fall asleep!

Fun times with the family!

NC Museum of Art Trail

One Saturday in July, I decided to take the boys to the Trail at the NC Art Museum. Brent had taken Moose to a vet appointment which would have left Diesel home alone. I pulled down the driveway and saw Diesel looking out the window at us - nope, that's it - he's coming with us!

He's a bit of a husky, Siberian Husky.... so getting him in and out of the vehicle is no small feat.... but it was worth it! (It was a semi-cool day which was perfect for our 1 mile trek!)

A little culture with a little exercise!

I guess Brock's legs were cool.... he wore his soccer socks!

Maze of doors?

Whatever it was, the boys had fun running around and chasing each other!

At the start/end of the trail was a circular grassy spot - surrounded by a wooden boardwalk. Brock thought it was the coolest racetrack and probably ran around it no less than 4 times!

Diesel and I took a break and watched Brock run the laps and Kade try to keep up.

Brock and Kade being artsy!

What a way to relax Brock!

I'm so proud of Diesel for making it all the way through (with several water breaks). It will be better when the weather cools off and we can do some more walking with him. He's already lost 9 pounds!!

SunFest

 Another Mommy & Brock date! Destination: SunFest at Dorothea Dix Park, Downtown Raleigh - July 14, 2018! All about Sunflowers!! The festival started at 2pm, but obviously the flower fields were open 24/7!

Lots of flowers meant lots of bees! Brock, usually petrified of bees just like his mother, was calmed when I informed him the bees were MUCH too busy with all these flowers to bother him. He felt safe enough to really inspect several flowers (mostly watching the bees work)!

Lots of photographers, professional and amateur, as it was a gorgeous array! I heard the sunflowers were even more amazing earlier in the week. It just hadn't rained in awhile and the flowers were looking a bit parched.

We meandered up to the lawn to check out all the vendors and children's activities. Brock loves cornhole!

Another hot day called for homemade ice cream. He did get a little upset at this time.... I told him homemade strawberry ice cream probably has "chunks" in it - did he listen, nope. He insisted.... and then got angry with his chunks of strawberries. Ahhh... life with preschoolers.

Nevertheless, cool view of Raleigh city skyline!

We walked over to this activity at 1:50PM and was told very authoritatively that the water slide will not open until 2PM. Ummm...okay. (Hence time for ice cream above) When it did open, Brock was able to go down several times with hardly any wait time!

No bathingsuit, no problem!

Home Depot and the Scrap Exchange had really cool activity tents for the kids - painted sun catchers (below) and paper pinwheels (no pictures of those).

Praying Mantis?

Gave me a chuckle...

Super cute and lots to do! We hope they have it again next year!