How I Spent My Spring Break

On Sunday, the boys and I drove to Blacksburg and spent the night. On Monday, Owen and I drove to Roseboro, NC to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins.

Henry and Zachary turned 2 earlier this month.

On Wednesday, Owen and I drove to Raleigh, went to a couple of museums and spent the night with Kate and Gus.

We went to the North Carolina Museum of History and the Museum of the Natural Sciences. The history museum had a fun pirate exhibit called Knights of the Black Flag.  At the end of the exhibit was a room with lots of hands-on activites.  There was a pirate ship replica and a crow’s nest for kids to climb on, a video game where you had to try to sink a ship with a cannon.  There was a section with 4 small chests that each contained a different smell that you might encounter on a pirate ship.  They had gunpowder, rum, a brewery and sea air.  There was a little station where you could listen to sea shanties.  They had a place where you could wear pirate costumes.  You get the picture – lots of cool stuff for kids.  The day we were there was a very popular day at the museum as we encountered several school groups.  Owen was playing on the pirate ship when one of the classes posed for a group photo.  They might be a little confused when they look at the photo later and see an extra kid!  Then we went next door to the natural sciences museum and discovered DINOSAURS.

After we explored the museums we drove to Kate’s place in Raleigh.  When she got home from work she gave us a quick driving tour of town and campus, then we stopped to rent a movie for us to watch in the evening (Mamma Mia) and an X Box 360 game for Owen to play.  Then we headed back to her place to make (and eat) dinner.

Yesterday morning we left Raleigh early, when Kate and Gus left for work and school.  We arrived in Blacksburg and picked Nathan up to do a little shopping and have lunch at the Olive Garden.  Later I met Brad for a drink at the Cellar and then went back to Mom and Ray’s when Kat and the girls came over to see us.

Today I got to see more more friends – Laurie and Misha at Mill Mountain, then the boys and I went to University Mall where we stopped at Runabout Sports and Volume II.  At Runabout we “ran” (haha) into 2 more friends – Mike and Cortney.  I miss Blacksburg!  Then we headed over to 5 Guys for lunch.  After that we went to the Blacksburg New School so Owen could say “hi” to his old friends.  We got there during the after school program, so he was able to hang out with them on the playground for a little while.  Our last stop in Blacksburg was at Tanley’s.  She has her learner’s permit now and took us for a quick drive around the neighborhood.  Then we got on the road to Athens.  Our drive was uneventful though tedious as it rained pretty much continuously for the entire 4 hour trip.

It was a good week spent visiting friends and family and it went by way too quickly!   We spent a lot of time in the car but I had checked out 4 audio books from the library before we  left and we finished 3 of them and are part way through the 4th.