for the past few months, we'd been toying with the idea of doing a quick trip up to the western part of the state. my dear friend patrice was organizing a 5K to benefit the eb research foundation dEBra and i wasn't sure if we were going to be able to make it up there.
but as we got closer to the date and patrice got "fired up" about the event following the deaths of two more eb sweeties...i sent justin a link to one of her posts and wrote, "i think we need to be there." so we pulled it all together and made our travel plans and off we went. we drove up on thursday night to the river house that my great-uncle and aunt have by the watauga river near todd, nc. we've stayed here several times and love it--so so grateful that they let us stay there. we took it easy on friday, as davis and i were both coming down with a nasty cold. we enjoyed exploring the house...
playing in the yard (where davis LOVED flopping over into the long grasses and having me worried about snakes and spiders)
and eventually meeting up with pete and mary at a restaurant for lunch. it was graduation day at appalachian, so we had plenty of people-watching to do with students moving out of the dorms and lots of families in town for graduation.
after lunch, we headed to the park in downtown blowing rock, where davis played on the playground and kept himself entertained.
like pushing the stroller around on the basketball court...
and playing a little b-ball himself (he's a natural, right?)
we ended the afternoon with a trip across the street to the ice cream parlor, where we got some of the best ice cream i've had in a long time (davis and justin had peach frozen yogurt--also very good.)
we made it back to the house in time to get davis fed, bathed and in bed while mary cooked dinner for us in the kitchen. davis even let pete read one of his stories to him before we put him down.
i'd like to say we all slept soundly, but while we were eating dinner, the smoke alarms went off in the house! the downstairs neighbors were cooking and set them off, and i rushed in to comfort davis in case he was scared. we put him back down easily before they went off again--and he was really upset that time. so he got to stay up for a little while until we were sure the smoke alarms were done.
the next morning, we got up early and headed towards winston-salem. my cold had hit in full force at that point, and i made the decision to forgo running the 5k and opted instead to do the 1 mile fun run. i knew i wouldn't be in the best condition to run (i hadn't done a great job training after my first race almost a month earlier) and the fun run was starting 30 minutes after the 5k...which gave us more time to get there. since we were packing up and needed that extra time to get our stuff in the car and still drive over an hour to winston-salem, the 9 am fun run sounded better than the 8:30 5k.
we got there without any trouble and pulled into the parking lot just as the 5k was starting. i love tanglewood and have been there for a couple of events--doing patrice's maternity photos with gabe, and for my friend maggie's wedding five years ago. we got our t-shirts and said hello to friends and family that we recognized :)
then it was time for the fun run, and there wasn't really a plan to run at all...which was fine with us. we were still waking up!
after we looked at the horses along the fun run trail
and rode the firetruck around the parking lot
and played in the bounce house (thank goodness for bounce houses)
by the time it was all over, the kids that were hanging out congregated by the music, and i looked down to see davis with jonah and rory and quinn (our friends nathan and katie's girls) and thought just how awesome it was to have them all together--and how far we had come from our college campus ministry group :)
it was an amazing experience, and i can't wait for the race next year!
by the time we finished up, davis was wearing down and was desperately in need of a nap. so we loaded him into the car and started driving home. he slept for a while, but woke up around burlington...and we knew he wouldn't make it all the way back home without a stop. rather than hitting up streets at southpoint on a saturday, we decided to try and find the airport observation park that i had read about before at RDU. it wasn't too far off our route, and i figured he would enjoy the airplanes and getting to run around a bit.
well, we drove around the airport three times before we found out. there are no signs on the main roadways directing you to the park, and it took asking a parking attending as we went through one of the park and ride lots to get directions to the park (it's on the cargo road between the two terminals, in case you're wondering, and there is a sign directing you to it as soon as you turn onto the cargo road.)
eventually we got back into the car and headed home, so happy to have made the trip and seen our dear friends and family. we'd love to go back up this summer and escape the heat!
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