Finally, Some Family!

We've had lots of friends come visit us so far, but last week we had our first family member come check out our new digs. My Mom came for a whole splendid week! We realized that it's been almost a year since we've seen each other. We haven't been to AZ since our famous last minute Christmas Day drive cross the country. This is definitely a new record for us! So suffice it to say, we were ecstatic to have my Mom here. She's been through a lot this past year, so I'm glad she got to get away and relax and just play with her grand daughters, who absolutely adore her by the way.


We went straight from the airport to check out the Mumfest in New Bern. We walked around the Tryon Palace gardens, but it kind of went downhill from there. Ruby was crying and complaining that her tummy hurt. Ella was riding in the stroller and felt warm. I knew she definitely wasn't herself when she turned down a bite of funnel cake. So we only stayed for a little bit (and never saw a single Mum either!). They felt better after we got home and gave them some medicine and put their jammies on. I swear that jammies have magic healing powers. Ella got better after that day, but Ruby had a fever on and off all week. We still managed to have a grand time though.

Grandma and Annie watching the band.

The pretty flowers at the Tryon Gardens.

On Columbus Day, Richard had work off, so we headed to Onslow Beach for the day. It's still in the 80's here, so the weather was absolutely perfect! The girls had a blast and we all got to relax and play in the sand.

We spent one day at the aquarium and we all had a ton of fun. We actually ended up getting the annual family pass because it gets us into a lot of other zoos and aquariums all over the country. The highlight was being able to pet the stingrays. Ella loved it! Ruby took a while to warm up to the idea, but she eventually couldn't get enough.

Grandma and her girlies!

One of the nights we drove to the historic downtown Wilmington- the location of One Tree Hill, for all you CW fans out there! It is the cutest little town. We got there too late to do any of the tours, so I was a little disappointed about that. It was still fun to walk around on the Riverwalk and watch the sunset. We ate at the Front Street Brewery and finished up the night with some chocolate from a cute little old-fashioned candy shop.

All the girls at the Riverwalk in Wilmington.

Proof that Richard was actually there some of the time!

Grandma and Rubes

We decided to try out the local Pumpkin Patch and it was pretty cute. We went on a hayride out to the pumpkin patch and got to pick out our pumpkins. They had a little crafty store that sold baked goods, lots of rocking chairs to relax on, and several animals to look at and feed. The best part about the animals, was this sign on the fences:

Who makes a petting zoo with an electric fence???!!!! Luckily, we realized they weren't turned on (or real?) thanks to a brave daycare kid that was all over it. Again, I was surprised by Ruby's bravery at feeding the animals. She's normally kind of a wuss, but she had no qualms with the goats basically munching on her hand. I can't really figure her out. We had so much fun on the hayride (even though we could see some of the creepies hanging in the trees for the haunted hayride). The girls each chose a pumpkin and my Mom got me some mums. Or front porch is looking wonderfully fallish now!

Fun on the hayride!!!

We ate lots of good food (it was awesome having someone to go out to lunch with!), went lots of fun places, got to sit in on Ruby's dance class, Richard and I even got to go on a date thanks to my Mom. It was so fun to have her here. It was hard to say goodbye, but it helped knowing that we'll see her for Thanksgiving. We love you Mom and miss you lots!