Back from Vacation

Well, what an amazing trip! We flew out Saturday Oct 6, Courtney did pretty well. She struggled a bit on the plane with the fact that she could not get up and walk around, but it wasn't too bad.

Saturday night, some long time friends of Grammy and Granddad came over to play cards and eat dinner with us. They have known Brian his entire life, and after Grammy and Granddad moved to VA, this family went as well. And they both work at Radford Univ.

Sunday Courtney and I went with Grammy and Granddad (Hubby's parents) to an ALS walk. We walked a mile and ate hot dogs. I really enjoyed it. It was a beautiful day, and we were in the shade most of the time.

Monday Grammy had the day off from work because of Columbus Day. So, we all went to Blacksburg and drove around Virginia Tech. We also stopped at an off campus VT store and stocked up on new Virginia Tech stuff.

After that we went over to Radford and went to Radford University. Hubby graduated from RU, and Grammy used to work there before she recently went to VT, and Granddad currently works there. So, we took a nice walk around the campus, stopped at the bookstore, stocked up on RU stuff. We met Granddad for lunch, as well as Dave, one of the long time friends. After lunch we went and took a tour of the building that Granddad works in.

Tuesday Grammy had to go back to work, but we went and met her for lunch. Then Hubby dropped me at home, and he went to RU to talk to some computer security students and to donate 3 books to their library.

Wednesday morning, Courtney, Hubby and I drove down to Charlotte. On the way into town we stopped at 2 garages. First stop was Raceworld USA, which is Michael Waltrip’s garage. I must say, that was probably not the best place to stop first. He has really designed his garage to be fan friendly. You can see so much of the employees actually working on cars! And you get to take a tour around the grounds and everything. You really get to see a lot! Apparently we missed Mikey by a few minutes on the way in, as well as on the way out. Bummer.

Next stop was Hendrick Motorsports, which is the home to our favorite driver, Jeff Gordon. I must say, after Raceworld USA, it was a little disappointing. You didn’t get to see much of the actual garage. They of course had a museum with lots of cars and trophies and such. But it was fun to see the action! But at least now I can say I have been there!

Then it was off to find out hotel which was right in downtown Charlotte. After getting settled in our room, the 3 of us headed out on a walk to find some dinner. We found a nice Thai restaurant and had a yummy (but expensive) dinner.

The next day was the first day of Hubby’s class. So, we dropped him off early. Later in the morning, Courtney and I headed up to DEI (Dale Earnhart Inc.) It too was a little disappointing, but it was neat to see all of Dale’s old fire suits that he actually wore! One had been in a fiery wreck and had some parts melting off!

After that, I was looking for a bookstore. After trying several different exits off the highway, I stumbled upon a beautiful outdoor mall. It had a lot of high end stores, and it was all outdoors! They had a Barnes & Noble too, so I was able to get the books I was looking for. Courtney and I walked around a little bit, and I made a few purchases in Ann Taylor Loft.

We went back to the hotel, and when Hubby was done with his class, he walked back to meet us at the hotel. And then we left again on foot to find some dinner. We found an Uno’s. Hubby really likes Uno’s, but we don’t have them out here. So, we usually stop at one if we see one while traveling.

The next day, we dropped Hubby off again at his class and we headed to the Lazy 5 Ranch. It was the neatest place! It is a privately owned exotic animal drive through park. If you don’t want to drive through you can take a wagon ride through. I thought that would be best so that both Courtney and I could enjoy it.

It was so much fun! You can purchase a feed bucket, and off you go on the wagon. They have over 750 animals from 6 different continents. The wagon stops every now and then and the animals come up and each right from your hand. There were buffalo, yaks, llamas, pigs, deer, antelope, zebras, giraffes, goats, and many more!!! It was the neatest thing! If you are ever in the Charlotte area, I HIGHLY recommend it.

From there we went on to Discovery Place right in downtown Charlotte. It’s a kid’s museum. They had an area for 3 and under. Courtney played in there for about 2 hours! We had to wait for Hubby to finish teaching his class. We finally caught up with Hubby and we headed back up to Grammy and Granddad’s house.

The next morning, Hubby and I got up EARLY and drove back down to the Charlotte area to go to the race! We arrived at the track about 9:30am so we had a ton of time to walk around and enjoy all the stuff there was to see and do. Between us, we acquired 14 sharpies! And lots of other free stuff. Plus, we purchased stuff.

The race was a night race; it started at 7pm-ish. It was a fantastic race! Lots of action and the most important thing is that Jeff Gordon won! It’s sooo great to be there in person! I love it!

We had thankfully booked a hotel about 2 & ½ miles from the track. The race ended at midnight, and we crawled into be at just about 2am. We got up early the next morning, had some breakfast and hit the road. Back up to Virginia we went. Hubby’s sister and her family were there, they had spent the weekend with Courtney and Grammy and Granddad. Courtney got to meet her cousin Jackson for the first time. They apparently got along famously. They all went to a Pumpkin patch and had a ton of fun picking out pumpkins. Courtney kept finding ones her size and picking them up.

Once Hubby and I got back up to Grammy and Granddad’s house, we all sat down to a nice lunch together. I hadn’t seen Brian’s sister, nephew and brother-in-law since the wedding! Jackson sure is different from 3 years ago!

In the afternoon they left to go back home. Hubby and I spent some time getting a nap in because we were wiped out! After that we had to pack everything up! That took a while. I ended up taking one of Hubby’s suitcases back for him. The plan was to get his logo shirts for work to the dry cleaners and back before he got home.

Monday, Courtney and I flew home. The first plane ride was pretty good. It was pretty empty, so we were able to have the 2 seats to ourselves which makes things easy! The next flight wasn’t that way. It was full, no empty seats at all. Courtney did okay, but the last 20 minutes, she had decided she was pretty much done. She just wanted to get up and walk. Of course we were on our final decent so that wasn’t possible. I was very thankful when we got on the ground!

Tuesday was back to work for me and back to daycare for Courtney. But she was moved up to the Infant 2 room. So, she is in the room next door to where she was prior. It is a good thing. They had several new small babies start over in Infant 1, and Infant 2 is really designed more for kids Courtney’s age and ability. The only bad thing is that Ms. Kay isn’t in infant 2. The 2 rooms share a kitchen, a diaper changing area, and an outside play area, so it’s not like Kay doesn’t see her, it just that Kay isn’t her main caretaker any more. I am very saddened by this. I just love Kay. She is really good at her job. When she told us it was time to move Courtney up, she got tears in her eyes. Courtney really likes Kay as well, but she has adjusted into her new room very nicely. She had all ready visited over there a few times, so it wasn’t unfamiliar territory. I think Kay and myself are having a harder time with the change then Courtney!

The rest of the week went as normal, agility, work, day care. Courtney also got a flu shot. That made for a long night that night. She was up screaming at 2am. I had to go in and give her some Tylenol and rock her back to sleep. She also woke up screaming at 4:30am, but she was able to settle herself back down again without me having to go into her room.

Friday, our cadet who is now a Junior, and one of his friends came over. They set up and Xbox in the basement to play Halo3. Hubby arrived home around 10:15pm. He got the cadets set up with internet access so they got on line and played Halo3 apparently until 2:30am.

We all had to get up early today. It’s AFA game day. Our cadet does the cooking for his squadron’s tailgate party. And we had to head out to take Courtney to Nana’s house for the weekend.

We had our usual tailgating crowd. It was fun! We had a ton of food, and we ate and ate and ate. Finally at noon we headed over to the stadium. It was a pretty exciting game this year. The one we went to last year was awful because it was very lopsided, so it wasn’t even fun to watch. Today’s game was interesting right down to the last 3 minutes, and Air Force won!

After the game was over, we meandered back to our tailgating spot, cooked some more food, ate lots more and sat around while we waited for traffic to die down. Finally about 4:30pm, we packed it up and hit the road. Hubby had to pick up a few essentials before leaving again tomorrow morning.

Yes, I said leaving again. He leaves for Tokyo tomorrow. He will be gone just over a week. Then he will be home for a whole 2 weeks before leaving again. Ah, life is busy as ever. In fact we are looking at 4 cadets here tonight! So, I better go make beds.

Hope everyone is well!