On the road again...

...we just couldn't wait to get on the road again!

This weekend our Highlander took us east to visit with Lottie and her family. We headed out Saturday morning and made it to the greater Raleigh area in time to pick up a bucket of chicken at KFC and head to a park for a picnic.

It would be untrue to say that Kylie only enjoyed playing with Lottie. Lottie has two older brothers, Noah and Graham, that adore Lottie and played very well with both of the girls. While we waited for Ian and Battle to go buy tickets for the amusements, Lottie and the boys taught Kylie how to play Ring-Around-the-Rosie (not so much fun when it is just you and mommy...)

"This is a fun game. Hey, by the way Noah, I like your Carolina blue crocs!"

When Daddy came back with our tickets it was time for Kylie's first merry-go-round ride.

"How much higher is this thing going to go? I'm not so sure I like it!"

Lottie took it like a pro, but Kylie wasn't quite convinced. She made it through the first ten or so times the horse went up and then declared that she had experienced enough for the first ride. She spent the rest of the ride in my arms pulling the hair on Lottie's horse's tail.

Next Shannon suggested that we put the girls on these little boats that actually float in water. After Kylie's merry-go-round performance I thought, "No way will she do this," but the tickets to ride were only $1, so how much would we lose? Kylie once again made a dummy out of her mommy by not only tolerating the ride, but seeming to really enjoy it.

"Umm Lottie, did you pay attention in our boating classes? I don't think I remember how to drive this thing!"

"Oh hey, now I've got it! This is really fun, but I sure would like a snow cone ~ it's HOT out here!"

Perhaps the most fun part of this ride for me was watching the ride operator get torqued out when Kylie kept standing up during the ride. (We are having issues with this in the bathtub right now too). I suppose I should have been more concerned for Kylie's safety, but where in the world do you have a ride for toddlers where they sit in boats in water with no seat belts? I wanted to buy some seat belts for the ride to prevent the woman from having a heart attack later in the day!

We finished up our time in the park with a train ride and then headed back to Lottie's house to cool off and take naps. (Kylie got a 5 minute power nap in the car and fought going back to sleep, so her daddy did the kind thing and took a nap in her place). For dinner we had the treat of Darby and her family coming over to dinner. It was so fun to see the three girls interact with one another. Shannon fixed a fabulous meal, C.C. brought dessert, and the girls provided us with the evening entertainment. Unfortunately trying to get the three of them to look the same direction and smile was a lot like herding cats. How did we get so lucky to get some great shots of SEVEN girls on the red couch at the White Swan? On our camera alone we took over 20 and here are the best two we captured. Hopefully Shannon or C.C. got something better...

Close, but not quite perfect...

Darby is shocked by something, Kylie is showing signs of not napping, and Lottie is intently gazing into the camera. We called it quits after this one...

All too soon it was time for Darby to go home and for us to get ready for bed. We really enjoyed the evening with two of the families we will forever be bonded with because of our girls. Before bed Kylie let us know that she would like to have a big brother around the house too. She just couldn't get enough of Graham! Lottie is lucky to have two brothers that adore her so!

"And at my house we have a really nice dog and my grandma has a swimming pool..." ~ Kylie tries to convince Graham to come live with us!

Sunday morning we had a leisurely breakfast and then went to church with Shannon and Battle. They attend a fantastic contemporary church and we really enjoyed the worship service. Kylie was a fan (as always) of all the music and has some song suggestions for Uncle Adam to teach the praise team. While we were leaving church the girls willingly took hands and walked a good way.

"I'm sure glad we finally got our parents to get us together! We'll have to do it again sometime soon!"

We were treated as family to a delicious meal at Shannon's parent's home and then hit the road to come back to ours. The best part of the visit was the feeling that we've known these folks forever. I still remember "predicting" how I'd feel about our travel group before we went to China. I recall thinking that our lives were "full" and that while I was sure that the families we were traveling to China with were nice folks, we already had enough friends and would simply look back at pictures. Yeah right! All of our China families are part of our lives now and we can't wait to visit with Lottie and Darby (and all of Kylie's China sisters for that matter) again!