Visit to Raleigh

We left Friday afternoon for Spring Break. We were ambitious and hoped to reach Raleigh (11 hours away) at the wee hours in the morning. Nathan had to drive to Chicago that morning to visit a student teacher. When we started our journey, Nathan had already logged 3 1/2 hours of driving. Needless to say, we did not make it to Raleigh on Friday.
Saturday morning, we were ready to go and thought we would be there by noon. We should know better. Traveling with 2 kids, a tired daddy and a pregnant mama, doesn't make for a quick trip. We finally arrived in Raleigh Saturday around 5pm.
One of our goals while we were in Raleigh, was to get Everest some new shoes at REI (the closest REI to us is in Chicago). Sunday we got up and went hiking at the Art museum. Everest was all decked out in his sweater that Grami made, strobe light (that we keep in the car for emergencies) and his fox boots (the only shoe-boot that fits him right now).

Nathan and I actually got a chance to talk on our walk. We had Aunt Teresa to "look at this", "run over here", and "watch me do this". It was a very nice break.

As we walked the sun got higher, brighter and hotter (something we do not see much in Indiana). Teresa and Leaf hanging out.
The family at the whisper bench.
Leaf learning how the whisper bench works.
Everest listened intently to Leaf babbling on and on. He really is a good big brother...most of the time.

While in Raleigh, I got together with my wonderful friend Jen Super. We were supposed to get the kids together to play (Jen had a baby boy in Nov., Sofia and Everest are about 6 months apart). We planned on meeting at a playground, but after a long day walking both boys zonked out and slept for 3 hours (we finally woke Everest up). They missed all but the last 15 minutes of the play date.

Sofia and Everest still enjoyed playing for a short while.