Lazy 5 Ranch

Today, we traveled up North to Mooresville, NC to a place called Lazy 5 Ranch.  It was actually really neat.  You drive your car through large wooded areas/fields and encounter TONS of animals.  You can buy buckets of feed for the animals, and they will walk right up to your car... and at times stick their heads into your car to get the food.   My favorite were the zebras, the Llamas seemed to favor Jake, and Hayden really enjoyed feeding the Giraffes.  All of us definitely disliked the Emus... aside from their "freakish" looks they were very selfish and tried to eat all of the food. 

Definitely a fun time!

One of my favorite pictures... one of the llamas staring Jake down. :)

Our car was a disaster afterwards.

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Road trip to Columbia, South Carolina

Today, we took a road to Columbia which is about an hour and a half from Waxhaw.  Along the way, we went through a few SMALL towns, which was fascinating to see how some live compared to what we are use to.  One thing I loved seeing as we drove through SC
were all of the Palmetto trees(small palm trees).  

Once we arrived, our first stop was to the Columbia Marionette Theater to see the Wizard of Oz... very neat!!

After that we went to Edventure, which is a REALLY cool hands-on museum.  We had so much fun doing art projects, climbing inside Ed... a huge boy that you can learn about the human body, learning about snot... yes I said snot, very interesting science project, plus Hayden's personal favorite, the construction site where he was able to drive/pedal a bulldozer.  Then we ended our trip with a yummy stop at a restaurant called Blue Marlin, where we enjoyed our first taste of 

Fried Green Tomatoes and Crab Cakes!

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Leaving on a Jet Plane

After our long road trip to NC, Hayden and I flew back to Illinois, while Jake had to stay for work.  Hayden was BEYOND excited to ride on an airplane!  While we were waiting, a flight attendant gave Hayden some pilot wings, which he thought was really neat!  His favorite part of the ride, was "flying in the clouds" and the landing! 

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Charlotte, NC Trip

We spent a week in Charlotte, NC exploring the area and enjoying some fun activities.  Although we spent most of our time, looking at tons of houses, we tried to do some things that Hayden would enjoy too.  We found a bouncy place called Monkey Joes... Jake and Hayden enjoyed the "super fast" slides, found a yummy Cupcake Bar, as well as a few parks so Hayden can get out some wiggles.  I couldn't believe the beautiful weather!  Two of the days, were almost in the 70's, which meant I was able to break out my flip-flops in January! :)

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North Carolina or Bust

(GPS... 805 miles to go ETA 8:13pm... LOL!!)

Today, we set out on our first (of many) road trips to North Carolina!  We set out on the road a little after 8am, anticipating to arrive in Charlotte, NC around 9:30pm... unfortunately we were very wrong with our ETA, but still had a fantastic time!  

 I made a goodie bin for Hayden... every hour if he didn't lose his three train cars on the clips, he could pick a goodie bag!  Worked VERY well!  His favorite treats were his snowman crayons/mazes, periscope, train book, and Open Season movie. :)  Given how long we were in the car, he did an awesome job!!

Stocked up on snacks!

                                              And we are off... a little sleepy, but all smiles! :)

We were making awesome time until we drove half-way through Indiana...

 Then we hit some snow and icy roads! :(  Which lead to a 10 car accident a half a mile in front of us(thank goodness there were no serious injuries)  This unfortunately caused over a 2 and a half hour stand still of traffic... not moving for 150 minutes with a four year old in the backseat was very interesting, but thank goodness for DVD players!!

 Hayden half asleep watching his movie, while Daddy is being silly trying to pass the time while we sit, what felt like forever waiting for the accident to be cleared.

Because the weather was like this the rest of the way through Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, we decided at 11pm, to stop in Knoxville, Tn for the night.  Thank goodness we did, because the roads were so icy, and we were exhausted!

The next day, we set out bright and early!  My favorite part, by far was driving through the mountains... so unbelievably beautiful!!

Some of our other favorite sights... driving through the tunnel in the mountain, seeing the signs for Rutherfordton and Rutherford county, and Hayden's favorite... the motorcycle in the sky.

 Our timeline of States... finally was able to add North Carolina!!

Around noontime, we finally arrived!!  Couldn't be more excited to see this sign; especially since it will be our new home very soon!!

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