Wednesday, January 30, 2013

The rest of the story...

I feel like I left off from our trip to North Carolina, and then life started to fast forward again.  It just never really slows down.  This morning I transferred another 525 photos from my camera to my laptop!  They are from December 2012 through yesterday January 29th 2013!  I find I pick my camera up pretty much every day.  I take pictures of the kids, food, funny things I see, just about everything.

So I need to back track and get the rest of the North Carolina story on my blog and then I will keep going through the end of the year and try to update all of our 2012 happenings.  Of course we will continue to document what is happening now and I will continue to be behind, but since that is the story of my life, I guess I will just go with it!

While we were in North Carolina to pick up the boys we stayed at The Hampton Inn in Mooresville which is just east of Lake Norman.  It is home to all of the Nascar racing companies and so everything out there is themed for cars and racing.  Below are some pictures of our awesome hotel.


Photos of Hampton Inn Mooresville, Mooresville
This photo of Hampton Inn Mooresville is courtesy of TripAdvisor

The delicious free Breakfast Room we were fortunate to have.  Can I say it was never a problem getting the kids out of bed and dressed in the morning?!  In fact some mornings they went down and got my coffee for me and made me a plate because I was exhausted from being up with the babies all night!  But the staff was wonderful!  They were helpful with the girls and so kind to us.  We plan on going back to the Hampton Inn the next time we are there.
Photos of Hampton Inn Mooresville, Mooresville
This photo of Hampton Inn Mooresville is courtesy of TripAdvisor

A view of the front desk and the Coffee Bar that was set up 24 hours a day.  Super fresh coffee and they also had fresh cookies all of the time!  We just loved this!
Photos of Hampton Inn Mooresville, Mooresville
This photo of Hampton Inn Mooresville is courtesy of TripAdvisor

And after breakfast we usually got in an hour or so of swimming.  The pool is small but very nice and the girls always love to swim!





Even the boys enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine!
Hudson


Beckham is in the shade behind Hudson who was in the sun so we could be sure to help him with his Vitamin D.  Hudson was the one who was a little jaundiced after birth.

We also ventured out to a number of parks.  Unfortunately, most of the time I would drive everyone over to a park, let the girls out to run and play and then I would fall asleep in the van with the boys!  Can I say I was exhausted?!  So I either didn't think to take a lot of pictures or I would forget to bring the camera in the van! Too bad because we found a lot of interesting parks!  Lots of big trees and shade, lots of fun play equipment.

One of our favorite places to go was actually an outdoor shopping mall called Birkdale Village.  It is so pretty and there is one long avenue of buildings on either side of a beautiful street with trees and a walkway down the middle.  The buildings are 3 stories tall with shops on the main floor and apartments on the second and third floors.  


My favorite area is right in the center where there is a cute water play park and a Starbucks on the corner!!  Perfect for kids and momma too!




The whole area  feels so Southern Chic to me!  Lots of people outside enjoying each others company.  We really enjoyed ourselves here!

We plan to come back to this area in a few years, probably when the boys are 4 or 5 years old.

We also played at a fun park where we visited with their birthmom Courtney on our last full day in North Carolina.



Hudson on the left and Beckham on the right.

Hudson
Beckham

With their birthmom Courtney.
Her son was there too, but that little cutie pie would not sit still for a second!  I tried to take a picture of him four or five times and all there is is just a blur!  

We were sad to leave this beautiful area of our country, but happy to know we were headed home!  And we will be back!