HAPPY!

What more can I say? Chocolate frosting + sprinkles + graham crackers = happiness

USS North Carolina

When Calvin finished his classes, we both took a day off to be with our family before he started his studying for finals. We decided to drive out to Wilmington to see the USS North Carolina battleship. The 2.5 hour drive was great to just spend some time talking together and a great time for Camden to take a nap :)

The self-guided tour of the ship was so neat! The USS North Carolina was used in WWII and several other battles. We got to tour all of the different decks and see things like the engine rooms, the barracks (5 beds per bunk!), the communication center, the guns, the kitchens, the laundry areas, the dentist and doctors offices, etc! The kitchens had these huge mixers, ovens, bread baking machines, an ice cream machine, and this huge thing that they put potatoes in that spun them around and took the peel off! They also had a little soda fountain shop, a post office...everything you would need to live on a ship!

It was really cool to learn more about life on a ship and what it was like for the men who fought and served there. Now I want to tour a ship that they use now and see what has changed with all the technology! They had this sheet that compared prices from the 1940's, it was so interesting...in the 1940's, you could buy a house for $3,700 and a car for $450! You could buy a dozen eggs for 30 cents, a gallon of gas for 15 cents, and an ice cream cone for 5 cents! Wow!

It was a great day to just spend time together and have a day off! I can't wait until Calvin is done with his finals and we are off for our summer adventures! Wish us all luck!

Duke Gardens in Springtime

Brooklyn, Camden and I took a trip to the beautiful Sarah P. Duke Gardens. The gardens cover 55 acres of the Duke campus. The flowers and leaves were out and it was just amazing! Here are a few (maybe more than a few) pictures from our tour.

And we couldn't let Brooklyn leave without visiting the famous Cameron Indoor Stadium, home of the 2010 NCAA Champions!

A Visit From Brooklyn!

We had such a fun week with Brooklyn visiting us! We really miss her! Every time Camden sees a picture of Brooklyn, he says, Brooky! Thanks for coming to visit us :)

On Saturday, after the easter egg hunt, we headed over to the Durham Bulls baseball game. It was an exhibition game against the professional team they are associated with, the Tampa Bay Rays. Last year, the Durham Bulls won the championship for the 3A league. At the beginning of the game, they presented the team with their championship rings.


The weather was perfect! It was such an enjoyable day to watch a baseball game. Here is Camden relaxing with Dad with his arms behind his head and his legs crossed.






We enjoyed some ballpark food-hot dogs, fries, and a funnel cake! Yum!

Calvin and Brooklyn were testing their photography skills and kept trying to get the ball in the picture after the pitcher let go of it...here is one of their attempts. The ones with the ball were all pretty blurry.

On Sunday, we went for a drive and ended up at Jordan Lake.

On Monday, we went out to Wilmington to visit Wrightsville Beach. The sun was out, but there was a cold wind and the water was pretty cold. Camden went out to play in the water and got all wet, and with the combination of the wind, was shivering and cold. We didn't stay too long, but it was nice to see the ocean and spend a little time there and satisfy Brooklyn's beach need!

We had so much fun with Brooklyn! We went and bought a little pool to play with outside. Camden loved it!

We also took some time to walk the 3 mile loop through Duke Forest. It was nice to have Brooklyn there to switch off pushing the stroller on some of those hills! The leaves had all come out and made everything so green! Literally just a few days before this, everything was still brown.

Thank you Brooklyn for visiting us! We had so much fun! We can't wait to see you again! Stay tuned for a post with all the pictures we took on our visit to Duke Gardens.

Easter Egg Hunt

We had such a fun Easter weekend with Brooklyn visiting us! I have lots of pictures from her trip here, but this post is just going to be of our easter egg hunt!

On Saturday morning, we got together with some of our friends who live here in our complex for a little easter egg hunt! Camden had a lot of fun running around picking up eggs. Once he realized they had candy inside, all he wanted to do was open them up instead of looking for more. We sat all the kids down for a picture, but could hardly get them to look at the cameras because they were too excited about the treats in the eggs! After the hunt, we had a really good brunch with food that everyone had brought.