A Day Trip.

First off, I must note that this is my 301st post. I just realized that I've been at this blog for 2 1/2 years already!! INSANE!

Anyways...I told the Bubba earlier today that I'd get some blogging done and completely forgot. So I must get one up.

A few weeks ago Russ kept telling me, "We're going to the NC Air Show this weekend." I didn't know if he was serious or not, particularly because it was a 2 1/2 hour drive to get there. Driving and a non-sleeping child (Sam) do not go well together. So the morning came and Russ said, "Are we going?" I looked into hotels, thinking that that would be an easier option, but everything was booked. Then I told him that he and Brooklyn should go alone...but out of pure selfishness I wanted to go too.

So we packed everything up in case we did decide to stay the night somewhere and headed out. Let's just say that the first hour was utter hell. Sam was completely miserable and he made it so for the rest of us as well. He finally conked out for a little bit and woke up just as we were getting to the Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium.

We had a blast there. It was definitely bigger and had more to see than our Aquarium.

Sam loves "ribbets."

Russ was explaining the journey a baby sea turtle makes.

This photo cracks me up. Mostly because as I was taking it, a woman walked in front of me and about had a heart attack because she didn't expect to see a human face there, lol.

Dinkin' around outside the aquarium. I was trying to get a cute shot of the 3 of them, and this was the best I could get....

Then we piled back into the car for another half hour drive. Sam conked out again and we stopped for food. Hello Blue Angels!!

During the show, Sam got up and wandered away to go look at all of the other cool planes. Brooklyn followed him. Russ followed them both. I sat alone in silence in the warm sun--it was bliss. However, I kept getting odd looks from passersby (we weren't in the normal viewing area...more like on the way to the viewing area, lol) and I didn't realize until quite later what sunglasses I had on...yes they are neon green heart-shaped $2 kid glasses. Jealous?

The show was actually a 2 day deal and had a ton of different shows, but we didn't think the kids would do so well with a full-day thing, although they seemed to absolutely love it. So, maybe next year we'll try and get there for more.

Next came what was my favorite part of the entire trip (which is why there are more pictures here than the rest of the trip combined. :P). When we came in to park, it was a loooooong narrow parking lot (we were parked on a runway) with only one exit. There were THOUSANDS of cars at this thing. So we did the logical thing and sat.

I was so glad we had camping chairs and a cooler full of snacks and drinks (and ice, our saving grace).

The kids were in and out like every 30 seconds grabbing ice and smashing it. In the photo below, see that car in the background? They didn't move more than 10 feet for about an hour. And what was insane was everybody left their cars running! I know it is warm, but geez.

We were probably a good 3/4 down the runway...and this is looking at the 1/4 of the runway that was ahead of us. Crazy.

I think it was about 3 hours from the end of the Blue Angels show until we got in the car and were able to drive out the exit without another car in front of us. Next year we're thinking it'd be fun to have a camper and another family with us and just stay the night if they'd let us!