Following the Slopsemas: Leicester Pronounced Lester

On Wednesday of last week we packed the kids, the car and headed out to North Carolina for a long weekend to see Jason's parents' new home. They moved down there last month since Jason's father had taken a job last year that required him to be over the territory of NC. His dad works for a company that manufactures equipment used for women's health.

We had only had the chance to see the home through pictures and on the Internet before our trip south. It was little man's first trip and he was a champ. Out of the 7 hours of travel he fussed for maybe 20 minutes and that is a high estimate. The other two did well also. By the time we were about 12 miles away Swee was sobbing, Priss was covering her ears, Little Man was sleeping, and Jason & I were trying our hardest to find the roads Mapquest said we needed while "lola" (gps) was telling us different exits and routes to take. It seems that the state of NC doesn't pave straight roads just curvy ones. And we later found out that Mapquest took us the back way while Lola was taking us the longer but less curvy way. We made it none the less and had a great visit. The kids fell in love with the new house...it had a basement that they claimed! Jason and I thought that this house would be a great size for our next home...no new job so probably not moving anytime in the near future.

We took one day and went shopping. Yes, the entire day was spent at some awesome outlets (Jason likes to shop too but his Dad doesn't). Another day we went to a place called Bryson City to ride an actual train only to get there as it was pulling out. Swee wanted so badly to ride the train that as it pulled out he waved and said, "Come back for me I will be waiting". Talk about breaking a mother's heart! Plans were made to return and ride said train since tickets will be purchased before we make the long trip.:) On the way back to Leicester we stopped at a little store that had a tower you could climb for 50 cents to look at the Smokey Mountains. Everyone climbed to the top on their own two legs, okay not the Little Man but come on he's only 7 weeks old. The kids loved getting to climb that high, it was probably about 5 stories off the ground.

Coming home was an adventure in itself since about 10 minutes down the road the interstate was closed due to a rock slide and we were rerouted 4 hours out of our way. So the trip that was to take about 7 hours was then going to take 11. After some quick thinking and the use of an atlas we were able to cut the reroute time down from 4 hours to 2 hours. We left at 10:30 a.m. and got home at 7:30 p.m. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and will be returning after basketball season is over and the new year has arrived.

Here are a smattering of pictures taken while we were gone...