Spring Break 2011...part 2...Hickory, NC

After our stay in Charleston ended, we ventured back to Hickory for the second half of the week. It should have been a short 4 hour drive, but instead it took 9 hours! About an hour and a half out of Charleston, the check engine light came on and the temperature gauge shot up. We immediately pulled over to assess the problem. To make a long story short, it took 4 hours to go the 7 miles to the nearest auto parts store. After thinking, looking, and brainstorming with his dad on the phone, Grant decided that the problem was the thermostat. And lucky us, it was! It never ceases to amaze me the power of the smart phone. We were able to read the code from our check engine light, look up an auto parts store, GPS the directions there, and look up how to change the thermostat on a 2003 Protege5, it really is amazing! Finally, after driving about a mile at a time (stopping when we'd start to overheat again), we made it to a crazy little city in the middle of nowhere, borrowed some tools from Advance Auto Parts, and bought a thermostat for $8. So, an extra 5 hours and $8 later...we were back on the road :) I am so grateful for Grant's automotive skills and knowledge and I could not believe that $8 fixed what seemed like such a monumental problem.
Once back on the road, we made it to Hickory to spend some time with the Schiebels, in North Carolina! (we couldn't hit up one Carolina without the other). I remember last summer when I went out of town for a week and a half and couldn't believe how different the triplets seemed after that short amount of time. Now, I go months at a time without seeing them, and it really is amazing how fast babies grow up! We were in need of some quality Karrie and Al time too :) The 6 hr drive to their house is a little longer than the 2 min drive it used to be, but still well worth it.

I was lucky enough to visit them last month (a surprise visit for Karrie), but Grant hadn't seen them since January, so he spent some time getting reacquainted. We took the kids out for sushi...we made a mess but it was a fun adventure!The weather in North Carolina was even better than it had been in S. Carolina, so we did everything we could to enjoy the sun! We took a walk around the neighborhood and down to the lake...

And since free time is next to near impossible to come by with triplets, I made sure that Karrie took at least a little time out for her :) So, when the guys were working on projects around the house and the babies were napping, we did some laying out on the deck.
Aside from all our "leisure time," we lived the life with triplets. Fed them at their awesome new table that Al designed and "built." I love those little legs kicking out beneath it. We helped get them dressed (my favorite part of child care :), practiced crawling, standing, etc between naps. We had a lot of fun but I can't say it's not hard work! They definitely wore us out but I'd do it again anytime!


I tried to bring Madi home with me...but since I packed way too much stuff and our car was packed full, Karrie was a mean mom and wouldn't let her ride up front with me ;(

Thanks for the good times! We will miss you guys already....