Hickory roadtrip

A few months before we were set to move, I realized I better get planning a trip down to Hickory to see the Schiebels before we were across the country from them again. We were hoping to be able to go with Grant and when it was warm enough to boat on the lake, but when we compared calendars and realized that wasn't going to happen with a busy end of the year schedule before moving, I decided to be brave and do the road trip alone. And although we weren't going to get on the boat, they have an amazing pool and hot tub so the kids would have no complaints. I would get to hang out with Karrie and Al, the kids could get acquainted again and we could have some serious fun together before moving.

McDonalds pit stop on our way down. I was a little worried about how Dylan would do given his age but he was seriously amazing. He was content to nap or be happy and look at books for almost the entire 7 hours. It was amazing.

 We spent a lot of time in the yard. The weather was perfect and the kids were continuously in and out of the pool and hot tub. It was so fun.

The triplets were so good to my kids. The girls LOVED Dylan (especially Allie) and Jordan did a great job helping Rowan feel like he had a friend. It means so much to me that all of these kids have a relationship now. My kids still will randomly bring them up in conversation several months later. I think Boden's best friend was Al, haha.

 Otter pops by the pool felt like summer was near and we were loving it

We took a really fun day trip to this cool "zoo" where you get a wagon ride to feed TONS of different animals. We bought a bucket of feed each and then had an hour excursion through the property. The kids were hesitant at first but got more and more brave as we went along. 

We all LOVED the giraffes. They were the only ones not wildly roaming the land, they were in a fenced off area, but it was still so cool to see them up so close.

Boden never really got up the courage to stick his hands out and feed them but by the end Rowan was totally loving it. And Dylan loved seeing the animals from afar but was freaked out every time they came near us and would cling on to Karrie or me.

After our wagon ride was complete, there was still a huge area of animals that you could go feed and see, so we spent some time walking around there which the kids loved just as much.

We thought the name of the port a potty company looked familiar :) We later found out that was actually the name of the nearby city!

And as we excited the park there were a bunch of cute nursing babies blocking the road so I couldn't even get out. We didn't complain as we all got to sit and enjoy watching tons more animals all around us!

The triplets were so kind and fun and took them each to read to them at night, etc. They treated my kids like little cousins and it was the cutest thing to see since I sort of feel like the triplets were my first baby loves :)

We played so hard the Dylan would just pass out on me whether it be for naptime or bedtime.

Being there really made "single mom" vacation a breeze. It was fun to reminisce and get caught up on current life events, get the "what to expect" from older kids advice from Karrie, etc. We love the Schiebels so much and although across the country now, hope it's not too long until we can recreate this kind of trip!

The morning we left, we had amazing donuts and played basketball until it was time to get in the car.

And they sent us home with the best souvenir ever! Their Fort Raptor power wheels! It was my kids favorite thing to play with at their house and since they had pretty much outgrown in decided the boys would love it and enjoy it the way they did. And they were right!