NC

The family made the trek to North Carolina at the end of October.  It was my 10 year reunion/Homecoming football game (Eek!  Has it really been that long!?), and this lovely group of ladies was getting together in one of the most beautiful places in the world, Chapel Hill, NC.

I have been looking forward to this trip for what seems like forever, and we had so much fun.

I was very nervous about the long car ride with LC, but she was an excellent little traveler.  She spent most of the trip like this:

She did fuss/freak out for about 30 minutes each way, but for an 8 hour car ride, that wasn't so bad.  On the way up, the weather was beautiful, so when we stopped, we would just put out a blanket on a grassy patch and let her roll around and stretch her little baby legs.  At one of our stops in random town, South Carolina, I went into the convenience store we stopped at, and there were three old Southern ladies watching and cooing over Trevor and LC through the window holding their Cheerwines and pork rinds.  Yeah, we packed up pretty quickly after that.  On the way back, we weren't so lucky with the weather, and it was rainy and cold.  Which meant that we had to find a place to stretch out inside.  Fortunately, we only had to stop twice, and one of the times, we found a lovely play place inside of a Chick-Fil-A.  The other time, we had to resort to the floor of a McDonalds, where Trevor and I hovered over LC while she played, trying to keep the smell of french fries from permeating her clothes.  And we washed that blanket twice when we got home.  Good times traveling with a baby.

The first night we arrived in Chapel Hill, we got there pretty close to LC's bed time, so we quickly got settled, and started the bed time routine (it is quite a process).  Once we got her settled in her bed, Trevor and I realized the difficulty of sharing a hotel room with a baby - no place to hang out.  We hadn't eaten dinner, so Trevor brought back take out.  We didn't want to risk waking up LC, it had been a struggle to get her to sleep in the first place, so we enjoyed a lovely meal in the hallway.  Thankfully we had wine.

Glamorous

One of the main reasons I have been so excited about this trip was that I was finally getting to meet my dear friend Jamie's daughter, Sadie.  She was born just a few weeks after LC, so Jamie and I went through our pregnancies together, and we are so excited to have little girls so close in age.  Sadie and LC were obviously so excited to meet each other, too, they even held hands upon their first meeting -

They got to hang out and play together...

Shortly after this picture was taken, LC tried to eat Sadie's hand.  I will be sure to tell this story when they are 13.

We spent Friday afternoon on Franklin Street and showing the girls around campus.  We took the obligatory pictures by the Old Well, which I know LC will be very proud to display in her dorm room at UNC.

We had lunch at Spankys, and Sadie was loving the people watching on Franklin Street. 

Walking around campus was so fun.  The main quad looked exactly like it did 10 years ago, and we even ran into friends as we were walking around.

Meeting up with Sarah and Melissa on campus.

All of the cruising around and shopping at student stores wore LC out. 

That night, all of the girls met at the bar in the lobby of our hotel, and LC & Sadie showed up in their awesome UNC gear courtesy of Lee's Mom, Karen.

Jamie and I forgot our matching UNC warm-up suits - next time.

LC was clearly excited about taking this picture.

Another one of LC's little buddies was in Chapel Hill, but unfortunately LC and Elea Kate were on opposite nap schedules, so they didn't get to spend much time together.  I was able to capture Elea Kate and Sadie's first meeting on Friday night.  I love that all three of us have girls, and hopefully they will get to play together soon.

Elea Kate & Sadie checking each other out. 

Being the awesome Dad and husband that he is, Trevor stayed in with LC on Friday night so I could go to the UNC exhibition basketball game.  Being in the Dean Dome again was awesome, and I am so happy that was able to see the boys play.

Saturday morning, my parents came up from Rocky Mount, and they took LC for her first overnight visit.  It was the longest Trevor and I have ever been away from her, and we were definitely much more nervous and affected by it than she was.  She had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa, and once we got over the initial nervousness, we were fine, too.

We headed to campus for a tailgate near the Kappa house.  It was so much fun to spend time with some of my favorite people in our old stomping grounds.  My senior year roommates and I headed over the our old house on Vance Street.

LOVED this house. 

All of the NYC roommates made the trip - there are not four other people in the world that I would have rather lived in that one bathroom apartment with.

NYC Roomates

 While LC didn't make the tailgate and football game, many of her future buddies did - six of my friends are expecting.  So of course, we made them line-up in order of due date for a photo.

 The sun came out and warmed us up, and the football game was great with UNC beating Wake Forest.

I managed to get one photo at the game - my Kappa house roommates Leslie & Denise.  Leslie organized most of this trip including tailgate, football tickets and basketball tickets for 30+ people all while 9 months pregnant and mothering a two year old.  Yep, she's amazing.

We spent Sunday night with my parents in Rocky Mount.  We were so worn out from our weekend in Chapel Hill that we didn't get any pictures.  But I did manage to get an awesome video of LC.  She is laughing hysterically as my Dad entertains with a plastic bag.  He is truly a baby whisperer, I haven't heard her laugh like this since.

We had a wonderful trip, and I absolutely loved being able to see so many friends.  I wish we all lived closer so we wouldn't have to wait so long in between visits - I'm already looking forward to the next one.