A Wonderful Week of Whit-it!

Well, our summer is really starting to heat up as our visitors and vacations start coming to fruition! First up, we had my sister Whitney fly in from Utah (where she recently graduated from BYU and was teaching elementary school) to stay with us for a week. We drove up to the airport Monday evening and captured our first prize of the summer! After a late night for the kids who "helped" Whitney unpack and in return got some fun new presents, we spent the morning sleeping in late and relaxing. Then we took Whitney to Olive Garden for lunch, which was Lucy's dream come true! Both my kids love getting to go to restaurants, including this little stinker; you give him some chocolate milk and he'll sit still anywhere. Then we went to the brand new Hobby Lobby, and headed back home for some more play time. Whitney then got us addicted to the new BBC mini-series of Sherlock Holmes and we stayed up waaaaay too late watching season 1! Wednesday we met some friends for lunch at Sonic and played on the playground, Whitney made treats with the kids, helped Lucy build some beautiful tangram desgins, rocked the choo-choos with Zach, and then pumped it up at my Body Pump class that night. Oh yeah, she also cooked us a totally incredible meal of banh mi as well. I love having this girl around! Thursday we decided to venture up into Raleigh and visit the famous "Pit" restaurant for lunch. Best authentic Southern BBQ in North Carolina! Then we drove over to "Marbles" which is a really great children's museum. Both my kids were SO excited to be there, that while Whitney and I went to pay our admission, Zach made a b-line for the museum and we couldn't find him for like 5 panic-inducing minutes because it's a BIG place, and he is SO fast! Naturally he was wandering around looking for us near the train table. Uggghh! Heart attack city. Lucy enjoying being in a "simulated" aquarium and bouncing on the bubbles! After spending a couple of hours there we found our way to an AWESOME cupcake store called "Gigi's." I couldn't find my camera while we were inside, but they were some of the biggest, yummiest, prettiest cupcakes I've ever had. Since it's right by Costco, I'm sure we'll be back. It was such a fun day! Friday we splurged and took the kids to "Madagascar 3" at the movie theater. My kids LOVE going to the movies since we hardly ever take them-- and they really liked this one. There were a couple of parts where Zach busted up laughing out loud-- he loved it! That night Whitney watched the kids so Jon and I could go on a date. We tried the Bonefish Grill in honor of my birthday next week and it was so good! Saturday was the day Zach had been looking forward to ALL week. He has been begging to go back to beach ever since the last time we went, and this time was even better because we got to take Whitney, as well as meet Devin and Sarah and their kids. Yea! This time we went to Ocean Isle Beach (just north of Myrtle Beach), and this girl loved the water! She had so much fun playing in the waves with Eva and came home with about a pound of sand in her swimsuit. Monster trucking in the dirt! We had to wait for me to teach my Body Pump class Saturday morning so we couldn't leave until noon, which got us there around 2:30 p.m. We tried to squeeze as much sand and surf in as we could before it got too late. For dinner we hit another Southern BBQ gem on the way home. Thanks to Whitney's iPhone she found "Bart's BBQ" which had great online reviews. Zach loved his hot dog and the hush puppies were AMAZING! I LOVE THIS GIRL!!! She is nannying in Richmond this summer and I am so glad she's on this side of the country for a change, even if I'll be gone for half of it. Guh! We also read that the banana pudding was to die for, but I wouldn't really know... This guy got to it first and never let go. I think it must have been pretty good. It was an awesome week with Whit-it! I'd tell her to come back soon, but since I already bought her a bus ticket for this weekend, there's no need.:) YES!