Quick Trip to Charleston

I'm back and ready to blog! I am just thankful that the Geek Squad was able to fix the computer so I didn't have to buy a new one. There is SO much to catch up on (honestly I still have stuff from Halloween) but due to being so far behind the goal is just to hit the highlights. There will probably be no rhyme or reason to the order of entries - just hoping to knock them all out.

Beginning with our most recent outing (and probably the shortest entry) let's get started!

The Monday after Christmas we decided to take a house hunting trip to Charleston. The plan is for the kids and I to join Pete there full time in Feb/March. The purpose of this trip was to look at apartments and houses. We were hoping to get a better feel for various communities and possibility rule some out as well. My goal is to be in a house, or have an offer on one (due to so many short sales these days a closing could take 4 months) by the time the kids start school in the fall.

We looked at houses all day Tuesday (which also happened to be my birthday) and the kids did surprising well. It helped that 50% of the houses were vacant so they could just run loose. At one house we walked into a room and a drawer of jewelry was open and I immediately asked which kid did it (neither did). Really is it that hard to keep your hands to yourself and not touch, run, jump or play with anything???? The answer is YEP if you are 3 or 4 :)

Tuesday night we went out to dinner at a restaurant recommended by the bartender at the hotel. We wanted steak and seafood (it was my birthday) and she suggested one and said it was kid friendly. We should have known as soon as we walked in that we were in trouble. White linens, candle light, and soft live music isn't exactly kid friendly in my book. It was an a la carte menu - not one that came with crayons. We lucked out and it was rather empty, perhaps because it was 8:30, and the kids did really well.

Wednesday we looked at a few more houses, but the highlight of the day was our carriage ride through Charleston. On our last trip to Charleston we told the kids we would take a carriage ride, but due to discipline issues with Izzy we had to skip it. I tried to get out of it this go around as well because it was SO cold! No such luck. We ate lunch at Bubba Gump's and then reserved a carriage. We decided to splurge and do the private carriage and I am glad we did. There is no way a bunch of other people would have wanted to listen to our kids sing, wave, yell at pedestrians, and discuss the bodily functions of the horse.

Super excited while waiting for our carriage:


Look at these faces:


Peering through a gate to see:


Baby goats!


Pete ran off saying he had a surprise for me after we reserved our carriage. I had no idea what it was, but my mind started racing. Maybe he bumped into someone we knew while he went off to feed the meter? Maybe my parents drove up for the day - it was the day after my birthday? Maybe he was getting us hot chocolate for the carriage ride?

Look...


Did you notice the lower right hand corner?


It was PERFECT! Mochas for us and hot chocolate for the kiddos. I was a really special experience for me. Izzy was excited because we were in a princess carriage. Drew was excited cause the horse could poop at any moment (there is a bag that hangs under the horse to catch the poop so it doesn't drop into the street. Not only might the horse poop, but it will drop into a plastic bag! Exciting stuff for a 3 year old boy). I was just happy to have my family around, be under a warm blanket sipping Starbucks, and learning some history about Charleston.

Izzy spotted this house which had an address of 87 1/2 and dubbed it her most favorite house ever. Isn't it so cute? It is smack dab between two big 'ole houses.


After our carriage ride we headed back to Greensboro.






Pete and I both felt really good about how the trip went. We have a better understanding of where we want to live and what we are looking for in a house and development. If only money were no object :) Now we need to figure out how to sell our house here so that we don't have to live in a two bedroom Residence Inn for too long! ...yes, you read that correctly, we are going to take up residency in a Residence Inn, but that is a story for another day :)