The Zumwalt Family: The Tar Heel State

One week ago yesterday, Kenadie, myself and my parents headed out around 6 a.m. on a little 13 hour adventure that would take us to North Carolina! First of all, I need to note that Kenadie could not have been a BETTER passenger!!! I truly thought she had been replaced by a child that actually ENJOYED riding in the car! I had EVERY trick in my bag imaginable. Her good behavior was probably a little influenced by the fact that I spent, oh... probably $100 or so just to get us there with new activities/DVDs/My Little Pony/light up toys/candy... you get the picture :) Needless to say, she had a WONDERFUL time in the car and after the "newness" wore off of an item, I was quickly pulling out the next one :)

This was our first visit to see my brother and his sweet family since their move back in November. It was also Aaron's first time NOT to be a part of a trip in the past 13 years! We missed him, but I took plenty of pictures to fill him in on all of our fun.

Attempting to pack our suitcase...

We're Here!!! We arrived to their house late Wednesday. On Thursday, we met Wes for lunch, Hayden and Kenadie had fun playing ALL day and then we celebrated "St.Papa's" birthday that night. His birthday is March 17th--so he pretty much always has a St. Patrick's Day themed cake :)

Oh my goodness...Henry is the SWEETEST and HAPPIEST baby I know!!! Precious!

On Friday, we headed over to Raleigh where we had a FABULOUS lunch at Cheesecake Factory. I must admit, I did feel a wee bit guilty for partaking of mine and Aaron's favorite cheesecake without him. Mmmm... white chocolate raspberry truffle...

We did a little shopping before visiting the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

On our way back from Raleigh, which is about an hour away from Wes and Joy, we stopped by the outlets in Smithfield. Mom, Joy and I had a wonderful time shopping... Wes, Papa and kids...apparently not so much! When we were done shopping, Wes greeted us with a friendly "If ya'll had half as much fun as we did, then you were COMPLETELY miserable!" Ooops...sorry, but thank you Wes and Papa for letting us girls have fun shopping :)
On Saturday we enjoyed a picnic lunch, followed by the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores, a visit to the beach, and lastly, you guessed it...a tiny bit more shopping :)

This picture was taken only seconds before Kenadie fell in the water, and freezing water at that :)

Hayden, Kenadie and Henry woke up Sunday morning to their filled Easter baskets from Papa and Kay Kay :) After lunch and naps, we had fun doing a little Easter egg hunting :)