Saturday, October 2, 2010

The Perfect Day

What a beautiful Saturday we had in North Carolina today! Sunny, low 70's, after 4 straight days of rain. Just what the doctor ordered after another trying week at work for me...

We woke up this morning, had breakfast, and put the girls in the strollers for a morning walk. Dale and I used to go on walks all the time, both before and after Ivie was born. For some reason, after my maternity leave with Mac (during which I walked regularly with her to lose the baby weight!), the walks came far less regularly. I'm sure it had a lot to do with our busier 2-children lives. But it was so nice this morning to get back out there. We brought along the iPod sound dock and jammed out along the way.

The only glitch during the entire hour was that, upon our return home, Macie's lovey was missing. So Dale had to jump in the car and re-trace our steps, finding it about a mile from home. Phew! I had been desperately trying to figure out where we could get a replacement on short order...

We came home, showered, and then headed to KFC to pick up chicken to take to campus for our tailgate. The game (versus ECU) didn't start until 3:30p, so we knew that staying for the game with the girls wasn't an option, but we didn't let that spoil our Tar Heel Town fun.

After eating...





... we did a little shopping at Student Stores...





...and then headed to the quad.


The first stop was the face painting station.









Though the bounce houses were a little disappointing, they did have a new addition to THT, a train, so that appeased Ivie.


Then came the Old Well Walk. The girls waited patiently for it to begin...




... and it gave Ivie a chance to snag my camera and take a couple of pictures.


(She really did take this next one - isn't it great?!?)


Ivie loves to sit on Dale's shoulders and give the players high fives. Someday she'll hate me for taking this picture, but I couldn't pass it up.


When the Walk was over, we headed back toward the stadium, with plans to visit the recruit tailgate at the Bell Tower before leaving for home. When we were almost there, though, I made a scary realization - I'd lost our car key. I won't even go into the reason why, since it involves my less-than-intelligent decision to clip it onto a chain on my new diaper bag via a carabiner. Wrong answer. Apparently the little chain broke off. And the key went with it.

Not sure what to do at that point, we began re-tracing our steps. A familiar theme for our day. After 15 minutes of no luck, as I was pretty much admitting defeat, Dale stopped by the train station and asked the conductor if he had, by chance, found it. And, for the Herman miracle of the day, HE HAD. Ahhhhhhhh.

When he brought it over to me, Dale said, "I better read a blog about how I found both the lovey and the key today." So here's your public recognition, Dale, though I'm pretty sure you've stopped reading by now, anyway!

So, back to our day. With a bounce in our step and me breathing several sighs of relief (since we now had a way home), we turned our attention back to our original plan of visiting the recruit tailgate. And Macie got HER chance to ride on Daddy's shoulders. And, clearly, loved it.

(My favorite picture of the day...)





We finally made it to the tailgate, where we saw Lance.


Then, we met up with the Devers at the Bell Tower and tried to get the girls to cooperate for a few pictures. We weren't very successful, or at least I wasn't (maybe Brooke got better results!)!





It was finally time to head home. The girls were sad that they couldn't stay for the game. As we drove away, Ivie, looking out the window at all the people streaming to the stadium, said, "Mommy, I wish I could stay and go to the game like all of THOSE people!". Macie was exhausted, and barely made it home without falling asleep in her seat. In fact, the last 2 minutes, Ivie and I kept her awake solely by laughing at how funny her eyes looked as they tried to drift off to sleep.

It was just a perfect day with Dale and the girls. I think I'll remember this one for a long time.

1 comment:

Michelle said...

Glad you had such a good Saturday, you certainly deserve it. I was hoping we would see you guys, but we didn't make it to Tar Heel Town. I love the girls shirts...I bought Gianna the same one at Old Navy. :)