First Trip to the Triangle

Prepare for post overload over the next week or so! Lots to catch up on with traveling and Nolan's 2nd Birthday!

The last weekend in March, we took advantage of Nolan's last week of being a one year old (and thus qualifying as an "infant in arms" free plane ticket) and booked a flight to visit our old stomping grounds in Durham. 

Although it's only been about 6 months since Nolan's last flight, he is WAYYY more into airplanes now and was SO EXCITED to see all the airplanes at the airport. Joe and I took turns walking down the concourse with him stopping at each window while Nolan excitedly yelled "AIRPANE!" over and over. 

Airpane in da sky!

I was a little nervous about the trip because I stupidly mailed our only copy of Nolan's birth certificate away earlier this month for his passport application (I thought I had made a copy, but never found it). Technically we can be asked to "prove" he is under two and qualifies for a free ticket, but luckily we never got asked. I packed as much other paperwork with his birthdate as possible, just in case but didn't have to use it. Nolan did, however, earn a gold "Junior Officer" sticker from a Philly TSA agent on the way there :)

Nolan's TSA Sticker - who said people in Philly weren't nice?! (he didn't get one in Raleigh!)

The actual flight was a bit of an effort to keep Nolan occupied, but luckily was only an hour. The magic pen book, stickers, and board books were in full rotation to make it through. We stayed with my high school friend Whitney and her husband Esteban and 6 year old TJ in Carrboro, NC from Friday to Monday. Nolan loved playing with TJ and their gigantic bull mastiff Attila and kitty Tyrion (yes, after the Game of Thrones character). 

On Friday, we got in around 11am, rented a car, and drove around the area a bit while Nolan napped in his carseat, first past our old house to reminisce, then through downtown Durham to see all the new restaurants that have opened since we moved. We stopped and had lunch at an old favorite - Cosmic Cantina for some burritos, then headed over to the Duke campus to stop by my old lab. We stayed for an hour or so while I caught up with my old advisor and some of the more senior students/postdocs that I overlapped with - Nolan kept himself busy by opening/closing the break room fridge a million times :) We then headed over to Chapel Hill to meet Whitney and her family for dinner at a BBQ place called "The Pig", which was really good! Finally, we capped off our long day by heading back to Whitney's place, putting Nolan down, and staying up late chatting over a few beers. I have no photos of any of these things - oops.

On Saturday, we had a fun get together at Amy and Steve's with lots of our old friends from NC - Faryn and Lance with their daughter Bella, Cathy and Mike with their daughter Emma, Wendy and Craig, Irwin and Chrissy. Nolan and Owen had a blast playing together (last time they got together was last summer during their Philly visit), and Nolan loved all the attention and toys to play with at the house. We ordered pizza for everyone for lunch, which was a big hit for the kids too. We headed back to Whitney's place for a bit to rest, then headed back to Durham for dinner/drinks at FullSteam Brewery. This place is awesome with a big indoor area with picnic tables that is very family friendly and food trucks outside for food. Unfortunately, we picked the busiest night ever due to them releasing a new beer that benefitted Lemur's, which made it difficult to deal with Nolan wanting to run around with all the crowds. We stayed for a bit, then Joe decided to bow out with Nolan to let him run around Whitney's house before bed to burn off some steam. I caught up a bit more with Faryn, Lance, Amy, and Chelsea, then headed back home with Whitney and Esteban. We had another fun night after the kids were in bed playing Cards against Humanity, which is always fun! Again... no photos. What is wrong with me?! I even brought my nice camera too. Thankfully Faryn took some photos on Saturday so hopefully I can update this after I can get them from her.

On Sunday we headed back to Amy's again for some more relaxed time at her place with Faryn and Lance coming by along with Liz and her sons Evan and Nate. The kids had a blast again with all of the toys Amy's house has to offer, then Amy and I took Owen and Nolan for a wagon ride to the local park. It wasn't exactly the warm weather weekend I had been hoping for, but we still tried to get as much time outdoors as possible. I made up for my lack of photo taking on Sunday by taking pretty much a million photos (ok closer to 400, but still!) Here are a few from the day...

Amy's house is a Toddler Paradise. Just LOOK at that table full of cars!

Nolan was a big fan, and of course found the Helicopter right away (his favorite!)

Bella getting in on the fun

Nolan and Bella checking out the loot

Owen and the dirt devil (the sound scared Nolan!)

Stopping for some Daddy hugs after getting scared

Time with Mommy!

Baby Connor! Only 3 months old.

Nolan's buddy Owen

Bella checking out Owen's kitchen

Nolan's snack break

Happy kid!

Amy and her boys! Cute family :)

Nolan and I practicing putting the Easter eggs in the basket

Nate and Owen playing in his kitchen

Owen and Nolan bundled up in the wagon with baby dolls, snacks, and drinks. I die of cuteness.

At the park. First, snack time, then play time!

Where to start?!

Straight to the balls! 

This guy would rather kick... everything! One more year until he starts soccer :)

These bocce balls are HEAVY!

Let's try to kick them instead!

Amy and Connor playing Bocce

It's swingtime!

This boy really loves his swings!

Weeeeee!

Swinging together! Owen with both boots on...

Still swinging. Owen with one boot on...

Aaaand Owen with NO boots on! :)

Pretty Mama and her son

Me and my kiddo!

Words cannot describe how much I love him.

After our FUN walk to the park, we decided to keep the photos rolling and take advantage of the time to get family photos of both families. It's not often you have the opportunity to get everyone in the shot!

Amy and Connor

Family of Four!

Our little family :)

Love this out-take... Nolan looking for airplanes with the wind blowing his hair wild!

Yup... it was pretty WINDY! Love this photo (and Connor's hat!)

Another good one of their family!

Owen and Nolan then spent some time trying out Owen's tricycle. It was Nolan's first time on a trike!

Steve and Owen

And there goes Nolan with Daddy! He LOVED it!

Proud parents

Nolan looking like a big boy on the trike

After our busy days, we decided to do a low-key dinner with just our family on Sunday night. We headed over to NanaTaco, which we had heard great things about (another new place that has opened since we left) and we weren't disappointed. Very yummy!

Nolan with our feast

Black bean mustache!

On Monday morning we got everything ready to head back then headed over to Rise (another place we had heard great things about in Durham) for some Donuts/Biscuits. Out of nowhere as we were standing in line to order, Nolan puked a ton of milk all over me (I was holding him). Never a dull moment in parenting! Luckily I had all of our clothes with us in the car since we were heading to the airport, so we ducked into the nearby Target to use their large bathrooms and washed all of my and Nolan's clothes in the sink. While Joe was tending to our clothes, I entertained Nolan in the party section of Target. This boy LOVES to wear hats for dress-up (and seriously, he didn't even act sick at all! That one throw up was an isolated incident and was probably due to me giving him too much milk that morning).

Fun in Target!

After all that fun, we still had our breakfast at Rise and were able to eat outside (it was a gorgeous day out... of course the day we were leaving!) We then headed straight to the airport. I was still a little worried about our little guy getting sick again (how awful would that be in the rental car right before we returned it?!!) so I sat in the back with him for the ride. He gave me faces like the photo below, so I was guessing he was feeling just fine ;)

Cheesin'

The return flight was even easier than the flight down. Nolan was a lot less restless and was happy to play with his magic coloring book, sing songs (quietly), and look out the window. The funniest part was he would see clouds and say (kind of loudly) "SMOKE!" and then look down at the ground and say "PLANE GO DOWN!" which I had to tell him to not say too loudly and correct his use of words! Ahh toddlers :)

Overall, it was a really great trip. Nolan didn't sleep the greatest due to our weird schedule of running around everywhere and different sleeping environments with no blackout curtains. He actually went to sleep pretty easily at night and woke up with the sun (very early for him), but basically took NO naps the whole time down there other than short cat naps during car trips. But we survived! And based on the fact that Nolan still asks daily for "TeeDay", I'd say he had a great time and loved staying at Whitney's house with TJ. Until next time, NC - we hope to be back soon!