North Carolina Nolens

This past weekend, I went to see the North Carolina Nolens. It was so nice to visit with Rachel and see the kids. It wasn't a long visit, but it sure was a nice one.

Will and Jamie and I hung out at the house with Rachel most of the weekend. Notice that Jamie is asleep in every picture... because I refuse to post pictures of other people's crying babies and any time I held her awake, she was crying.

(It's okay, Jamie. I know it's not personal... you just really love your mama.)

On Saturday, we did some shopping. Rachel is in an HGTV sort of place right now and since I love HGTV, we had plenty to watch and do while I was visiting. We (and by "we" I mean I was offering opinions and Rachel and her wallet were making all final decisions) bought a couple of magnetic dry erase boards for the play room so that Will (and later Jamie) can draw or play with magnets on the wall. We also got a cork bulletin board for over the couch in the play room which Rachel decorated with some cute pirate decorations. Rachel had also been looking for camo decorations for Will's room without much success. I suggested that we get some canvases and paint it ourselves, so we went ahead and got those supplies while we were out.

On Sunday, we went out to Gross Farms. They had a corn maze, a hay ride, some places to play and many, many, many pumpkins. The corn maze had a cute gimmick called "F.S.I" or "Farm Scene Investigation." In the smallest maze, that meant that you looked for the one clue that gave it all away. In the largest maze, you searched for all of the clues and used process of elimination to decide who offed Farmer Brown, where, and with what.

Sunday evening, Will and I worked on our big art project. Will drew all of the camo on the canvas and I drew the Army Airborne logo. Then he and I painted the desert sand portions before he had to go to bed. After he went to bed, I finished this one and Rachel did the two smaller ones that will go on either side of this one on the wall in Will's room.

Monday, I got up and took Will to school. I tried to stay and hang out, but I wasn't on The List (because why would his Texas aunt be on a list of folks to pick him up from school in North Carolina). So instead, Rachel and Jamie and I came back for lunch. It was really neat to see Will's school and meet some of his friends.

I was ready to get back to my family by Monday afternoon, but I sure do miss those other Nolens.