13 Hours and Counting

Thirteen hours from now, we'll lock the door behind us, climb into a taxi, and head off to the airport!

North Carolina, here we come! For three blissful weeks. Yay. Yay. Yay.

We'll spend a week with friends in Raleigh. Mike will check in with work, we have appointments to get our visa paperwork sorted out, get our teeth cleaned (still free with our US insurance there), go to our favorite restaurants (hello, Neomonde and, mmm, tortilla soup at Fiesta Mexicana), visit Jer and Kara petsitters extraordinaire and THE KITTIES, check up on our house, see the Langness and Hutchins families, get in a killer workout with go-to gals B.A.T. and Lisa, get a few things out of storage, and all that good stuff. We must have really made the transition to living like Europeans now since Mike's planning to buy jeans and cigarettes in the US to bring back here! All in all, we are going to have six fun-filled days with friends. Can't wait. Oh, kicked off with a Def Leppard concert with my girls. I know I am insane, but I'm going straight to the concert after we land...Rental car to Kristi's house to shower...Then, get dressed (big hair and blue eyeshadow = mandatory), grab some coffee to wake up and then, off to the concert! Crazy...but I wouldn't miss it for the world. (Not a huge Def Lep fan, but I mean, I would go see Barry Manilow if I were going with Tina, Kristi, Ann, and Ra). And look, I already made my freezer-paper-stencil custom T-shirt for the big night:

Next...off to Black Mountain for seven days! Woohoo! Get there in time for dinner on Friday. Mmm, my mother-in-law's (a.k.a. "Nanny") cooking is simply the best. We'll be there for her 70th birthday party, for Fourth of July fireworks, for Merrit's 8th birthday. I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch swing with a glass of sweet tea. Taking the kids up to Montreat to play at the park and in the creeks. We've been invited to the home of our most awesome friend, Eric, and his girlfriend, Anne, for a cookout and campfire. Sweeeeet! Cannot wait to catch up with them under the stars. Summer in the WNC mountains...ahhh...I can practically smell the air. Smells like home. I think most of the family (Too many to list! You know who you are!) will be in town for my mother-in-love's birthday--and to see us!--and preggers Page will be there with her not-so-little-anymore-baby-bump. Hoping to get to see Les and Donna and Mike's brother Chris and Chris's new bride! I am also looking forward to a few runs through my hometown's streets, up Cherry Street to Lake Tomahawk, sprint up a couple of killer hills, get a great workout in while I'm on vacation to work off those big Southern-style breakfasts!

Week three...heading east...stopping overnight in Wake Forest to see Mike's sister Kim and her husband Gilbert and our nephew Tyler. Then we'll keep on driving east to a rental house on Emerald Isle, where we'll plop our beach chairs down in the sand for the perfect week-long R&R getaway. My mom is coming down from her house in New Bern to spend the week with us. Can you say "shrimp boil?" Oh yeah, it's so on. We always cook up lots of fresh seafood when we go to the beach with my mom. She sent me an email of what she's bringing and it just says it all...beach towels, life jackets, fishing poles, Old Bay seasoning, sunscreen, cooler, beach chairs, boogie boards...I just can't wait. One whole week of warm sand, hopefully sunny skies, long beach walks with Mike, playing in the surf with the boys, fresh seafood and...most of all, good time with my most wonderful and most awesome MOM!!!

Just 13 hours till we kick off our summer holiday! We are all counting the hours!