Wilde Week of Fun (in reverse)

Last month was a month for big decision making as Justin was presented with two exciting career opportunities within just a few days of each other. After a lot of prayer and late-night discussion, he decided to accept a position with Wells Fargo managing a reporting and analytics team. We will remain in Charlotte and I couldn't be more proud of and excited for Justin!

Since Justin left Bank of America for a competitor he only had to work for one week after giving his notice... Which meant he had a free week of paid vacation before starting his new job! We decided to use this time to do as many fun things as possible since Justin's vacation time at Wells Fargo will be limited until it resets at the beginning of next year.

So here's a photo-journal our Week of Fun (in reverse because blogger likes to upload my pictures backwards)!

4.11.10 Daddy teaching Norah the basics on a lazy Sunday afternoon... She loved every second!

This picture is for (most of) our west coast friends/family who are still experiencing snow and bitter cold. Don't you wish you lived in NC right about now? (*hint hint*)

Norah loved it when Justin would bounce her in the backpack. She had the best seat in the house! :) (Camping in the Blue Ridge Mts. with the Johnston family)

Regardless of the fact that we are uninsured for the next month (per standard policy that you need to be at a company for at least a month before you qualify for insurance/benefits), Justin decided to climb this tree and then have Jonathan hand Jack and Eddie up, too. Thankfully, no one was injured. ;)

Jack stopped to "read" (i.e. make up his own facts) most of the little information stands throughout the 1.5 mile mini-hike.

Eddie had me scared to death for about 60% of this hike. For some reason he seems to attract injury and quite a bit of our afternoon at the Cascade falls were right next to an extremely steep drop-off. What were we thinking, right? :)

Jackson posing for a picture. :)

Wilde Family 2010

Cascade Falls, Blue Ridge Mountains

This picture doesn't do the falls justice! They were so steep and beautiful! After such an easy hike we weren't expecting that the waterfall would be very impressive... We were very pleasantly surprised, though!

Yeah, you try to take BOYS for a hike next to a river and expect them NOT to have to go peeps at some point. And of course, what better place to aim than at said river? ;) (Little bums are just too cute!)

Eddie is channeling his inner roadblock. :)

Spring is so beautiful up in the mountains! I couldn't get enough of the new lime-colored spring leaves against the bright blue sky. (And no - I did not color boost this picture!)

These two manned the fire-pit in their luxury seating accommodations. :) The last time we went camping was last fall when Norah was just learning to sit up by herself! What a difference a winter makes! :)

Me. Getting another hoodie. Little did I know just HOW cold it would get at night! The temperature dropped to below 40 degrees and Justin finally took Norah to sleep in the van with the heater on while I stayed in the tent cuddling the boys. We finally had to join them in the van around 5:30 am because it was just SO cold! It's hard to believe how chilly it gets at night when the days are in the high 70's!

The older kids spent most of their time at the campsite shoving food and pouring soda and/or juice down a "frog hole". Since it was keeping them occupied and we were relatively sure there were no actual frogs involved, we let them pursue this endeavor. :)

And just how excited was Norah to go camping? A picture is worth a thousand words!

Dinner time! I think all of the big kids ate their weight in Cheeto puffs. (Yes, they ate 'real' food, too. :)

Since we forgot her stroller (among many other things! What can I say other than I'm pregnant. I had a list and STILL forgot to pack quite a few things!) - so Norah happily perched in the baby backpack and observed from her nest.

The Boys. Didn't even try to get them all to look at me, lol. (Will, Eddie, Tyler, Jack)

Jack chattered non-stop for the entire 1.5 hour drive up to the mountains - only to finally fall asleep about 15 minutes before we arrived at our campsite. He was SO excited to go camping! This kid could live outside and be completely happy for life. :)

After a great morning/early afternoon at Carowinds we decided to leave the park to get lunch (not wanting to spend $10 on a hot dog, thank you). Thank goodness we left when we did! I was just buckling in the last kiddo when the rain started - and the wind soon followed! As we were exiting the park we saw several families getting soaked as they ran to their cars. It may have ruined our plans to return to the park after lunch, but thankfully we'd decided to go ahead and purchase season passes so we can go back whenever we want! :) We are very much anticipating using our passes frequently this summer. The water park looks amazing and Justin is dying to ride the roller coasters (including the new Intimidator - named after Dale Earnhardt, Sr.). I about threw-up just looking at it. Luckily, I'm pregnant so I legitimately CAN'T ride the roller coasters... (And thus eliminates the need for me to make up any lame excuses why I can't ride with him, lol.)

Jackson barely cleared the 40" requirement to ride without an adult so he got to wear a special wrist band (which stopped him from having to be measured for every single ride). He LOVED the roller coasters he was able to go on with Justin!

Eddie wasn't quite tall enough (he's 38.5" and needs to be 40") to ride some of the bigger rides with Justin and Jack, but he had a blast on the ones he was able to go on!

The first ride of our first visit to Carowinds!

Miss Eleanor is, obviously, too young to ride almost every ride Carowinds has to offer. However, a huge part of the park - the Boomerang Bay water park (which opens May 1st), is very kid friendly and has a wonderful area for toddlers. This will work out perfectly this summer since Justin can take the boys on the rides (which I can't go on anyway) while I take Norah and my growing belly to the water park. Since the water park wasn't open during this visit, Norah was content to walk around smiling at strangers and eating graham crackers. :)

Waiting in line to ride their first ride of the season!

Other fun things we did during our Week Of Fun:

* Had our big ultrasound and it revealed a healthy baby!

* The boys had their 6-month dental cleanings and, yet again, did awesome. :) They kept the hygeneist laughing and both got a great report, a toy, and a new toothbrush. :)

* We took the kids to see H.ow To Tr.ain Your Dra.gon in IMAX 3D. It was cute, but so not worth the money for the IMAX 3D, lol! Jack appreciated the 3D, but they (especially Eddie) would have enjoyed it just as much on a regular screen in regular 2D.