A Quick Trip to Charlotte NC

Before Christmas, Daddy made a quick work trip to Charlotte to speak to Discovery Place about a collaborative effort to install a permanent sustainable forestry exhibit with his nonprofit organization and Tree Charlotte to educate a more urban population about the benefits of sustainable forestry and urban forestry.  As a former forester for the state who worked that county, Eddie knows that there is a great need to reach people in large urban areas who don't understand the importance of forestry.  Eddie was able to plant more trees in the most urban area of our state than almost any other county in the state except for a few very rural areas in the eastern part of the state that have very large forest industry owned tracts of land like in Bertie County.  Forest industry is one of the major owners and managers of forested lands in the state with the biggest probably being Weyerhauser.  Anyway, Eddie hopes that he has opened the door for this important exhibit to come to fruition even though he will not be here to finish the job.  He has budgeted the funds to start the process, and the museum is excited to begin working on it.  They are already building a big new outdoor nature center at Freedom Park and want to immediately create something over there while working towards a more permanent exhibit at the main facility.  While Daddy was in this meeting, the boys and I got to explore Discovery Place again.  We have visited this educational museum several times over the years and saw several special exhibits there.  When Evan was a baby, we saw the cute Norman Rockwell exhibit.  A few years later, we went to see the awesome mummy exhibit with mummies from around the world.  This time, they were exhibiting a special Genghis Khan collection.  It was really fascinating.  I love when history comes to life at museums like this.

The boys head off to explore the rainforest while Mattox gets to touch an alligator (or crocodile?) head. 

We spotted Mr. Tank the tortoise in his home. 

The boys loved the fish. 

I think jellyfish always look so pretty in their tanks.  I got surprised by this turtle that was walking freely in the museum.  Glad I didn't step on him!  

Brody enjoys the interactive globe while Grayson just watches it all.

These sculptures were amazing.  They had a ton of these little wood building blocks you could use to build your own creation too.  Someone had built the big tower on the right. 

Brody and Evan got a little too much enjoyment out of torturing one another on the bed of nails.  Haha! 

Off to meet Genghis Khan and see the largest empire in the history of the world. 

We loved learning about this fascinating character.  

We saw a traditional nomadic dwelling that the Mongolian people would have lived in.  Brody traveled back in time to 1206 Mongolia. 

The Mongols developed some pretty interesting weapons, including swords and even guns. 

Evan loved that huge crossbow. 

I loved the prettier artifacts like ancient Mongolian jewelry, pottery, and musical instruments. 

These ancient memorial stones to some of the Khan family. 

Ancient Mongolian clothes for men and women were still ornate much like their Chinese predecessors.  They even made ancient folding chairs look beautiful. 

These sculptures of some of the Khan family were unique.  Khan's empire was divided by his four sons who continued to fight one another for control over the whole empire and eventually leading to the dissolution of the whole empire. 

The boys and I all enjoyed a little trip to ancient Mongolia. 

Very ornate sculptures representing family and deity of the Mongol people. 

Of course, trade with the area became a very important part of world history as everyone wanted the beautiful and rich products of this region.  The pottery was definitely gorgeous, and we all still love our "china" today.  

These festival masks were amazingly detailed and colorful. 

Mattox and I enjoyed using the lift, and the boys wanted to take a final walk across this rope bridge. If I had one of those rope pulley lifts at home, I think I could really get into shape.  It was pretty hard work lifting myself at the moment.  Ha!

After exploring Discovery Place, we all decided to hang out at our old favorite mall at Southpark before heading home.  The boys loved all the Christmas decor at this very upscale mall.  While very upscale with a Neiman Marcus and other expensive stores, this mall is fun and does have something for everyone.  Brody enjoyed the kissing booth from The Secret Life of Pets too.

One of the things I was a little upset about is that sometime after we moved away, the mall added an awesome outdoor play space here.  They had never had a kids' play area at this mall, and we would have loved that.  It was too cold to use it that night.

On the way home, we decided to stop and see the awesome Christmas lights at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord.  I am not a big racing fan so this is likely the only way I will visit the racetrack.  

The display included some race car themed lights and some other random and fun ones like the whales.

There was also a crab, Santa in a dune buggy with someone parasailing behind it, and Santa doing the limbo with hula girls. 

Santa also went diving and rowing in a boat.

But it was also nice to see the real reason for the season displayed.

Brody's Last Winter Excursion

Well, we hope that it was his last one for the year because we are all ready for Spring!  At the moment, we are still in the process of settling into our new home.  We moved about 90% of our things, but we still have to go back this weekend to get the last little bit and clean everything up.  Our new house is slowly getting more functional although the boys are going a little crazy because many of their toys and games have not made it here yet.  We also do not have cable set up yet so it is a bit difficult entertaining them all day while caring for a newborn.  We were very thankful last weekend that both boys had fun birthday parties to attend while we anxiously awaited baby Mattox's arrival.  Brody was invited to his old school friend William's party at his house which is in our old neighborhood just a few blocks from our house.  The party was a "snow" party, and his parents had made snow in their front yard for the kids to play in.  I think they all enjoyed playing in the snow one more time, and it was nice that the temperature was not quite so cold this time.

Brody is armed and ready with snowballs.

School pal Miles enjoyed eating the snow. 

He loves snow!

Birthday boy William joins the fun. 

He has been on a mission all winter to make a snow angel.  

William enjoyed running and sliding onto the snow. 

Making snow balls...or snow rocks.  Whatever. 

Someone's going to get it! 

Friends William and Sammy were dressed for a snow day. 

Of course, Brody and I had to attempt to make a snowman. 

Brody put on the finishing touches.  

It was so nice for him to see his old friends one more time.  I know he likely will not remember them, but I am glad he had a fun day and made some memories we could preserve for him. He even took home some "snowballs."  The favors were bags with white cotton "snowballs," and Evan thought they were so neat. 

Evan also had a party with his best school and Cub Scout friend, Patrick, on Sunday, but we were not able to attend with him so we have no pictures of that one.  I know leaving this special friend is really going to be hard on Evan, but we hope to be able to get these boys together again soon.  Evan told me he was sad about moving, but he was also excited.  We are so thankful that we got Evan enrolled for school in a great school in our new community that is on a year round schedule, and we got him into the track that we wanted that allows him to stay home until the end of March after his birthday because that track is on break this month.  Now, we hope we can get him signed up for Spring baseball and his new Cub Scout troop to keep him busy.

Ready for 2015!

2015 is already promising to be an exciting year with many new adventures for our family.  With little Mattox on his way and a big moving adventure ahead of us, we are looking forward to lots of exciting changes.  We are ready!

We spent New Year's Eve night at our neighbor's house where their son, Zachary, invited Evan to join his little party.  The boys enjoyed playing a freezing game of basketball outside while the adults and little ones enjoyed eating lots of yummy appetizers inside.  When the boys had enough of the cold, they came inside to enjoy pizza and snacks and play video games.  Brody had fun playing with our other neighbor's little boy, Jaxon, and Ms. Kristin.  He finally started getting really tired close to 11:00 p.m. so we left Evan with the other boys and took Brody home to get him ready for bed.  Evan made it almost to midnight but apparently had went into the living room to sit by the fire and watch the football game and was falling asleep so our neighbor brought him home.  He woke up and watched the ball drop and toasted in the new year with us.  It was a fun night.  We recreated the toast on New Year's Day so that Brody could join us.  My only regret is not getting the traditional southern New Year's feast of collard greens and black eyed peas which are supposed to bring wealth and good luck.  Charlotte seems to be seriously lacking in restaurants that understand this tradition.  I think that is a problem that needs to be rectified ASAP or else I need to learn to cook some collards.  Haha!  One of the few restaurants with those items on the menu was not open for New Year's so we may have to try it this weekend.

Natalie, I just couldn't resist trying to capture this picture with sparklers after your facebook post.  

My boys are ready with festive hats, blowers, and Hawaiian lei.  I'm not sure where the lei came from, but the hats were reused from last year. 

Toasting with Mommy.  Daddy refused to get in the picture with us. 

Toasting together. 

And they definitely enjoyed their sweet beverage. 

Just as excited about his glass of sparkling juice as he would be over some real champagne. 

Brody and little Jaxon enjoyed playing the piano together. 

Brody was in the mood to show us some yoga. 

The big boys enjoyed their pizza while playing video games.  

Daddy and Brody cheesing together. 

Ms. Kristin was Brody's favorite playmate of the night.