North Carolina Vacation

Everyone needs a vacation! We wanted to visit with family that we had not seen in awhile and have some time just relaxing. We chose North Carolina as our destination because we had never visited the N.C. coast.

We began our trip with a stop in Wilmington, North Carolina. We found a great new hotel that just happened to be across the strett from a Target (for those little things I may have forgotten to pack), had a pool and was close to the beach. We were hoping that Autumn and Elijah would be able to join us after Vacation Bible School, but after Elijah got sick and Autumn thought her car may be possessed they weren't able to join us. You can read about their adventure on Autumn's blog. We missed them at the beach!

Noah enjoyed the sun, sand and water. Daniel and I joked that we placed all of our belongings too far away from the water because kept saying "more, more" for more water. We would fill up his pails with water and he would immediately dump them out. We made LOTS of trips to the water and back!

Noah also enjoyed his first Oreo while on the beach. He's not crazy about cookies or candy, but he devoured the Oreo!

Since Elijah was better and the car was fixed, we traveled to Fayetteville or better yet Fort Bragg as planned. Noah and Elijah had a grand time playing in the sprinkler, then we all enjoyed roasted hot dogs and smores.

Fort Bragg is so big, it's a city all on it's own! Autumn and Elijah showed us around base including a museum that was closed. That was ok, because there were old vehicles, airplanes and helicopters to see. Noah was amazed and enjoyed all of them!

I had done some research on places to see in Fayetteville. I asked Autumn about Jambbas Ranch. She said she had heard of it, but had never been and didn't know anyone who had. Well, we decided we must go and check it out! Oh BOY! The ranch was a lot of land, some rescued animals, including a black/grizzly bear named Ben and a whole lot of goats. Our adventure began on an exciting moment. We were admiring a sheep that was in a pen all by himself. He appeared to be happy that we had some bread, that was until one of us dropped a piece on the ground where he couldn't reach it. He got a bit ticked off and rammed the fence. We all jumped and almost wet ourselves. Poor Noah screamed in horror! This was only the second animal we had admired on our journey at the ranch, so Noah was a bit on edge the rest of the adventure!

When I say a lot of goats, I mean a lot of goats. They were all cute especially the baby goats! We all enjoyed being able to feed all of the animals. Even the dogs liked the day old bread we had! The gold mine, the covered bridge and the swinging bridge were fun too!

Our only complaint wasn't really about the ranch, but about the weather. It was freaking hot and humid when we visited. We decided we didn't plan our trip well and definitely did not take the weather into account. I really don't like hot, especially the kind that is somwhere close to 100 degrees and with high humidity.

We were sad when Tuesday arrived and it was time for our next stop on our week long escape. Noah was ready for our trip to S.C. because he would get to see the big tractor at Baba and Papa's we had been talking so much about.