Raleigh Trip - Day 3

It's been over a month since we went to Raleigh, but I'm finally getting around to posting about our last full day there.  On Sunday (August 19th) we woke up to it pouring.  Luckily we had planned to go to Marbles, the awesome children's museum in downtown Raleigh.  We had hoped to meet up with Johnny and Anakah and their kids but they were sick and stayed home.  We did get to see our friends Cass and Jeremy though and their son Liam (who was 17 months at the time).  And Brian's parents came along too so it was lots of fun!

I think this area is called "Toddlers Hollow".  It's a really cute room painted and decorated like a forest with lots of stuffed animals and areas to explore.  Carter found this "hidden" room in a tree and loved hiding out in it.

I guess this was supposed to be a weeping willow - luckily Carter didn't pull down any of the "branches" (though he tried).

Fireman Carter:

Dinosaurs - AWESOME!!!

Rylan found the train table, of course.  The boys rarely play with their train table at home but as soon as they see one at a public place, it's hard to pull them away!

Rylan and Liam tried out the "Lighthouse" area - luckily neither got too wet.

I think this is cheating ...

Brian and Carter built a cool house with two rooms.

Rylan is more into building towers.

Liam with his own unique construction!

Though it's neat, I will never get over the "Work Bench" exhibit and the fact they have real saws and stuff that the kids can easily get to.  Carter had fun though using a hand drill to put a hole through this wood.

Rylan enjoying the "Power2Play" sports area ...

We stayed at Marbles for a couple of hours and then went out to lunch with Brian's parents at a restaurant in North Hills.  Raleigh was beginning an exhibit that weekend where the placed decorated cows throughout town.  They were placing a few while we were at North Hills and Carter wanted his picture with them.

After lunch we went back to Brian's parents' house for naps for the kids.  After a nap Carter went outside with Cinda to pick some vegetables from her garden for dinner.  Though he wouldn't eat any of the peppers or tomatoes, he loved picking them.  I'm hoping we can figure out a place for a garden in our yard for next year (we have plenty of room, but we want it to look nice too).

We left the next morning and drove ALL DAY back to Nashville.  It was a long, long drive.  The boys are always better on the drive to a place than they are on the way home.  They weren't terrible but we were all just ready to be out of the car (plus there were way too many potty stops - I even put a diaper on Carter after awhile and then that leaked).  But it was worth it to see Brian's parents and a bunch of our friends!