August 1-7

We decided a few weeks ago that we would schedule a trip to Raleigh to see Todd's family. We planned the trip around the baby's anatomy scan so we could do the big reveal up there. The trip got off to a rough start because of all days, Mother Nature decided Friday would she bring flooding rains to the area. It poured rain from the time we left our house until we were in Salisbury. Luckily, it cleared up a bit after that and Aubrey and I both passed out for about an hour after that. The weather was nice in Raleigh when we got there, but super muggy and hot. Todd's aunt and uncle recently added some chickens to their farm and they were excited to show them off. Aubrey was fascinated with the chickens. They let Aubrey feed them and then gather the eggs for them. She picked up the first egg and handed it to Todd and said"Open it." She thought it was like an Easter egg and was completely confused that we couldn't open it. So, she decided to chuck the egg into the basket and chipped it. She helped gather the rest of the eggs and then asked to feed them again. One of the chickens got impatient waiting on her to drop the bread and tried to peck at her hand which freaked her out a little so she threw the bread at them and was over the feeding. After dinner, she wanted to feed them again but she didn't want them to peck at her, so she sat on the table to feed them. She talked about chickens the rest of the night and woke up asking to go feed them Saturday morning.

Friday night was a long night because it was Aubrey's first night sleeping on an air mattress. She is really too big for the pack-n-play so we thought we'd see how she did on the air mattress. It took forever to get her to sleep on it because she wanted us to stay with her which meant she could talk and sing to us. We finally got her to sleep around 10:00, only for her to wake up at 5:30 AM when I had to get up to use the bathroom. This made Saturday a long day because we were all so tired. Aubrey and Todd hung out with the family while I went shopping with Todd's mom, Traci, her boyfriend, and their cousin Donnie. I did some serious damage at Kohl's with tax free weekend, a 20% off coupon, and $10 in Kohl's cash. I also bought Mason's first new outfits and a little brother onesie to use in the big reveal. After shopping, we went back to the farm to enjoy family dinner with BBQ.

After dinner, we gathered the family and had them vote on the baby's gender. Everyone but one person voted boy so there was no big surprise when I handed Aubrey the little brother onesie to show off. Aubrey picked that time to get bashful and wouldn't show the onesie off very much so I had to show it to the crowd. Everyone was pretty excited about it so Aubrey was pretty worked up by bedtime. It was another long night except this time Aubrey decided to wake up up 2:30 AM and talk. It took me and Todd several hours to get her back to sleep, so we were exhausted again on Sunday. It was a tiring weekend, but we were glad to spend time with the family. We'll be going back in November for Thanksgiving since I won't be able to go back for Christmas since that is 2 weeks before my due date. Hard to believe we are already making plans that far ahead.

Aubrey feeding the chickens.

Asking Todd to open the egg for her.

During some downtime, I took some semi-macro pictures around the farm. This is a part of the muscadine vines and grapes that Todd's aunt and uncle grow. Super sad I couldn't enjoy the muscadine wine.

Todd's aunt has the greenest thumb I've ever seen and has some beautiful sunflowers in their garden.