North Carolina Trip

*long, picture-overloaded post to follow*

Over the Easter holiday, we took a trip to Mark's dad's house in North Carolina. It was Mark and I's first time on a plane together and Cannon's first flight at all. I was really nervous to fly with him and of course I way over-packed, not wanting him to go without anything incase he decided to get fussy or restless. We flew from Phoenix to Florida and then to NC, but didn't have to get off of the plane in Florida.

I was happy when I saw several other babies and little kids get on the plane with us. We all happened to gather in the same section of the plane. I'm sure the other passengers were happy the noise-makers were all in one section in the back.
I'm happy to announce that my baby was the quietest, most well-behaved little one on the plane. He ate his bottle on take-off, as per our peds recommendation and then promptly fell asleep for the majority of the flight. It was 3 1/2 hours to Florida and then an hour and a half to NC from there and he did great. When he was awake he played with his toys or watched Page Master on our computer. Unfortunately we had to have a third person in the seat with us for both flights, but it worked out okay.

It was Mark's dad's first time meeting Cannon.
They have such a beautiful house.
Mark's dad did all the gardening and building up of the backyard himself.

Such a fun backyard. Lots of seating, Tiki bar, hot tub with stereo. We spent a lot of time out here.

Cute bunny!

Darlene (Big Mark's wife) and Cannon

Cannon got his very own Easter basket full of goodies.

Excited!

He got Easter eggs filled with pacifiers, which were his favorite.

Easter nap before the festivitiesOur family got dressed up and took some family pictures in the backyard.

I love this one!

My favorite

Mark's 2 aunts both live in NC too. Them and their families came over to share Easter dinner with us.

Poor tortured baby. He did look cute in his bunny ears and Easter bib though.Clean bean ready for bed

We spent one of our days at the zoo.

"Swamp Ghost" (weird albino alligator)

It was so hot and humid that Cannon went through several wardrobe changes until he ended up in his diaper to cool off. He seems pretty happy about it.

He had one more outfit, but he pooped through that one before we even got to the zoo.Looking at the giraffes. Overall, Cannon wasn't too interested in the animals. Most of them were far away, so I don't think he really saw them. There were 2 parts to the zoo (North America and Africa). We walked around Africa and took the tram through North America because after 4 hours of walking in the heat and humidity, we needed a rest and a breeze.

We had such a fun time in NC. We wish we could've stayed longer than 5 days. Cannon did just as well on the flights home. This time we had, what was supposed to be an hour layover in Nashville, which turned into 2 1/2 because of a tornado warning. The flight from NC to Nashville was crazy and so scary. The turbulence was crazy, the plane was thrashing around and bottoming out, tons of lightning. I was freaking out and Mark and Cannon slept through the whole thing. I couldn't wait to get off of that plane. We got in okay but as soon as we stepped in the terminal we hear over the speaker, "Please stay away from the windows as there is a tornado warning in effect." Awesome. Needless to say, I couldn't wait to get out of Tennessee. The flight home from there was smoother, but really long. Cannon was great. We didn't have a third person in our row, so we were able to stretch out and Cannon had his own seat. Flying with baby turned out to be way easier than I anticipated, so next time I won't worry or pack everything he owns...

My Easter Bunny rocks!

or maybe I have an Easter Mouse because I sure got a lot of cheese in my basket...

Cannon and I are pretty much mini-golf pros!

Finally finished and ready to burn

Like the post title says, we finally finished re-finishing this dining room table and chairs that we mixed and matched off of Craigslist and it took so long and was so frustrating that I wanted nothing more than to burn the whole set. Needless to say, this will be my last furniture up-cycle project. Who would've thought a little sanding, staining and painting could be so difficult and time consuming. Okay, enough complaining.

Here she is...(and I'm not even sure I like her yet)

There's another chair, but apparently we never got around to finishing it because I just saw it in the garage this morning.

I decided to do the table a light blue on top and Heirloom white on the bottom. (Our kitchen is currently red, white and aqua, but I thought aqua was a bit bright for a table top.) The bench top and chair seats are a dark ebony stain and the bench legs and chair bodies are black.
Mark did most of the work (sanding, staining, painting table base). I painted and distressed the table top and distressed the legs.
The little yarn drawer pull is my favorite part.

I'm not sure if the light and dark work together. It's sort of a mash-up of many things I was liking at the time, but I think each day it's growing on me. It only took us about 3 months of work, stare at, hate, let sit because we hate, then work again, to finish this beast. Next time though, I'll just spend the extra money and buy something already finished that I like.