Adventures with the Ross Family

Friday

We headed up to West Virginia on Friday to see our kids.  I was so excited and had missed them.

We got up early and arrived in the afternoon.  You should have seen Julianne when she first saw us.  Her little mouth dropped open wide as if this was the biggest surprise of her life!  And then she ran to us.  So stinkin' cute.  Once she gave me a hug, she went to Justin and hung out with him.  She's a daddy's girl.

Jaxson was happy we were there and did give us a hug (after some coaxing to get out of the pool!) but he jumped right back in and played.

We also decided to go swimming.  It was hot out and and it felt good to swim around after being in a car all day..

Afterwards, we ate dinner and hung out on the deck.  It was nice and relaxing.  I caught this tender moment of Julianne and Baxter.  Jaxson is a huge animal fan.  Julianne-not so much.  She doesn't like their fur and gets annoyed by animals easily.  For her to go up to Baxter and pet him several times was a huge step for her!

Saturday

We had planned meeting up with Ashley in Pennsylvannia for brunch.  We tried to meet halfway for both of us so we didn't have to drive as far.

This was my first time in Pennsylvannia!  I always take pictures of state signs.  Can I say that I am thanful to Instagram or making my pictures look a whole lot better than they really do?

This is what it would really look like:

Yay for Instagram.

We had a great brunch and had so much fun catching up on each other's lives. 

But I wish I would have gotten a picture of all three of us.  Darn.

We drove back to WV, just in time for Jaxson's party.  Jaxson had decided that they needed a party complete with cupcakes and a pinata.  (Thanks Dora the Explorer for introducing the pinata to my son.)  So, the kids swam, played on the trampoline,

He was pretty happy.

Julie was too.  Spaghetti is always a hit!

Sunday

We woke up to rain.  Boo.

Especially since we had planned on swimming and playing outside.  Plan B went into place and we went to Cracker Barrell. 

I think everyone else had the idea too.  It was crazy busy.  But the kids didn't mind.  They loved to color.

By the time we were done eating, the rain was letting up.  So the day looked promising.  The kids laid down for a nap.  And I proceeded to play with Baby and Chloee.

After naptime, we went out the pool.  It was actually  nice out now!

And played on the swing set.

And cuddled with furry friends.

Monday

Time to head home!  But first, Dad wanted to take Jax out to the pond to fish.  And boy was he excited!

And Jaxson did catch his first fish.  He didn't want to hold it up and take a picture though.  It flopped everywhere and he did not like that.  Julie was a little bored.  So we let her "drive" the four wheeler.  Julie and I ended up leaving early and that was fine by both of us girls.  But the boys had fun!

After they were all done, it was time to leave.  I said goodbye to the kitties....

and we were off!  And not five minutes into our car ride, Julie was sleeping.

What a fun weekend!

Our last "tourist" attraction was at the NC History Museum.  We've been wanting to go here F.O.R.E.V.E.R.  And every time we went to the Science Museum with the kids, we would look longingly over at the History Museum.  But we weren't stupid.  History + young kids = boredom for them.  And boredom for them = not a fun time for Justin and I.

Wednesday afternoon we headed downtown!

The bottom floor of the museum was all about NC state history.  Which was pretty interesting.  I have some ancestors that came through the Wilmington area from England so I was intrigued.  I think my favorite part was seeing stuff that came off of Blackbeard's ship.  Swords, anyone?

The history was arranged in chronological time, so we started with the settlers, cruised through the Revolutionary War, and then stopped at the Civil War history.

Did you know that North Carolina was the last to join the Confederacy?  They were hoping not to take sides, but when Lincoln sent them a telegram demanding soldiers to fight the south, it was then they realized that they couldn't stay neutral, and joined the Confederacy.

There were lots and lots of artifacts from the Civil War.  And the stories were sad.  The south was not prepared for this war at all.

After the war, we saw how North Carolina was devastated by the war and started to become industrialized.  Factories were popping up because farming wasn't fruitfall anymore. 

Young toddlers were working in factories.  I cannot imagine.  I can hardly get Jax to pick up his room, let alone punch a time card and work a menial job.

The Great Depression came next.  I got to see some clothes that were made out of sackcloth.  I've heard about it, but haven't really seen it.  That was interesting. 

Upstairs in the museum, was individual exhibits.  Justin went through a sports exhibit.  Eh.  Not my cup of tea.

We went through another Civil War exhibit, but I wasn't sure why this was upstairs and not down with the other ones?

At this time I was hungry.  I told Justin that I needed a snack or something.

"Why?" he asked.  "It's almost 5 o'clock.  The museum is closing in 10 minutes.  Let's go get dinner at The Pit."

Oh my.  We had been in the museum for almost 3 hours.  It only felt like an hour.  And I enjoyed every minute of it.  My inner-nerd came out today and had a lot of fun.

Only...don't burst my bubble and tell me that my inner-nerd is really an outer-nerd.

Oh, I am really excited to see this exhibit.  This was getting set up when we were there!

I slept into 10:00am today.  It was glorious.

When we finally got moving, we went up to the Bennett Place.  Another long story short-the Bennett place is a small house that Johnston and Sherman negotiated the terms of the Confederate surrender.

This was a small historical sight.  The fireplace is the only actual original structure from the house.  Everything else was restored in 1960.  I was a little disappointed in that.  But imagine that Sherman and Johnston sitting at that little table negotiating.  The bedrooms were in the back and were tiny!  And of course, the kitchen was a separate building.  It was pretty spacious though.  But I'm sure it would have been hot with that fireplace going all the time.

Here's the outside:

(house on the left, kitchen on the right)

Onto Stagville!

I was pretty excited about this.  A historic plantation that dates back to 1787?  Still-standing enslaved homes?  A really big barn?  Yes!

It did not disappoint.  

The tour started out the Bennehan home.  It was huge.  Even by today's standards.  The house was extravagant too.  Painted walls.  Curtains.  Glass windows from England.  The yellow room was the dining room. The blue room was the "keeping room."  Even here, the kitchen was in another building.  Once the food was ready, they would move it to this room, before being presented in the dining room.

That's a lot of work.

The cradle you see, was actually used by the family.  Wow.

That dark picture you see is the one and only closet in the house.  Back then, you were taxed for every door you had in your house.  Each door represented a room.  Therefore, this closet was considered a "room" and the family was taxed for it.  Just another sign of their weath.

And the blue room is the living/entertaining area.  This room was BIG.  I loved the period furniture pieces.  And that picture of the young girl was an original from the house.  She was one of the daughters.  That piece was amazing and beautiful.

The master bedroom was upstairs.  It was big as well.  Bigger than my bedroom.  I just had to take a picture of the bed.  First, it was tiny.  (So were the doorways.)  But if you look closely, the "boxspring" is really just rope. They used a key to tighten the ropes so you wouldn't sag.  Hence, the phrase, "Sleep tight.  Don't let the bedbugs bite."  

You learn something new every day.

Next we had to drive to the enslaved quarters. There are four buildings still standing! 

You can see that there is nothing special about them.  Very drab.

When we went inside, there were four rooms on the bottom.  And each family would live in one room.  The adults would sleep in the bed, but the kids would sleep on the floor.

The slaves built these themselves too.  The tour guide had us look at the bricks in the chiminey.  They had to make the bricks and cook them.  But if you start looking at the bricks, they are imperfect.  They had to leave the bricks out in the sun to dry.  But if you notice, the bricks have handprints because they didn't wait until they dried completely.  On one brick, there is a small footprint.  Likely, from a toddler.  I loved how our guide pointed these out.  

The great barn was our last stop. This was a little ways down the road.  But it was huge!  This was build in 1860 by enslaved hands. There was no blueprint plan.  And it basically is built like an upside down ship.  It has the same techniques and structure as a ship would have been built back then.  All wood was carved and cut by hand.  I can't even imagine.

You can see that the enslaved community has some skills in building.  It was amazing they could build a huge barn with no blueprints, but the fact that most of the buildings are still standing in great condition is a testament to their skills.  Amazing.

Well, here's a history lesson, folks. 

Justin and I wanted to check out an outlet mall and on the way there, we saw a sign for the Bentonville Battlefield.  This was right up our alley seeing that we were kid-less and very interested in Civil War history.  But we figured we would stop after we saw the outlets.

And so we checked out the stores at the outlet.  Nothing exciting to report.  Boo.

We headed back to the Civil War site and drove way out in the middle of nowhere.  I didn't expect much...maybe a field with a plaque? 

No...it was so much more!  Long story short, this battlefield was the last big battle before the Confederate army surrendered.  It was on March 19-21, 1865.  Basically, the Union army was advancing to Goldsboro in order to take control of the railroad that was there.  This way they would have supplies and such and then render the Confederate Army without a way to get any further supplies.  But, the rebel army surprised the Union Army on the road to Goldsboro and so the last big battle ensued.  You can read more in depth history here.

Our first stop was the Harper House.  This house was commandeered by the Union Army and the bottom level of the house was used as a hospital.  (The battle actually happened about a 1/2 more or more down the road.)

And I do have to note that today they were having demonstrations of life back in the Civil War.  People were in period costumes.  And we missed out because we just had to check out the outlet mall.  But I guess that was ok, because it was not crowded at all while we were there.

I would love to go back when that is going on though.

Anyways, we did make it in time for the tour of the house.  Only the downstairs was open and it was set up like the Union hospital.

See the make-shift surgery area?  The guide told us that they would just open the windows and amputate arms and legs of injured soldiers.  And then throw the limbs out the window.  Yeow!

Glad we have made some huge advancements in medicine.

Anyways, onto the kitchen.  The kitchen was separate from the house.  It was drab and rustic. But I guess you don't want a kitchen in your house heating it up in the summer time.

The Harper's owned three slaves and this is what their slave quarters would have looked like.  It was drab as well.

After the tour, we went to the Visitor's Center to watch a short film of the battle.  And then we were ready for the driving tour!

We drove a little ways down the road and came across the battlefield.  And it was a field with a plaque out in the middle of a bunch of farms.  But you could stand out and look at it to see which way the different armies were coming at each other. 

It was actually a sombering kind of moment to realize what happened on this ground we were standing on.

We continued down the road and would see where the Union army would camp at, where the Confederate army would line up their youth reserves to help the soldiers.  It was a very interesting tour and I highly recommmend it.

But I will say one thing about the driving tour. Those grayish signs really need to be a bright color.  Like bright neon yellow.  We'd be driving along the road and barely see the sign before we passed it!  We would use our eagle eyes, but then would only catch one or two words on the sign.  So a lot of tour started out like this...

"Wait, there's a sign...it says Conferederate army something.  Maybe they camped here?  I dunno.  I couldn't read the rest." 

But we soon realized that being on country road with no other cars, we could just slow down and then read it.

Silly us.

Anyways, this was a great tour and I'm so glad we stumbled upon it!

We took a minor road trip yesterday.  We met my dad up in Virginia to drop off the kids.  They are staying with them for the whole week. 

And so the kids were comfy in the backseat with their electronics.  Julie is really into the iPod.  And Jax, I love that he is holding his sippy cup the same way when he was a baby.  He's just growing up way too fast.

We headed our usual route.  Which means we pass Pilot Mountain.

Which is next to Mt. Airy.  (aka Mayberry)

We found a neat little spot and tried to take pictures there with the kids.

Nope.  Not gonna happen.

We walked over to a park and while the kids were running a muck, I found this sign.  I love how downtown is in the background.

And wouldn't you know it.  Jax decided he DID want his picture taken.  But only if he posed like a duck.

Why can't I get a normal, smiling picture of Jax?  Really.  Is that too much to ask for?

And Jax wanted to pose with Julianne.  I don't think the feeling is mutual.  In fact, I think this picture pretty much sums up their relationship.  Jax, as always, is happy as a clam. While Julie is trying to make her getaway!

I have found that a drive in the country side in North Carolina is quite entertaining.  The kids are at my Dad's for the week and while we were driving back home, sans kids, Justin decided to take the scenic route. 

I forgot that Justin does this.  While we were dating and married without kids, whenever we traveled we would always go on the off beaten road.  But when kids start occupying the back seat, he stopped because we learned that you need to go the shortest and fastest route to your destination.

But with just the two of us in the car, Justin turned off the freeway and we entered into the country.  North Carolina is pretty.  It was an entertaining drive.

Or so we thought.

You know what is more entertaining than pretty scenery?

Church signs.

It seems in the south that you must have a witty sayings to get people into your church.  Like this:

"Walmart isn't the only saving place."

Or how about:

"God doesn't want weekend custody, he wants full custody."

And:

"Don't let a hearse bring you to church."

But this one was my personal favorite:

"If you don't believe in the bread of life, then you're toast."

This saying works on so many levels.  First, if you don't believe in Jesus you will be lost without him.  But also, you can take this verse quite literally.  If you don't believe in Jesus you WILL be toast in Hell.  In my opinion, this saying was a win-win.  It made me think AND visualize.

I'm not quite sure that a witty saying is going to bring someone into church.  But it sure made our long drive a memorable one.

I’m not even sure if I have words for this, but I will try.

The Mullet.  On a mannequin.  In all its glorious-ness.

This bad boy was spotted at the Railroad Museum.  We couldn’t believe our eyes.  And then we wondered:

Where does one find a Mullet wig?

and

Will the Mullet ever really make a comeback? 

We shall see…..

It’s time to go home! 

We went on Priceline and reserved a room in Nashville for the night.  We figured that we might be able to go further than that, but we wanted to give the kids a break. 

And us.

We had the option to take the back roads and meet up with I-40 or just to drive I-40 the whole way.  We knew that there might be some construction, but figured it couldn’t be that bad.  Right?

Wrong.

We sat on 1-40 for an HOUR.  The lanes was merging down to one lane, but we hardly moved at all.  When we finally made it to an exit we immediately got off the freeway thinking that we would by pass the traffic.

Wrong.  Again.

Everyone else had this idea too.  We sat on the back roads because they were also backed up.  Luckily, Justin does know Arkansas and used his GPS to get us over to another back road.  Finally, it was clear and we could drive.  This ended up costing us about 2 extra hours in the car.  It was then we were so thankful that we had booked that hotel in Nashville and not one further.

When we finally made it to Nashville, we had traffic.  But all along, I kept saying I was just glad we were moving.  It may only be 5 MPH but at least we were going somewhere!

The hotel was easy for us to locate and was fancy-schmancy.  They gave Jax and Julianne rubber duckies for their bath.  And the front desk asked if we would like to have a pet fish for the night.  Um, sure!

Jaxson named him/her Goldfish.  Oh, how original.  I was afraid that he might want to take her out so I had to explain that she stays in her fish bowl.  It was funny.  He kept saying, “Come here fishy” as if she was a dog. 

I’m proud to say that he listened and Goldfish stayed in her bowl the whole time!

Soon enough, we all collapsed into bed.  We were so tired!

This morning we woke up and decided to go to the Railroad Museum.  We figured that Jax would enjoy the trains.  And he did.  But his favorite part was the 1939 fire truck.  He climbed on up and pretended to drive it.  At one point, he said, “Red light.”  And he pretended to stop.  Then what seemed like a long time he finally said, “Green light” and he drove on.  Even in pretend, red lights seem really long.

Afterwards, we headed to the park to meet up with the cousins.  I overheard Jax tell Luke that we have to go back to Carolina tomorrow and that he was going to miss him.  And then Luke told Jax he was going to miss him too.  So sweet.

Julianne made me swing with her pretty much the whole time.  She would just giggle like crazy and when I would stop she would run right back to the swings to let me know I wasn’t doing my job!

I’d say she’s opinionated!

Relaxing on the porch.  Julie (the adventurer) loves to be thrown in the air!

Jax loved climbing on Luke’s Fort.

And you know what else the kids loved?  Riding in the truck and four wheeler.  Jax kept saying, “again!”  Luke  was a very good driver!