Whew....

What a week! And what a bad blogger I am!  I have seriously been slacking in my blogging lately, partly due to my being busy and partly due to Blogger having some 'issues'.  In any case, I'm back and hopefully will be regularly.

So way back a week ago I started my Spring Break. We took Gage to the circus last Saturday which was a great way to spend a rainy day. He enjoyed it for the most part and did really well, lasting just about 2 hours before he was completely done with it. The trapeze artists were his favorite and he liked the elephants and music. Of course, he spotted EVERY American flag in there and pointed and jovially yelled 'guys' each time. (Have I told you about my child's unnatural attraction to American flags? hmm...no? Another post, then?)

We were disappointed- Gage was overall uninterested in the kitties



My personal favorite.



Following our trip to the circus, Sunday morning we packed up and headed down to Wilmington, North Carolina.  We had been looking forward to this for a while and were only dreading the car ride.  Gage did wonderfully on the way down and slept for 2.5 hours.  We decided to drive as far as we could and made it all the way to Carolina before we had to stop for lunch. Stopping for lunch in a little town called Roanoke Rapids, almost elicits a post of its own, but I won't bore or disgust you.  In any case, we arrived in Wilmington around dinner time and Gage did pretty awesome the whole way there, thanks, in part to a new car toy Grandma purchased him.

Arriving so late Sunday night we didn't do much.  Gage, however, ate a wonderful dinner of mac and cheese at McAllister's Deli and was as happy as a clam. 

Monday morning we started at the Fort Fisher aquarium. Gage has always been a big fan of the aquarium in Nags Head so we thought it would be a hit. Mommy was silly and left the camera in the car, so we didn't get any pictures. Although, Daddy did buy Gage a gift that he has been eyeing even before Gage was born. AND he LOVED it. We'll have to try and catch him on video playing the clams!

Gage wasn't overly impressed with the aquarium and we took him home for a nice LONG nap.  He decided that while we were on vacation he would nap an hour early and not eat lunch until around 230pm...silly boy.  Monday evening we took a stroll in Downtown Wilmington as I tried to sneak a peek at Dawson and Joey:).  Gage also discovered his favorite part about our house in Wilmington.

check out the mid-drool shot.

Tuesday morning we visited Wilmington's Children's Museum.  We hadn't yet taken Gage to one and although it was probably geared a little towards older kids, he had a pretty great time.

He was especially fond of the train table.

...and the spinning boat.

Gage is pretty obssessed with numbers/letters these days, too.

Finally, Tuesday afternoon, what we had all been waiting for- the beach! The beach in Wilmington was amazing compared to the one we're used to, it felt like it was miles to the water. This was Gage's 1st time walking on the beach so he was definitely a little clumsy! The weather was perfect though and he enjoyed digging in the sand and making new friends but his favorite activity was collecting seashells, Grandma, you'd be proud!

I love this one!

Wednesday morning meant it was time to go home and I wish we could've had one more day there just to do a few more things.  I begged Luke, but unfortunately, the answer was no.  He did offer to rent a car and come home alone so that we could stay an extra day, but that seemed pretty silly to me.  Before we left on Wednesday though, we got to check out Wilmington's Railroad Museum, which  might have been Gage's favorite part of the whole trip.  He LOVED the model trains and kept signing 'more, more' after the trains would cut off.  He loved to push the buttons to watch them 'go'.  Unforunately, there's not any kind of model train displays around where we live, because he sure did love it.  There was also a lot of history to the museum, but Gage and I skipped that part over and checked out the real caboose and locomotives you could climb in.

Gage is now in love with trains and always wants to see 'choo-choos'.  Now that we have room in our basement (pool table sold) we might consider getting a train table.  Mommy and Daddy thought they were pretty cool, too!

As you can see, we had a great time in Wilmington and would love to visit again sometime.  A big thank you to Grandma and Granddiddy's friends who let us borrow their house for a few days!  The ride home was not as fun as the ride there (they never are) and I think we stopped close to 8 times!  Ah well, we're home safe and that's all that matters.

I see now, this post could have easily been broken down into a few since it has such a large quantity of pictures, but nevertheless there was our trip.  I have tons of other things to blog about if I ever get the chance.  Will be making a list this time since I always seem to forget.  Wow, tomorrow is already Saturday and only 2 more days 'til I have to head back to work.