Charlotte...

I took Audrey down to Charlotte last weekend to visit my good friend from college, Mary. She and her husband moved down there several years ago and it has taken me until now to finally go visit them! She has a daughter Ava that is almost exactly a year older then Audrey and just had her 2nd daughter a couple of weeks ago who’s name is Audrey as well (“baby Audrey”). It was wonderful to catch up since we haven’t seen each in awhile. We laughed at how life has turned into communicating thru e-mail & Facebook instead of phone calls. It’s sad on one hand, but on the other hand I don’t know what we would do without it! It was also wonderful for my Audrey and Ava to be able to play together (Audrey was in heaven with all of the toys there!) and of course to see the new baby (I had forgotten how small a 3 week old is!). I will say it is so nice to travel to a friends house that has kids. We barely brought anything except clothes & a bag full of toys for the plane ride.

We had a great weekend overall, very low key which I think everyone needed. We had some sickness issues with Audrey (as always, we traveled right?), but I’ll write a separate post on that. The weather was gorgeous, it was in the high 60’s on Friday when we got there and I think it made it to 80 on Saturday. I actually got some color from sitting on the porch during the girl’s naps, what a concept! We got to spend a good amount of time outside, playing with bikes & their Cozy Coup, and walking to play at their neighborhood park & fountain.

I got to experience one of Charlotte’s infamous consignment sales Saturday morning. Mary goes to them all of the time and is always telling me how fabulous they are (and often sends Audrey some of her finds, very sweet). We don’t have consignment sales up here, or at least like they do down there (is it a southern thing?) and I have always wanted to go to one. I will say it was a little overwhelming but a lot of fun. There was an entire room full of clothes, and baby gear and tons of people going thru everything. I was told to grab everything that I even remotely liked and then you sort thru at the end and keep what you want. I was expecting people to be more pushy and grabbing things they wanted, but it wasn't like that at all. I ended up with some cute outfits for the baby, a Janie & Jack romper & some Hanna Andersson pj’s to name a few. I only got Audrey a couple of things as the 2T girl section was not so great by the time I got there, but I did score on a Lilly Pulitzer dress for $16 (kind of a splurge at a consignment sale, but worth it in my eyes).

Thanks to the Vaca's for being such wonderful hosts and putting up with us! We had a great time and can't wait to see you guys again soon!

p.s. we took NO pictures this weekend! this is especially funny because Mary is a photographer and always has her camera out. i guess it shows you how much free time you have running after/taking care of 3 kids under 3...