Vacation

We moved to Oklahoma in July of 2010 from North Carolina.  Every holiday it seemed like we could never make it home, whether it be because of pilot training, or me working in health care and never getting those types of days off. Or because of being 9 months pregnant or having a newborn.....

So when Nick graduated, and Tanner got a little older we figured it would be a great time to finally go home to visit family.  We got up at 1:45am on a Tuesday morning to drive to the city to catch our 6am flight to NC.  We had Tanner and our cat, Harry, with us.  (We can only have 2 pets while we are in an apartment in San Antonio, so Harry is going to live with my parents.  He's much happier there anyway.)

Harry loves his new cat tree!

This was Tanner saying goodbye to Harry.

Our flight to Atlanta went very smoothly.  Tanner was a complete angel.  I fed Tanner on take off (to make sure his ears popped) and he slept the rest of the way.  Harry had to be put on a separate flight from Atlanta to Greensboro because there were human organs being transported and  guess having a cat on board could cause problems.  He only got home about 2 hours after us.  

The first place we went to once we got home was Prissy Polly's BBQ.  There is NOTHING like NC BBQ.  We miss it so much.  While we were home we were able to eat other things that we only have in NC/or don't have in OK.  Biscuitville, Terry's Deli, Red Robin, Cagney's, Don Juan's, and Qdoba were a few of our favorites.   

That next day Nick went to our old high school and spoke to a few of the JROTC classes and visited our JROTC instructor and a few of our favorite teachers.  While he did that I had my hair cut.  I had probably a foot cut off and donated to Locks of Love.  I absolutely love my hair now!

We visited Nick's mom's work, and my dad's work.  We went to the shooting range, and to Target and Kohls.  I got to see my sister and nephews, and have my mom's cooking. Nick also got to work on Thumper some with my dad.  Thumper is my dad's '69 Mustang Fastback with a 408 stroker. It was an amazing time!

Thumper

That Saturday Tanner met some of his extended family.  His great-grandma, great-grandpa, and his great-great-grandma on his mom's side.  And a bunch of other family members.  It was a very long day, but I'm glad he was able to make so many people smile.  We also have some great video of it all.  

My dad with Tanner at the airport.  Tanner was getting ready to poop here.

Tanner and Uncle Don.

Tanner with his Great-Grandpa Barber.

4 generations.

5 generations.

Tanner with Great-Grandma Barber

On Monday we flew to Tampa to see my Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt.  We only had about a day and a half there, but it was amazing.  The weather was beautiful and it was great to show Nick a few of our favorite places. We also ate at Sonny's.  :)

Out on the pier in Tampa.

Mom, Grandma Chenault, Tanner, and me with downtown Tampa behind us.

We finally made it home late Wednesday night.  Tanner did so well on all 6 flights.  I already miss it so much.  But with Nick being done with pilot training and me not working right now, we can probably make it home a little more often than every 2 years. 

Tanner is people watching at the Tampa Airport.  

Passed out on the plane.

I'm hoping we can make it back to Tampa to stay a little longer.  It's like a second home for me and there is so much more I want to show Nick.  And come on, it's Florida!  Coming back to Oklahoma and not having that salt water smell in the air, and no palm trees anywhere is a little depressing.  

Tanner's schedule did get completely screwed up, though.  He's no longer sleeping 6-7 hours at night now.  More like 1.5-2.  He also got a little fussy there at the end of our trip, but I think waking him up from naps and teething didn't help that any.