Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Holiday Visitors


We had the Hill Family up from Atlanta over the long weekend. Our quiet little two room apartment became party central with 4 kids and 4 adults. The kids were great and it was fun to be around family.

I'm starting to see that everyone has to do four things when they come to visit us in Raleigh:

1.Eat at Cookout
Cheap good food. Shakes, hushpuppies, and Cheerwhine for all. Name one other fast food restaurant where you can get a combo meal with a chicken sandwich, corn dog and chicken nuggets for sides, and a shake? One meal for five bucks with at least 1500 calories. I usually feel full/bloated after. All of us were fed for 31 bucks (Thanks Justin)!

2.Go to the Museum of Natural Sciences
A free science museum downtown with lots of live animals. Dinosaur statues, whale skeletons, and a butterfly room (with a sloth) are highlights. There was a kid's discovery zone that even had "guess which animal poops like this" games (plastic replicas). I think we all were entertained.

3. Walk around the Lake near our Apartment.
A must is a walk on the trail around the lake where you can feed the ducks. We also figured out that feeding the seagulls can be fun (except for Emilie). We ended up going there 3 times!

4.Play games with us.
Wendy and Justin introduced "Ticket to Ride" game to us which we recommend. It's a bit like Risk. Really fun. We also played cards. The games were fun, though they got a little heated last night. As far as I know, Wendy is still married to her husband and identifies us as family (we hope). I think she's moved on from yesterday's game night emotions.


Two other fun thing we did were:
1. visited our friends Tom and Carmen and showed the kids their pet Rabbit:

2. A science experiment with Mentos and diet cola. A group of us tried this at Church back in LA and it only got four feet high. With the right equipment and strategy, Alexander got it 20 feet high:


We love our visitors.

7 comments:

Renee said...

Oh what fun!! I can't wait to come and do the Lindgren tour of Carolina!!

Luis and Christy said...

Sounds like you guys hit all of the high points of the city. Maybe next time you can take your visitors to get gas at the big gas station on peace street. I'm only 1/2 kidding. It was like the first station that I went to after moving from Bdge and I thought that all of the stations had to be that big since Raleigh is so "huge" (relatively speaking).

Trace Gibson said...

What a great "guest-action-packed-activity-line-up" you've got there! Wish we could come take advantage of the tourist attractions. I'm totally with Emilie on the birds though...I don't deny that I take my daughter to feed birds and ducks occasionally, but NEVER if they're diving down at me with their evil sinister sharp beaks...(shiver). I say the poor girl's parents owe her some therapy!

Anonymous said...

Your smile in the pic with you and that baby is just beautiful--that smile just brightens up the whole page!

So, it's a good thing I won every game we played this weekend or I'd have no self esteem by now.

I made chicken and rice and veggies tonight the way you taught me, and that Trader Joe's sauce was excellent. And here we are, my little brother teaching me how to cook. Just when I thought I knew everything.

Love you guys!

Laura said...

We love Ticket to Ride!

Ryan- Love the picture of you and the baby!

The Burnah Clan said...

Is this you Ry, picturing your future with a child strapped on front, maybe another pulling at your leg, your wife carrying yet another....great pic. haha.

Jessica said...

The look on Ryan's face is PRICELESS.

Love you guys!