Children's Good News Spectacular

The Children's Good News Spectacular comes to Raleigh once a year in August. We have never been, but thought we would give it a go this past weekend. Camille insisted that her best buddy, Madelyn, join us, so off we went! For those of you on the East Coast, you will wonder, wasn't that during the Hurricane Irene timeframe? Oh yes. We had gotten a lot of wind & rain Saturday morning, but felt like we could safely make our way to the event. We didn't want to be stuck in the house all weekend and what better place to get stuck than a kiddie playland!? :)

We arrived a little after 10am on Saturday. Both of the girls had huge eyes as we walked in. It was held in the Jim Graham building at the Fairgrounds, so it was huge! The girls seemed a bit uncertain- this being their first carnvial type experience. They both clung tight to their parents. We walked around a bit trying to find some inflatables that were more geared to the younger kids. We found this inflatable obstacle course with a huge slide at the end. The girls obviously had to have someone occompany them, but they both were willing to give it a go. Camille loved it! Since I stood back to take pictures, I couldn't get close enough to capture the whole experience. Here is a picture of Camille and Daddy coming down the slide at the end. Sorry its dark, I had the flash on! :(

Maddie didn't quite feel the same. All you could hear was screams as she came down. All I could picture was A Christmas Story when the scary Santa pushes the kids down the slide with his foot. :)

We knew the girls shared a love for food, so we then headed to the popcorn booth. This was the first taste of popcorn for both girls, but they acted as if they had been eating it for years. We sat down next to the big stage and ate our popcorn. Little did we know that this was the perfect space b/c within minutes of sitting down, a puppet show started. The puppets sang lots of songs and the girls loved it!!! Here are a few pictures of the girls dancing & clapping to the show.

They were so cute and quite the entertainers for others in the crowd :)

After the show, we wanted to try the inflatable bouncers again. We found a smaller bounce house that wasn't as crowded with older kids. Camille LOVED it! She loved falling and jumping. Here are some pictures of our bouncing beauty.

Maddie didn't enjoy the bouncing as much, so I decided it was time for snow cones! :) The girls each wanted the pink snow cones and loved every bit of them. As Nick mentioned earlier, Camille calls them "ice." So she kept saying "Mo Ice Peas" (more ice please). They enjoyed more music and dancing while eating their snow cones. Afterward, we spotted the balloon animal booth! The girls knew where they wanted our next stop to be.

There was a long line, but that gave the girls time to decide what kind of balloon animal they wanted, and what color. They both opted for a puppy dog. Camille watched very carefully as the clown made her puppy. She even said thank you at the end.

The girls loved walking arond with their new balloon puppies, but both quickly had balloons that looked more like weiner dogs b/c they twisted their midsection undone :) I definitely hope we can go again next year, especially since Camille will be older and can do even more of the games & activities.

We ended our play date with a trip to Chick Fil A and then home for nap time!

The Saga Continues...And gets better

So Monday morning, Laura took Camille to the doctor's office. We find there that Camille not only has croup, but also bronchitus...a wonderful combo. She's given a different medicine to take and told she has to stay out of school until Wednesday...great for Laura and I who both have busy weeks. Laura stays home Monday and I take Tuesday. Monday is filled with great quality time for Mommy and Daughter...grocery shopping, resting, etc.

Camille sleeps well through Monday night in her own bed!! She still has some trouble breathing and coughing, but I believe she stayed down till 7 or 7:30. When she did wake up, we just did our normal morning routine. After breakfast, we decided that we would go outside to check out the day and it was a beautiful, cool morning. We sat on the driveway and waved at all the cars and people headed to work. I believe Camille even said "see you suckers" to a couple folks...j/k :) You can tell from the below picture though that we had fun!

Next, we decided that we'd enjoy the beautiful day at Lake Benson Park for a little while. Since Camille was contagious, we decided not to play on the playground, but just explore in the woods. We went for a nature walk and looked at doggies, squirrels, and birds...part of the time Camille walked herself and part Daddy had to carry her.  We even went down to the lake and watched some older kids skipping rocks.

Camille and I had so much fun exploring and playing that we actually went back to the park after lunch and did it all over again.

After the park, we capped off our day of "hooky" by hitting up Pelicans for a snowcone or ice as Camille calls it. She absolutely loved it screaming "mo, mo, mo"! When Mommy got home and we told her about our day, she said Camille's never going to want to stay with Mommy again.  What could have been a boring sick day turned into a Daddy/Daughter Extravaganza. I don't remember having any sick days like this...

Daddy/Daughter Weekend

For those of you who follow the Cox Family Blog, you will probably realize that this is my (Nick) first visit to the Blogospherse. Laura spent the weekend at Bald Head on a Bachelorette Weekend. I thought it fitting that I update you all on the extremely fun and eventful weekend Camille and I had while Mommy was gone...though we did miss her terribly...

Camille and I started our weekend by inviting Maw Maw and Paw Paw up for a nice dinner at Tripps in Garner. I believe we had Camille's first fillet mignon!! After Tripps, we enjoyed the wonderful weather and a little ice cream at Goodberry's. You can tell from the pictures that Camille had a wonderful time with her Maw Maw and Paw Paw.

We started Saturday morning with a trip to Biscuitville for breakfast. I am pretty sure this will be a tradition for us when Mommy is away. On the way home, we passed a nice park and decided to pull over and enjoy the morning before it got too hot. After that, we hit up Pet Smart to check out the "animals" as Camille likes to say. When we left there, we thought why not hit up the library and do a little reading. I took in the Wall St Journal and Camille speed read about 300 books. It was pretty impressive. 

  

We then returned home for lunch and nap...as we both were in dire need of each. After lunch, Camille and I took off to Crabtree Valley Mall to sell a little gold...Trying to teach Camille early the art of negotiation. From there, we then took in a birthday party for one of Camille's older friends, Moses. It was at the Rainbow Room which is a sweet indoor playground, or multiple playgrounds actually. Camille and I climbed, swung, and went down the slide until we could go no more. Camille also put on a pizza eating display for the older kids...

We then returned home completely tuckered out. Camille went down in record time and I settled in to get some rest. Around 1:00 AM, however, Camille had another thing in mind. She began to cough excessively and was having trouble breathing. She became fully awake and I tried EVERYTHING to get her to go back to sleep...rocking, singing, rubbing. We went from the crib to the chair to the couch to finally the bed. She lied in the bed for the next two hours rotating between coughing, crying, talking, kicking, tapping, and finally fell asleep at around 3:30 or so. In between crying, she was in a good mood and said some funny things. At some point in the night, she said Daddy and I said yes, baby. Then she just said "Pizza". I guess she didn't get enough at the party.

So Sunday, Camille and I just rested and hung out at home patiently awaiting Mommy's return. She seemed to feel a lot let better on Sunday, but that was just the calm before the storm. Mommy finally returned around 3 and I am not sure if Camille or me was happier. But we took in a little Moe's for dinner and went through our normal Sunday night routine...UNTIL...

Camille was down about one hour before she really started having trouble breathing. By this point, we had figured out that she had gotten croup - thank you daycare. Once it got to the point that neither Camille or Laura and I could sleep, we got Camille up and proceeded to the bathroom for the homemade steam room to try and give her some relief. When that didn't help, we called the doctor and she called a prescription in to the closest 24 hour pharmacy - Fuquay. By the time I got home it was around 11:30. We gave Camille her meds, some juice, and some crackers and settled in to another night with Camille in the bed....please remember that we have only a queen and it is pretty tight with three especially when the third likes to roll, kick, snore, cough, and wheeze...poor thing...

So lots of fun and very little sleep concluded this installment of Daddy/Daughter Weekend. More on the Camille sickness saga to follow...

Good Morning, Baltimore!

(Only you Hairspray fans would start singing after that title, Thanks Meevy!)
Nick and I recently returned from a long weekend in Baltimore with our friends, Stephen & Laura Price. Some ask, why Baltimore? Well, its a very quick plane ride from Raleigh (50 mins!), they have a MLB team, they have history, and a friend of mine from high school, Tom, lives there. So, why not?

Well, the timing got a little crazy considering I had been in Boston for work on Wednesday and Thursday. I flew home at 4:30pm, went to pick Camille up from school and spend an hour with her before turning around and getting back on plane to head to Baltimore after dinner. So, the trip began with exhaustion and missing Camille even more than usual.

We arrived in Baltimore Thursday night after a very turbulent flight :( We stayed at the Sheraton Inner Harbor, which was very nice. Here are the views from our room- The Ravens and Orioles stadiums!

On Friday morning, we made our way into Fells Point for breakfast to eat at the Blue Moon Cafe. All you Food Network Fanatics would recognize this restaurant from its feature in Diners, Drive Ins, & Dives. Yes, Nick & I got the Captain Crunch French Toast- delicious!!!

After our filling breakfast, we started our day full of walking. We walked EVERYWHERE.... we think we ended up walking close to 4 or 5 miles. Whew! (and it was a very hot day) Here are some pictures of what we saw along the way:

As you can see, the architecture is beautiful! Nick picked on me for taking a picture of the "stair-step" condo building- but that was one of the most impressive styles to me :) This is the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse that dates back to 1855, but was moved in the 80s to the Inner Harbor area to be on land and preserved.

We had lunch at Vaccaro's in Little Italy. They are best known for their desserts, but lunch was quite good too! It's a local favorite.

The Inner Harbor is a very fun area as you can see here.....

On to more sightseeing for the day....

And this is a picture of the Baltimore Shock Tower.....

After all that walking, we needed a break. We made our way up to Federal Hill to check out the awesome views over the Inner Harbor. You will notice I am squinting in ALL of the pictures- I forgot my sunglasses!

We met up with my friend Tom for dinner on Friday- and took his recommendation to eat at Nick's- which is a great seafood spot on the water. We had the Baltimore specialty- steamed crabs! It was a first for me- quite fun the first go round- but a lot of work for a little meat. Delicious none the less.

After dinner, we headed to Camden Yards to catch the Orioles vs. Tigers game. We had great seats. The game ended up being close- but the Tigers took a win in the last inning.

Needless to say, busy day. Saturday we started out with breakfast at Miss Shirley's. They were also a Food Network feature. The food was delicious and the Spicy Shirley (signature Bloody Mary) was amazing!

After breakfast, we headed to Fort McHenry. I have to admit, it was one of the more impressive forts I have seen- mostly in terms of the size and structure.

After the tour of the Fort, we headed to LP Steamers for lunch... not until getting poured on by the skies! We had 1/2 mile to walk and ended up hanging out under the awning of a funeral home while the skies let loose! It was a downpour! We still got pretty soaked- but made for some laughter later. So, no pictures were taken from the walk until after lunch due to the storms! After drying off, we headed to the Power Plant which houses a very cool Barnes and Noble.

The weather stayed pretty dreary the rest of the day, so we stayed indoors doing some shopping & browsing in the Inner Harbor. We ended up having dinner at Rocco's in Little Italy. The service was super slow, but well worth the wait for our delicious three course meal! As we were walking out, we noticed that Shaq had eaten there b/c there were pictures of him with all the owners and staff. Very cool!

Sunday ended our trip, but we were very happy to get home to our sweet Camille.

Goodbye Baltimore!

A Carousel Ride and Chargrill

Camille experienced her first carousel ride this past weekend. With the temperatures being as hot as they have been, it has been hard to keep her entertained indoors. Nick & I had the idea to take Camille to the mall to kill some time. Little did we know how much fun Camille would have. One of the local malls here as a big carousel to keep the kids entertained. Well, we decied to try it out! I took Camille on the ride, while Nick stayed behind to do the photographing :) Camille was very unsure at first. She was fine to sit on the horse for a few minutes, but didn't want to hold on, and definitely didn't want me to let go of her. She got real mad when she was asked to be strapped in. She kept saying "no, no, off." We kept her distracted and on the horse. Once the music started and the ride started moving, she was thrilled! She had the biggest smile on her face and even began to sing and sway to the music. The look on her face was priceless and put even bigger smiles on mommy & daddy's faces. Too cute!!

After the ride was over, Camille acted as if she owned the mall. She was all smiles and walked around independantly saying "happy, happy." It was hilarious!! Guess we have a new strategy for indoor play!

On Sunday, Camille got to eat lunch at Chargrill with her best buddy, Madelyn. The girls were so cute together. They wanted to copy everything that the other did and were obsessed with banging on the tables and chairs. Luckily, it wasn't too crowded in the restaurant. Most people enjoyed just watching them amuse themselves. We love how sweet they are together and hope they remain forever friends.