Our trip to South Carolina 2013

 My daughter and her husband live in upstate SC, she moved there when they got married three years ago. Her family in law all live close by, which is a good thing.His family has been able to help furnish their new home with everything from the kitchen to the bedroom. I wish we could be that close to help out,but lugging furniture from NH to SC would be time consuming and costly.
  Anyway, back to the trip. My son just turned eight and is borderline ADHD/ADD. We waited til the day before to tell him so he wouldn't spend days constantly asking us and counting down every minute. I had already packed our clothes, and just needed to print out the tickets.Yay for technology, one less line to stand in.
  The morning of our trip,I kept checking and rechecking my list of what to bring for each of us. I was adamant  about only having carry on items and none to check in. We each had a small carry on suitcase,very full of stuff. he had his small backpack with travel games, and I had my oversized purse,which was like having another carry on luggage. I decided not to have coffee before the first flight because I get fidgety once the caffeine hits and I was already anxious enough without it.
I felt more anxious than usual to travel,as though something was about to happen that was out of my control. My husband assured me that it was going to be fine. If my flight was delayed due to another thunder storm,the airlines had my info and would redirect my flight. That helped a little, but not totally. I think one of my main concerns was the layover between flights would be fifteen minutes,barely enough time to get there.Not much I could do but trust God to get me where I needed to be on time,safely.
  After walking us in to MHT,checking flight status and saying goodbyes, hubby left for work. I chose a late morning time so we didn't have to rush. We got there more than an hour early,hoping to eat brunch before boarding. My son and I walked around the terminal,looking at the stores and restaurants,and ended up buying some juice and a sunglasses, 2/$25.  We were walking back to the waiting area,when I heard our flight number being called and told to go to another gate for information. Oh boy! Just as I thought, the flight would be either delayed or cancelled due to the storm and we wouldn't make it to Baltimore in time to catch the flight to CLT. We went to the window and they said the flight was being pushed up an hour on a different plane. There was a little confusion and a few passengers were upset that they paid for a better seat and wouldn't get it.

 I was ecstatic that we were on board an hour earlier than planned, and would not only make the connecting flight on time, we would have nearly an hour to spare. Thank God! The plane was one of the smallest I traveled in,only about 48 seats,we were in row 11 of 12. The ride was pretty smooth and uneventful.My son watched Iron Man 2 on Kindle Fire and I had my Kindle keyboard to read and play games. I also watched the movie and realized it was not appropriate for my son due to the scantily clad women and all the violence.

 Once in Philly, we found our connecting terminal, Way on the other side of the airport.Good thing we had plenty of time to get there. The flight was also uneventful and we got to CLT on time. My daughter's father in law and his son picked us up. Stepping out from the air conditioned airport to the steamy NC heat was like stepping into a sauna. very hot and humid. It was good to see David and Jonathan, as we hadn't seen each other since the wedding three years previous. We get along fine and had a pleasant ride to their house. My daughter had to work til 9:30pm,so couldn't be there til later.
Once she got there,we hugged a bunch of times and smiled an awful lot :) it is always so good to see the kids after being apart for any length of time.
 We stayed up late at her house, her hubby also had to work and got home about 11:30. That was all Monday. On Tuesday, we slept in late, played Monopoly,shopped and ate fresh ice cream from Strawberry Hill farms.

July third was her birthday, we had planned to go to an amusement park, but little the little guy was running a fever and feeling sick. I knew something was wrong when he didn't want to eat,play or even tease the dog. He just wanted to go to bed. Totally not normal. He slept all day, we each took turns resting with him. My son in law lifted our spirits by making balloon animals for everyone.

 
He even made a special red velvet cake with brownie bites for her.

My son felt well enough later that day to go see Despicable Me 2. It was cute, but too many inappropriate gestures for an impressionable eight year old to pick up on. One of the highlights of my son's trip was the game of who could find the peach-shaped water tower during each outing. He has a keen sense of direction and often knew where it was before I even knew where we were headed. July 4th was spent at Carowinds amusement and water park   https://www.carowinds.com/ we all had a great time. It was the sunniest day of the week, even though a brief storm rolled through, it didn't 'dampen' our fun ;) We went on the Snoopy coaster,Lucy's Crabby Cabbie, bumper cars, lazy river and a water slide.I ended up going down backward the whole trip. My daughter and her hubby wanted to ride all the coasters, including the one they had to stand up in and were in the front car! My son rode the calmer rides, such as Snoopy's yachts. He must have still felt a little off from being sick the day before. His favorite place was Boomerang Bay,the water park. so much to do we ran out of time while in the wave pool :) The next few days were calmer, there was a house warming/ birthday party on Saturday, where I got to spend time with my Mom and step dad, as well as my son in law's family I hadn't seen for three years.rain did dampen the party a bit because all 30 of us had to stay inside the house, but there was plenty of food to go around. On Sunday we went to church and chillaxed. It was the more boring day of the week, but she needed a rest after all the excitement of the week. I started packing for Tuesday's return trip home. Sort of a melancholy time,knowing we would be saying goodbye all too soon. On Monday, we went shopping and had dinner at her in laws. They had a cheese cake sampler for her birthday. I had secretly bought candles that relight, and she was thrilled that I did =)

 Tuesday morning came too soon and we were all packed and ready to roll on time. We took a few last family photos, including the dog, then headed to the airport.

We were all quiet and pensive during the trip, and weren't in the mood play hangman or 20 questions.
We pulled in front of the terminal and said quick goodbyes with tight hugs and final parting 'I love you',and we were back where we started.