OLD SALEM TRIP

 

What a beautiful day for a road trip!  We rode up to Old Salem this past weekend to look at the Christmas decorations and to eat at the Village restaurant for lunch.  Abigail wore her new Christmas dress even though she really needed something warmer.  She wouldn't wear a jacket because she said it didn't match her outfit.  Oh my what a diva!   I made her wear my black scarf around her shoulders to block some of the breeze.  She is such an old soul.   She really enjoyed visiting Old Salem on a fieldtrip back in October.  This time we saw a house for sale in downtown Old Salem and she wants to buy it so she can live in the old town.  Oh goodness!    I apologize for such short post, but life is very hectic and I have no spare time to play around writing blogs anymore!  Enjoy the pictures and see ya next time!

 

 

I am so cool I can't take my sunglasses off!

Check out Abigail's "bag" she carried all day.  It went so well with her cute little outfit



Outside the towns' physician's house

Abigail posing on Main St.

Outside of Tavern restaurant

My little ole lady.

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My 2 tree huggers

Abigail pumping water at the town cistern

Brandon and the girls posing on the bridge.  I love the lighted Moravian stars!

My turn!

Universal Studios-Orlando

The Burnette's took Universal by storm last weekend!  The kids had a Friday off of school so we flew down to Orlando, did 2.5 days in the parks, and flew back on Monday morning (to school and work)!  We had an amazing time and did probably 30 hours in the parks.  We walked and walked, and then walked some more.  All 4 of us would collapse in the bed once we got back to the room just so we could do it all over the next day.  I can really say that these parks are absolutely beautiful and so well done.  I took many pictures of the park, but none do justice to how they really look (especially the Harry Potter areas) 

I spoke to one of my pathologists at work today and he retired recently and I told him congratulations.  Someone said, yeah he retired so he could do some traveling.  To that I said, well maybe one day I can look forward to that.  His reply was, "Well there is some downsides to it.  You get old and then retire.  All I can say is stay in shape"  So to me that put my mind at ease about how I look at things...  I am reasonable young and can travel pretty well (physically speaking) so I my as well do my traveling now, not wait until I am too old to enjoy it!  Don't get me wrong, I want to get old (eventually), but what if I don't?  What if something happens before my bucket list is done?  What if I get old and can't maneuver around?  What if, what if, what if????  Besides, I have the perfect traveling circus to travel with right now.  I have got a husband that will follow me pretty much wherever I drag him and I have got 2 wonderful children that I get to enjoy seeing them enjoy new things!  Why would I wait until I am old, retired, and wrinkly?  Hahaha!  I want to go go go!  So as long as I can pay my bills on time and put food on the table on a regular basis, I am going to spend every extra dollar and extra minute I have on planning a vacation(which I get a high off of by itself)  or going on a vacation.  So enjoy these quickly added pictures and remember... you only live once...Do what you want to do while you still have a chance!

Jurassic Park area from across the water. 

Dr. Seuss area-and ya'll know I LOVE Dr. Seuss kids books (and have several memorized from reading to the kids so many times) This was almost as good as seeing the DeLorean from Back to the Future!!

Beautiful flowers I grabbed a quick shot of.



Kabomsky??  Really Brandon?!

 

Emily's all time hero!!  Next time you see her ask her about her Sponge Bob dance as a small child!



Train Station at Hogwarts

Enjoying butterbeer over in Diagon Alley

No words for this one...

Waiting for the Disaster!

Surfing Babes!

Diagon Alley Storefront

Hot Dang!!! The DeLorean from my all time FAVORITE movie!!!!  BACK TO THE FUTURE!!!

Bus from Harry Potter movie

Abigail in London making a quick call before we boarded the Hogwarts Express

Fire Breathing dragon in Diagon Alley

Another Back to the Future nostalgic find!



Day 3 entering Islands of Adventure for the day

 I couldn't resist climbing on him for a quick picture!



Ohhh.... the Truffula trees!!!!

 

The famous Universal spinning ball at entrance



Brandon is devastated!

 



I love Cows!

Silly Girl!

Abigail playing her actress part of The "Disaster" filming.  This was her laying on the street and "The Rock" asked her "Are you ok"

SpongeBob World

Family picture in Seuss Land.

Where did the Summer Go?

So this past summer flew by way too fast.  Kids are back in school and I catch myself yearning for a pumpkin spiced something as we gear up for fall.  We did have a chance to take a trip down to the coast for several days and we did Emerald Point one day, but nothing spectacular.  We lost Miss Ruby (my great aunt) and we have been trying to spend time with Miss Earnie (Ruby's sister).  Earnie is an amazing lady with stories to tell!  I love sweet old people that still have a sense of humor!
Emily got her braces and we are waiting to hear when Abigail will be ready for Phase I braces to get her front teeth straitened out.  Brandon has been bombarded with farm work and repairs caused by the farm work.  Something is always broken, fence needs to be put up, and hay needs to be hauled.  This whole "let's raise a herd of cattle" is not as glamorous as one may think!  I can barely get him to take a day to do fun stuff because he can't get away from work long enough, and when he does take a day off from his "day job" he needs to help John with one of their various projects.  He also is helping coach Emily's fall softball team, so his evenings are booked too!  It's crazy!  I am dragging him away in October for a quick 3 day weekend trip, knowing that I may not see him until the Holidays after that! 

SUMMERTIME MADNESS!

So we are done with District Softball Tournaments for the year.  Abigail's team did not make it to the state tournament. Abigail played outfield for 2 of her 3 games.  The last game they let her be catcher.  I think she is wanting to follow in Emily's footsteps!  Abigail is busy this week with Softball camp.  She told them she wanted to practice catching.  Hopefully she will take home some valuable tips that she can use in the fall when she moves up to the Angel's age group. 
Emily's team got Runner Up to Rockingham.  We were "lucky" that this year our district gets to take both the winner and the runner up to state!  So here we go again with the hectic practice schedule.  I am lucky that Brandon is assistant coach and therefore has to be the one to go with Emily to practice!  The head coach gave them a day off and they will go back to practicing 2 hours a day for the state tournament that starts July 11 in Carthage.  I would like to see them improve a little bit before we head to state.  Emily is usually catcher, but the last game we played at district she played 1st base.  The game before that she couldn't get it together behind the plate.  That is where she likes to be, but I don't know what happened to her that day!  Emily had softball camp last week and she said they taught her some things that she was going to apply in the games, but I'm not sure if that happened.  Hopefully we can get some improvements out of the team as a whole in the next 2 weeks.  Sorry for all the pictures that will have to load on this blog, but this is my life!

The Burnette Girls right before Opening Ceremonies

Abigail's All-Stars Team

Emily's All-Stars Team

Abigail ready for a ball in the outfield

Team Huddle!

Abigail getting ready to bat!

Emily catching in the game against Rockingham

Emily's Team with Runner Up trophy

I am a person of numbers and I think this is the coolest picture! 13-15-17

Emily's Team Sporting their Runner Up Medals

After Game Celebration

So we went on a weekend whitewater rafting/kayaking trip a couple of weeks ago.  We stayed in a little cabin out in the middle of no where in Topton NC.  It was owned by an older lady that made cookies, rice krispy treats, and homemade blueberry muffins for us during our stay!  You don't get that at a Holiday Inn!  Her husband even decorated the deck with American flags and red rope lights for the Hoilidays!  we had an entire day on the Nantahala River.  We did an 8.5 mile raft trip in the morning and the same 8.5 miles in double duckies(inflatable kayaks) in the afternoon.  We had lunch on the riverside and had an AMAZING day!  The kids loved every minute of it.  They had never been whitewater rafting so this was a first for them.  I have never laughed so hard in my entire life as I did while in the raft.  Brandon got so mad at me and the kids because either we weren't listening, or he wasn't communicating like he thought he was!  Sometimes he thinks things, but does not say them aloud and expects us to read his mind!  When I got thrown backwards and couldn't sit up and he was fussing at us, I laughed so hard it was impossible to regain composure!  When we went down in double duckies me and Emily took forever to learn how to work together, but we got the hang of it.

After 4+ hours in the car we have arrived!

The Burnette girls conquer the river!

 

Relaxing while the rain set in 

The girls' bedroom

On the porch of the Whitewater Outpost

Before I laid down on the job!

As I am laying down on the job!

Before Abigail and Brandon hit!

What a good action shot!

Fun times!

I thought we were going over!

Abigail's "Gosh this is cold water" look

Here we are goofing off when we should be paddling!

Riverside Lunch Break!

Abigail styling her wetsuit before kayak trip

Burnette's Post Kayak picture

Steak and baked potato supper on the deck!

From the firepit area.  Note Abigail up on porch!

Trying to get a fire started for S'Mores

Abigail enjoying her hot tub time

When we left Sunday morning (on Father's Day) we road towards Tennessee to find the "Tail of the Dragon"  This is an 11 mile stretch of road that has 318 curves in it.  It is a place where motorcycles and sports car flock to be able to "ride the Dragon".  So here we go, with 2 children in the car, driving this thing where people get killed all the time!  We saw so many crazy people on motorcycles passing people and coming around curves almost touching the ground with their butts!  It was like something off TV!  But now the Burnette family can say "Been there, done that, got the t-shirt!" whenever we see or hear something about the Tail of the Dragon.

The Tail of the Dragon statue

The "Tree of Shame"  When someone loses a part on the Tail of the Dragon, they nail it on here