North Carolina

We finally made the trip across the ocean, and then the country, to North Carolina. It'd been a year since I'd seen most of my family (except Molly and Mom) and I was desperate to be home. Brian, being the wonderful husband that he is, indulged me...but let's not forget his precious '76 Jeep...

Anyhow, here are the pictures that I took - Emily and Aunt Karen, please send me your pictures!!!

Brian and Galina in the Honolulu Airport. Angie Bledsoe, a good friend from church, dropped us off at the airport so we didn't have to leave our truck there for 2 weeks and pay $10 a day for parking! But, I asked her really last minute and that meant that we had to get to the airport a couple of hours early...this was how we killed time - eating our toes.

And just hanging out. It was an overnight flight - and Galina did FABULOUS! Everyone was rolling their eyes when we got on the plane, but the same people were catching us as we were getting off and saying, "What a wonderful baby!" We know...

Galina has a passion for drinking water - seriously. She loves it. But this particular bottle was empty. Emily brought her bumbo from Greenville for us - lifesaver. Everyone pitched in and had things for Galina: winter clothes, a winter jacket, pack-n-play with an awesome bassinet, anything we could think of and everyone pitched in. Thanks - we love ya'll.

Galina really took to Uncle Nick, everytime he turned around I was handing her to him :)

Went to ECU to visit some Professors. Missed most of them - i.e. Dr. Toppin, so I took a picture outside her door to send to her :) But I posted it here because it's one of the few of me with Galina. It was super cold that day, but Dad, Emily and Gabby suffered through it with us so we could walk the campus.

Galina Panova, Galina's namesake, was the main reason we went to ECU - we finally caught her a couple of hours after we got there (look, I'm not great at calling people to schedule things...) and snapped a picture in the middle of her pointe class. Thanks Galina, for being so patient with us. I will definitely schedule more time to go take a few classes with her next trip!! I miss them...

We ate at Red Robin one night. We hear the commercials all the time here in HI, but have yet to see one, so we went to Jacksonville, NC just to try it :) Yeah right...but it wasn't too bad. Galina was enjoying a MumMum rice cracker, which we have since banned from her diet because they don't agree...I think that's what's going on anyways. It was still super cold in the restaurant.

We also drove the short 4 hour trip to Virginia to see my Grandma Kokinda and Aunts, Uncles and cousins. It was a great trip and all 18 of us got to go - which was awesome! Galina sat with Gram until she got wiggly :) She was quite content! Love you and miss you Gram!

We tried to get a picture of all of my Dad's grandkids with his Mom. Galina was asleep, Brian popped her pacifier out and woke her up a bit, but she went right back to sleep. Gabby had other ideas about the picture. She wasn't thrilled, but Jason, Julia, Ella and Emma were great! Johnny, Cody and Steve thought it was pretty funny to watch...

Galina did love her Pop Pop too - she hung out with him quite a bit. It was so awesome to hang out with Dad, thanks.

Galina and Granny, enjoying an oreo. Not a real one though, it's a teether that was in the freezer and Galina loved it.

The night before we left, we got all of the grandkids together for a picture. I love it :) Gabby was so not happy and Galina followed suit shortly thereafter. Miss you little monkeys!

What post about NC would be complete without pictures of Brian's beloved Jeep. He worked on it almost everyday for 2 weeks. Nick helped, Johnny helped, Dad helped...and by the last day it was driveable, but illegal...not to mention Brian's license is way expired...

So, we had an awesome trip. We were all over the place. We miss and love everyone so much.