Spring Break- Visiting Raleigh

While Grandma Beth was home with the flu, the boys and I took a little road trip. (PeePaw actually spent the first part of Tuesday with her and met us after lunch.)

Over the past few years, we have always made it a point to visit a new place in NC and check out what they have for the boys to do. With Uncle Matt living in Raleigh now, it was an easy decision to visit there this year. First off, we all LOVED Raleigh. There was so much for the kids to do and we loved all of the restaurants. Raleigh is definitely a place to visit, and I want to go back soon!

The boys with their Uncle Matt in front of the NC capitol building

(We were so glad he took off work to spend the day with us!)

Our day began at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. It is a HUGE museum, separated into two buildings. Since it is so large, we decided to stay in the Nature Exploration Center, but next time we visit, we will definitely check out the Nature Research Center. By the way, this awesome, huge museum is FREE. :)

The animal talk was really interesting. While most of the museum focused on animals that live, or have lived, in NC, the animal talk was on animals from the Tropics. 

We loved the sloth! 

I think this is the first one I had ever seen and it was hilarious. Since it rarely moves, there were monitors all around that showed videos of it moving about...so slow and so funny!

Yikes...

After the museum we met PeePaw at our hotel and then headed to lunch. Then we made it to our next stop...Frankie's. When I told Uncle Matt that we were coming to visit and mentioned the things we wanted to do and see, he got really excited about Frankie's. Apparently he had heard about it from his friends and always wanted an excuse to go. Maybe that's the real reason he took off work... ;)

Frankie's is like Main Event meets The Track. 

Obviously, it was a blast!

The kids went through the Fun House first. Luke came out a hot, sweaty mess.

Such a good uncle... ;)

They did a 3D simulation game shooting zombies.

From outside the game, I was able to watch them on monitors. Love how Luke's little face barely shows!

It was a cool afternoon, so we only went outside for the go-carts. 

One of the last things we did (you will see why...) was The Spider Web. The kids had as long as they wanted to climb this web of ropes. They were so cute in there and we could hear them laughing. 

Can you spot them at the top?

When Luke came out looking like a coal miner, we decided it was time to go! (Somehow he looked like this and only Caleb's hands were black.)

One last game..."Look mom! I see a Chevrolet!"

The boys LOVE staying at hotels, especially when there is a pool. (They get the love for hotels from their mom!) After dinner, we let them swim for a half hour, but had to call it a night since it was almost 10pm!

While Caleb and PeePaw shared a room, Luke and I took the room next door. We closed the black-out curtains, cranked up the AC, and slept great!