Gosh road trips are fun! Even if they do require being in a car for more than 9 hours at a time, they really can be a lot of fun, especially when you're with good company and you have a great destination in mind.
Visiting my grandparents as an adult causes me to do all sorts of reminiscing - thinking about all the fun times I had growing up visiting my grandparents. They always made Jennifer and I feel so special. Taking Gabbie there now is really special too - I hope she gets to grow up going there and creating memories of her own. They are the "originals" because my parents are also called Mammaw and Pappaw. The originals are in North Carolina though and are Gabbie's great-grandparents.
Mom and I set out to the ol' High Point, NC this past weekend. We spent about four days with my grandparents and it was great. They, of course, ate up every minute with Gabbie girl. I am so thankful for the encouragement of our good friends to do road trips when Gabbie's young because I think she has gotten used to it - she did fantastic in the car! Mom and I were definitely appreciative.

We also went to visit my Aunt Sissy - she's been in a rehabilitation/assisted living facility for several months now and is doing great. She was really excited to see Gabbie (and us also).
Here are some great pictures from the trip....


Hanging out with Mammaw - this was before she realized she could chew on the tubing for her oxygen...

Pappaw and Gabbie girl
We even got to visit with Aunt Sissy both days we were in NC! She loved her time with Gabbie. She would tell literally EVERYONE that passed, "See my baby..." it was funny! (by the way - Aunt Sissy is my grandfather's sister, but she has always been a big part of my life since before I can remember. She's more like an aunt than a great aunt...)

...annnd here she has discovered the tubing is a GREAT thing to chew on. Mammaw doesn't really care - Duke's playing basketball. I think Gabbie could have done pretty much anything at this point because the game was on. (remember, basketball in north carolina is like SEC football in TN = borderline religious.)
She's not really sure what to think of Uncle David - I think she was confused because he has the same kind of facial hair as my dad. I love this curious look though!

This is Serenity - her daddy and I grew up sitting at this exact same table eating ice cream just like this almost every night. (I used to spend summers at my grandparents - one week at a time. My cousin Josh is just a few months younger than me - this is one of his beautiful daughters)
And here's Heaven in Josh's lap - it's so funny because she's just like Josh used to be in that she falls asleep at the drop of a dime. He used to eat dinner, excuse himself from the table and we would always find him sound asleep on the couch by 6:00 p.m. Of course then he wanted to wake up at 4am ... we have some funny stories about that...

Serenity could not keep her hands off of Gabbie and Gabbie was very intrigued with her as well!

When I'm at Mammaw and Pappaw's house this is my breakfast - pretty much every morning. Let me describe it for you: upper left hand corner - crispy bacon; beside that on the right is a single piece of fresh raisin toast; below that - a perfectly cooked egg in a hole. (interpretation: one piece of white bread, the center cut out with a biscuit cutter, the bread slathered in butter, put in a frying pan with a fresh egg cooked right in the center. It is THE best breakfast ever. I make it at home, but it's never right. I think it's the butter....)

This is a fiddle that belonged to my Great-Grandfather. My great Aunt Mary actually was able to fit inside this case when she was three years old - she had typhoid fever and got sooo small she could fit inside!

My Pappaw is known for all the boxed chocolates he always has on hand. This year people went a little over the top and got him two HUGE boxes of chocolate. I mean these guys were GINORMOUS!

Mindy and Aunt Sandra hanging out - this picture cracks me up because Aunt Sandra is cheesing so big and that HUGE chicken sandwich is on the tv at the same time....funny. Not sure why...ha

hanging out on the couch....

I mentioned earlier that I put Gabbie in her stroller for the first time without her car seat. I got a quick picture of it on our trip....she constantly puts the straps in her mouth or at least she's always licking them. (yes, I keep them clean)

Here's my little trooper in the car on our way back from North Carolina. We were in the car for a total of 9 hours each way - she was such a great little traveler! I never heard a peep out of her other than her sweet little coos.