South Carolina, Day 1

We arrived to Charlotte, North Carolina (2 ppl @ $245.50 with tax TOTAL...what a deal!) on Saturday morning and Nicole picked us up at the airport sans children and hubby. Apparently Annelise was so excited for our upcoming arrival that she and Alaina stayed home and cleaned. No wonder Nicole wants us to visit more often! :) J/K....

It's about an hour and a half (probably less if I were doing the driving) drive to Columbia and it was a nice, rainy drive. We got sandwiches on the way to feed everyone and the Hawkinson house is so beautiful! I don't have a lot of pictures of the house itself, unfortunately....isn't that how it always goes?

After lunch, Nicole and I went to a children's store, where I got Alaina's birthday present since we won't be making the trip to Galesburg for her birthday party (Halloween theme, she's so clever..). It is at the store where I encountered my first "Ma'am"....while I know it's very common in the south, it was still weird that someone who was *MAYBE* 9 years younger than me (like my sister, Laura's age) was calling me ma'am. I apparently need to up my eye cream application.

After the store, Nicole and I went running. Well, Nicole ran and I ran/walked because my idea of a "hill" workout is on a treadmill where I can dial down the "hills" when it gets too hard. It was our alone time, the kids and hubbies were at home and we could've really caught up on our gossip, but I could barely answer her questions with more than one syllable answers and gasps/grunts. The hills were AWFUL! But Nicole is a hill champ after 5 months of living there...just chatting me up barely even winded! Oh, and my foot was killing me, too (more on that later), so it was a short run. (Nicole, you rock, by the way!)

A shower and severe pain in my foot as I shove it into a pair of heels later, we are meeting Julie and Luke at a restaurant in downtown Columbia. Again, no camera usage, even though it was in my purse....grr....no excuses in this day, I know! Dinner and dessert (both awesome, thanks for meeting us, Swanson family!) and back home to relieve the sitter and that was day 1 of South Carolina. The only pics from day 1 are the "couple glamour shots" in Nicole and Ben's living room (we THOUGHT we were escaping cold...but I wore a scarf and Kieran wore his North Face...and who would have guessed the "Mega Storm" was on it's way....):