Oakleaf

Recently we found out that Nonna had a second cousin who owned a very nice highly rated restaurant in Pittsboro, NC and as a special birthday treat for Nonna we thought it would be a great idea to make a trip out to NC and check it out.  It was pretty close to Grandma and Pappy's house too so it was a great way to also get to see Pappy for his birthday too. 

Here is everybody looking over the menu getting ready to decide what treats they were going to have:

 Mommy (looking excited to try some delicious eats) and Daddy:

 Here are some of our delicious dishes:

 At the end of the dinner service we got to back into the kitchen and talk to Nonna's cousin, the owner and head chef.  It was sooo cool to get to go back into the kitchen and see everyone getting everything ready for dinner service.  Everything was delicious and it was also great to get to go back and tell the chef personally how much we like the food and service.  It was also neat to find out that he majored in history at St.Mary's College of MD, and owns his own farm where all of his farm-to-table ingredients are from.  Such a cool place!!! I am already psyched to go back!!

The next day we celebrated again with a tour around New Bern, NC and then brunch at Morgan's Tavern, one of Mommy & Daddy's favorites in New Bern.

Then we walked around and did a mini-bear hunt:

It was a great way to celebrate Nonna & Pappy's birthdays and to show everyone around all the cool places in New Bern.  Plus in New Bern they started setting up the set for the taping of the mini-series Sleepy Hollow that is going to be filmed there.  It was cool to see the beginnings of a new series set getting all prepared as well.  After a tour of Grandma and Pappy's we headed back to MD.  It was a great trip full of lots of deliciousness and family fun!

Some Summer Swims

These are just some fun summer swimming photos, I am sure we will have more swimming photo opportunities but this is what I got for now:

 

 

Spelunking- Skyline Caverns

What an adventure we had today!! Awhile ago Mommy and Daddy saw a flyer for Skyline Caverns in VA and thought what better way to beat all this hot weather than to go underground?  We picked up Nonna and headed over to Spelunkers, a burger joint near the caverns that we saw great reviews on in Yelp.  It was true to the critiques and was pretty greasy but was still very delicious!  Then we all headed over to the caverns to go underground!

Here is Wyatt in a spelunker hat- just ensuring he won't get trapped in the dark:

 A little koi pond at the entrance of the cave:

Some of the neat rock formations and stalactites:

 And a cool underground lake that had fish swimming in it.  It was pretty cool to watch the fish swim all around in the dark cavern.

 A back view of a very shallow pond in the cavern.  When you looked at it it looked really deep but there was only a couple of inches of water in there.

 Mommy, Daddy, and Wyatt:

Above were actually this really really old deposit that is native to and was discovered in the skyline caverns- totally cool looking.  And Wyatt, Nonna, and Daddy having fun looking all around the cavern.

There was nothing like the natural air conditioning of the caves.  It was so cool down there!  Then we headed out to test our know how in the Dragon Maze.  Wyatt was able to lead us all around the dragon maze once we got our barrings and let us out with no problems!

 Then we went on the mini train ride around.  They took us around the loop three times and each time we saw something different.  There was a place labelled crocodile rock and we didn't notice until the second time around that the giant rock really was shaped like a crocodile, and horseshoe loop which was shaped like a horseshoe but you didn't notice until going back again.  It was a cool way to display that you can do something multiple times and get something new from it each time.

 A dinosaur that had been peering at us all day, I think Wyatt just realized he was only for pretend:

The Visitor's Center and entrance to Skyline Caverns:

After the museum we stopped off at a place for some yummy refreshing ice cream and then headed back to Bethesda where we met up with Auntie Millie, Granddaddy, and Ms. Aida for a special surprise early birthday dinner for Nonna.  Since Millie and Aida will be going to the Philippines for a month it was also a great way to get to see them and spend a little time before they left for their big trip.

The sky knew what a great day it was too, look at this pretty rainbow out there greeting us:

Mommy & Daddy's Night Out

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