July 18-21, 2010
The last leg of our great East Coast Adventure was spent with my pseudo-sister Jessica. Grandma and Grandpa Hoffman drove us out to her parents' house in Raleigh and kissed us good-bye. I remember hanging out with her family and eating dinner there; Ally remembers watching "The Little Mermaid" with Jess' sister, but I'm not so sure it was on this trip. (See what happens when you wait a year to write stuff down?) I am sure that we eventually made it over to Jess' townhouse south of Chapel Hill and that Ally had multiple breakdowns and tantrums over the following few days. I think it was a combination of being on the move for 3 weeks and being a typical(?) 3-year-old.
We walked down Franklin Street and had lunch at a Mediterranean Cafe, after waiting half an hour for the parking lot employee to finish tinkering with the broken pay station. We drove by the UNC Hospitals buildings where I used to work, and we took some pictures of the LDS Institute chapel where Chris and I first met and used to go to church. We also visited Jess' mom at the birth center and showed off Ally and Cora to her coworkers.
One time Jess stayed inside and studied statistics with Cora while Ally and I took a little nature walk down Jess' road. We took lots of pictures, and we collected sticks and stones and pine cones. (We also gathered the 4-piece remains of a picked-apart butterfly, then scotch taped it back together for Jess. I'm positive that morbid piece of artistic expression is still hanging on her fridge.) 
Ally is an insect magnet. She saw 3 live butterflies, got 15 mosquito bites, and ended up hosting a tick on her upper thigh for a few hours. When we discovered the tick, Jess and I had to do some emergency "surgery". At first Ally was very afraid we were going to take her whole leg off as we got her into position to remove the tick with a pair of tweezers. Her eventual bravery was rewarded with a soda and a trip to Maple View Farm for some ice cream.
Our last day in NC was spent at the Marbles Museum in downtown Raleigh. Cora laughed and giggled and enjoyed being carried around while Ally hopped from activity to activity. She hula-hooped, drove a truck, gardened and bought groceries, played princess dress-up, sawed some wood, raced a small car, ate lunch with some hockey players, did a few science experiments, counted big money, and tried her hand at cheerleading. Don't believe me? Click to zoom in on the pics and don't forget to watch the video. I'm still wondering who taught her all those excellent moves. . .
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