Charlotte

The crowing event for the summer was this Charlotte trip and there is a LONG story behind it!

 I was going to save it for another post but maybe I'll include it here.

We'll see after I start typing how long it gets :)

So Terry works for Jeld Wen, lots of you know that. He is in the marketing department. 

Well, in July they had a huge company meeting where they announced that the entire marketing department was getting relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina. Right there at the meeting they were asked if they would consider moving AND they were given a severance letter letting them know how much they would be getting should they choose to leave the company.

Obviously when he got home that night we had A LOT to discuss. We did sort of know it was coming, so we had discussed it a little before. The conclusion we usually came to is that we did not want to live in North Carolina. So when it finally came down that we had to make a decision we were thinking we weren't going to go.

About 2 or 3 weeks before we had to give Jeld Wen our final answer another opportunity presented itself. 

There was a start up company that approached Terry about coming on as senior VP and helping get the company really rolling. They were offering money I can't even wrap my head around. Of course we were THRILLED!! We don't have to move, Terry gets this incredible (albeit risky) career opportunity, and we would financially be doing really well. And we really felt like if he tried this for a couple of years and it bombed, he would still be able to put it on his resume and then we could move on. So he met with the owners, had tons of meetings to discuss how to make this go, started reaching out to his peeps and organizing a team that he felt like could make this dream a reality and we really wrote Jeld wen off in our minds. 

Now back up to the day of the big company meeting and the handing out of severance letters. Terry told them that very day that there was no way he could make any kind of decision with out taking is wife and some of the kids out to Charlotte to check the place out. Well Jeld Wen agreed at that time to fly Terry and I and the three oldest kids out there to see what we thought.

Well when this whole thing started to come down with this other company, we felt really bad taking the Charlotte trip. We didn't want to take advantage of Jeld Wen and have them fork out a boat load of money for us to go over there and play for a week when we really felt like we were going to take the other job. Terry discussed this with his boss and was very open with him about everything, including the fact that we felt like he should take the other job and we didn't feel right about going to visit Charlotte. His boss insisted that we go anyway and just check it out, so we did!

Here is a recap of the trip (don't worry I will finish the story at the end) . . .

We first had to drive to Portland . . .

Spent a little time playing around the city before we had to be at the airport for our red eye 10:30 pm flight . . .

The kids were SO excited to be in the airport, almost like they were going to Disneyland!

This was the first time any of them had ever been on a plane. Take off (they call it "launching" is their favorite part!)

Now as the mom I was all ready for them to get on the plane and GO TO SLEEP! It was 11 o'clock at night! But Terry let them stay up and "play"

It was a 6 hour flight so they did eventually settle down and get a little sleep on the plane

The next day we got busy with our touring. Charlotte is really beautiful! Now we were there the first week in August so it was hot and humid, but really not so miserable we didn't want to walk every where and see everything. We spent the first day driving around neighborhoods and playing the, "If we did have to live here, where would we live?" game.

We found a few places that we really liked actually!

Every other day we devoted to PLAYING!

THe kids in the hotel lobby . . .

Swimming. Those trees just out side the walls were full of some of the LOUDEST bugs I have ever heard! I still don't know what they were because we never saw anything (and never looked because we were afraid to find) but whatever those things were . . . LOUD!!

No I did not swim because even at 90 degrees it was too cold for me. I'm really a hot tub kind of girl :)

We ate in the hotel restaurant pretty much every meal. The kids thought it was great, and I enjoy going out to eat about once a month, any more then that grosses me out. By the end of this week I was looking for grocery stores for just a little real food.

The hotel had two rooms, which the kids thought was super great. ANd we let Raegan have her own bed, which NEVER happens when there are five kids in your family and you are in a hotel, so she was in heaven!

One of days we headed to the Whitewater Center.

They actually use this facility to train the Olympic kayakers, and whatever other white water sports are in the Olympics :)

Sunscreenin'

It really was an amazing facility! They had this huge white water river that was entirely man made. They control how much water goes in, how big the rapids get (up to class 5), and the direction it all flows . . .

Along with the white water adventures you could also do multiple ropes courses, zip lines and a mega jump.

Here we are getting geared up for the zip line.

We found out shortly after this picture was taken that Ryan wasn't heavy enough for the zip line, so he enjoyed the mega jump multiple times.

Ryan is the tiny elbow in the picture, getting ready to mega jump! This thing was 50 feet off the ground. They hook you up to some tension rope and you just step off the edge! The kids loved it!

I did not get near that thing, thank you very much!

Terry even jumped a couple of times. I might have been braver, but after watching multiple kids and then adults to it I saw the reality. The kids float softly to the ground like a feather . . . the adults plummet!! So fast most of them had a hard time even landing on their feet . . . no thanks!

I did do the zip line quite a few times . . .

The zip took us across the whole park . . .

Ryan watching from afar . . .

More crazy jumpers . . .

Then it was on to our white water rafting appointment.

They were very good about catering to the needs of the family. Ryan was VERY apprehensive about rafting. There were two course options, Family and Adventure. We told the guide we'd better stick with the family course. It was very mild and after a few minutes Ryan decided he was braver and we did the adventure course a few times . . .

It was TONS of fun! We didn't get thrown out, although one time I really thought we were all goners!

A little lunch . . .

And onto the ropes courses . . .

I've never done ropes courses before and really thought I knew what to expect.

YOu have to have A LOT Of trust in the equipment and it was WAY scarier then I thought, mostly because I had very little trust in the equipment!

I did it though! We did three or four ropes courses and another zip line. By then we were all super sweaty and hot and decided we'd had enough of that and decided to go check out their "Flat water" activities

The flat water part was by far my favorite!!

We rented two kayaks and two paddle boards. We traded on and off with each other and explored the river . . .

The paddle board was fun but I ended up liking the kayak way better!

There was a spot in the river with a really high sand bar we hung our near that a lot and the kids had fun jumping on and off the boats and boards. . .

We found a short cut around the island. It was so gorgeous in there. I didn't want anyone in the water because it seemed like the ideal place for crocodiles!

NO, there are no crocodiles, but if there were, they would have lived right where we were, I'm just sure of it!

It was beautiful!

We spent hours in this little river area and really saw very few people, its like we had the whole place to ourselves! It is one of my most favorite memories ever of things we have done as a family (well with the older kids anyway)! SO FUN!

The next day we decided to drive to Myrtle Beach. FOUR hours later (yeah, if we'd have known it was going to take that long we might have skipped it!) we got there and had lunch at Peaches on the Corner. ONe of the first diners ever in Myrtle Beach.

I ordered their famous fish and chips and the kids enjoyed a good burger . . .

Then it was onto the beach!

The kids were amazed at how warm the water was!

In Oregon and Northern California, which is pretty much the only place my kids get in the ocean the water is far from warm, I don't even think you can just call it cold! It is FREEZING pretty much all year round!

This was like bath tub water and they were loving it!

After a few hours of jumping in and over the waves and drinking buckets of the ocean, Raegan reported, "This water is so much warmer then the Pacific Ocean. But it is WAY saltier. At least with the Pacific Ocean, once you are numb the cold doesn't bother you that much, this salt never gets better!"

During their time on the beach, Terry decided to take the kids down to the pier, you can see it jetting into the water way behind Raegan. Well they walked down there and noticed a huge crowd of people standing on the beach screaming at somebody in the water. Terry looked out into the ocean and saw the head of this guy floating WAY past the pier, WAY past the point where the waves were even breaking too. He was just floating out there in the swells. After watching this guy out there for a few seconds, Terry realized he wasn't doing well. Every time a swell would hit him, he wouldn't rise with it, it just took him in and he struggled more each time to get his head up after they passed.

Superman kicked in and he decided to go for a swim! Now let me tell you Terry is Lifeguard certified so he really did know what he was doing.

He started swimming out to this guy (who he later realized was only a kid about 19 or 20) and it became very apparent just how far this guy was out. "Further then I have ever swam in the ocean in my life!" Way past were most people who swim the ocean would have even gone. It took him awhile to get  out there. Terry said once he got to the guy he could see the guy was completely checked out. Zero recognition that anybody was even there. Terry talked to him a little then started pushing him back to shore. By the time they finally got to the beach, the lifeguard was just running up to them and immediately took the guy to the ambulance and Terry just walked off with the kids back to where I was waiting down the beach.

Dalyn relayed the story. I guess Terry hadn't even told the kids he was going in. Dalyn just looked up from playing and realized Terry was swimming into the middle of the ocean after this guy.

Of course Dalyn thinks Terry is the hero and superman . . . because he is! Little did we know just one week after this event was when Terry would superman the guy who was trying to steal his car!

It was a busy August for our hero :)

After it got dark we headed onto the board walk to site see and ordered some greasy fair food. Myrtle Beach is VERY touristy, fun to do once, but I wouldn't make huge efforts to get back there.

We stopped and bought Myrtle Beach t-shirts. Terry picked one that says something about Beach Patrol :)

Then we started our Long Drive back to the hotel.

The next day was Sunday. We were going to try to hit a few different wards, but after pulling into the hotel at 2 am, we decided we would just opted for the one that started the latest :)

So at 1 pm we went to a fantastic ward in Charlotte, enjoyed the meetings there then at 4 when church was over we headed to a great park and had PB&J's and made our way to the airport!

It was a fantastic trip!

And there is way more to tell . . .

in another post :)