Paradise revisited part 2

Any visit to paradise isn't complete without a visit to see my grandkids. After our wonderful cruise with Jon and Sara, Tom had to fly back to Boise to work and pay taxes, but I got to stay an extra week and visit with my kids and grandkids. I flew up to Raleigh with Jon and Sara and got to spend the evening with Jon's parents who had graciously flown out to North Carolina to watch Lucy and Zach. It was so fun seeing the kids and to see how excited they were to have their Mom and Dad back and then for them to tell about all the fun they had had with Grandma and Grandpa Cardon. We all went out to dinner to "The Pit" a restaurant in downtown Raleigh that competed on "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" for the best ribs. It was a delicious barbecue joint and somehow on a busy Saturday night Gene was able to hook us up with a table. The food was delicious!
I was able to spend a couple of days in Pinehurst with the Cardon's. I got to go Sara's "Body-pump" class on Monday night. Sara does a great job teaching and the class was packed. We took the kids to Chick-Fila
and played trains and barbies.
Wednesday we drove back to Raleigh and met Sarah, Eva and Sophie at the Museum of Science and Natural History (I think that was it's name). Sarah had been visiting her sister Teresa in Chapel Hill, so we met at the museum and the kids had a great time exploring all the exhibits together. They were so excited to see each other.

Sophie inside a dinosaur footprint.
Eva was so worried about this injury on the Diploducus. It is all she could talk about.


They had a great butterfly display.
After we had had enough fun at the museum, we headed to Costco, so Sara could stock up on her groceries and we had a delicious Costco lunch. Who doesn't love Costco hotdogs, pizza and churros??
Sara, Lucy, Zach and all the groceries headed back to Pinehurst and I drove up to Richmond with Sarah, Eva and Sophie and spent the next 3 days with them.


We went to the park while Eva was in preschool and then I got to take Eva to her ballet class.
Sarah and I ate at a delicious Sichuan/Chinese restaurant in Short Pump that had just opened up.Peter Chang is a James Beard award winning, world class chef and he opened a restaurant close to Devin and Sarah so we had to try it out. The first night we tried to eat there, the line was out the door, so we went the next night right when it opened. It was amazing. The food had seasonings and flavors that I have never tasted before. This wok dry fried eggplant was so good with this "tongue numbing spice". I can't wait to go back and try some more crazy stuff.
Devin and I got to watch some BYU basketball together, we made orange cupcakes,
ate lunch at Lulu's, a fun place in downtown Richmond and played Snow White. It was just fun hanging out with the people I love.
I can't wait until my next trip to "Paradise".