We are home!!!! We had a nice vacation, but I was so ready to be back in Kansas and on familiar roads.

We left Salina at 2 pm Friday. We drove straight through to Chris' Aunt Beth's house in South Carolina, pulling in at noon on Saturday. They didn't know we were coming so it was a surprise for them. Walter (Chris' cousin) and his wife Laura came to town and we went out for supper and had a nice visit with them. Walt and Beth and Marybeth took us to Krispy Kreme at 11 pm. We had fresh hot donuts. It was wonderful, Chris fell in love! That was a lot of fun. And you wouldn't believe how busy this place is that late at night. Sunday we went shopping and Tommy (Chris' cousin) came home for the evening. Beth cooked supper and we had a nice visit. We had a wonderful time at Walt and Beth's.

Monday, after everyone left for work and school, we went to Charlotte, NC for the day. We went to Lowes Motor Speedway and were able to go into the middle of the track. It was so awesome. Richard Petty driving school was there that day and they had cars out racing. They had a Dale Jr. car and we got our pictures next to it. A man working for Petty came over and we started talking to him and asking questions. He then asked if I wanted to sit in the car and get my picture taken. Of Course!!! It was so COOL!!! We walked around like we owned the place, no one said a word and it didn't cost a thing. I was on cloud nine of course and I really want to go to a race now. We left there and went to Hendrick Motorsports. He owns Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch's race teams. Not at all fan of those drivers but we wanted to get Chris' dad something, he likes Gordon (Blah!!) We then went to Roush Racing. Saw the shops of Mark Martin, Carl Edwards, Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth. While we were at Kenseth's shop, his crew chief, Robbie Riser walked out of the shop and Chris asked if we could get his picture. So, I got my pic with him. Still not one of our favorite drivers, but he is a past champion and could win again this year. Next was Dale Earnhardt Inc. They had a nice place and a lot of Dale Sr. memorabilia. Got a bunch of stuff in the gift shop. We were hoping to see Jr. there, but we didn't (darn). Ya right, I probably would have peed my pants!!! We then rushed to Richard Childress' shop and museum. They said they were open until 5. We got there at 4:15 and they wouldn't let us go through the museum with less than an hour until they closed. Would have been nice to know that before we drove an hour to get there. Oh well. Got a lot of nice things in the gift shop. But we know there was a lot of Dale Sr. stuff in the museum, we could see part of it through the back door. So, we left there and drove back to Beth's and stayed the night.

Tuesday we said our goodbyes and left for Charleston, SC. This starts the Civil War hunting of our vacation. Chris is really in to wanting to find relics and learning all about the Civil War. Really wanted to get himself a gun. We went to Charleston and visited Fort Sumter, which is where the Civil War began. We took a boat ride out into the mouth of the harbor right before it opens into the Atlantic Ocean and visited the Fort. It was really neat. Madi had her first boat ride!!! She did such an awesome job. She got a little sun that day but she was such a doll. After we got back we went to the open air market and shops. But everything closes at 5, it was a little disappointing. But it was such a busy town and so cramped. We decided to leave town and head towards Atlanta. We wound ourselves through Georgia, Tennessee, and Missouri for the next couple of days just visiting battle sites.

Madi had her 4 month checkup on Friday before we left town. She is 11 lbs 15 oz and 24.5 in long. She has made it to the 72 percentile in height and 18 percentile for weight. No cereal yet, she wants to wait until 6 months. Which is fine, she is doing much better with her bottles. I also asked about the teething and the doctor said that babies really start to drool at this age but teeth don't usually come until 6 months. She got a cold while we were gone. She has a cough and you can feel it rattling in her chest, it's getting better, just keeping up with the cough medicine. We finally graduated to 3-6 month onesies but alot of the separates are still way too big for her. Her waist is just so little, she was still wearing a pair of premie shorts on our vacation. Her new thing is that she has found her toes. It kept her occupied several times on our trip.







I am still working on downloading pictures. So, please check back soon and they should be done.

Love, Amy