Mother's Day in Hickory

My one wish for Mother's Day was to celebrate the holiday in Hickory. We had not been to Hickory since last summer (no kidding) because of the timing of the baby so it was way past time for a visit. I was really excited to spend time there with my family and introduce Luke to my hometown!

Luckily, Collins happened to have a teacher workday that Friday so we got an extra day in. We started out our weekend with a fun trip to Hickory's newest "pocket park". It's a small park that takes up one city block downtown with some really neat features including a splash pad (totally not necessary that chilly day), a huge climbing sphere, and some bricks with Collins, Addie and Luke's name on them- thanks Mom!

On Saturday, we relaxed at Mom's house...

 

and then headed back to downtown Hickory. The girls had requested to paint pottery. Addie did a pretty heavy coat of paint on her monkey, and Collins made a butterfly that was quite fancy. They really took their time with this activity which meant they were really into it (and I'm pretty sure Alli, Mom, and I were just as into it with our coffee mugs and olive plate). :)

What was cool was how "happening" downtown Hickory was...after pottery, we had a tasty lunch at The Station and then wandered through their very cool Farmer's Market. I found Hickory quite charming!

After lunch, the weather turned and it was beautiful outside. So we sat on the deck...

 

 

and then decided to go for a practice "hike". Brian and I had made plans to take the kids to the mountains over Memorial Day, and he wanted to see if they could handle an actual hike. Well, how convenient was it that Mom has a forest right down the street from her house that leads to another neat park? So we hiked through the woods and over streams to Glen Hilton Park and back. And turns out they passed the hiking test...

 

Before dinner, we had to go check out Baba and Mom's garden...and introduce Luke to Aunt Kristy.

 

On Sunday, after doughnuts (thanks Brian) we went to my home church for the first time in a long time...Baba shows off pictures of her great-grandchildren to her friends at church all the time so I thought it would be special for her and Mom to have them there in person. I was nervous about how Luke would do (he's never been to church before), but sweet thing fell asleep in the stroller as Brian took a tour of the St. Stephen's grounds. :) The girls were also really well behaved in church so it all actually worked out!

 

Spending time with Mom and Baba in Hickory on Mother's Day was so special. I loved every minute of it!

We also got to spend some time with Dad and Heather before heading home. Dad is growing one impressive garden this year! The girls got some good slinky time in with Nana before we hit the road for the worst road trip ever. There was a bad traffic jam, lots of screaming from Addie and Luke, a pull off the interstate, an emergency Frosty treat, and some fried nerves by the time we got back to Raleigh. Not fun, but our awesome weekend in Hickory was totally worth it!