After our visit to State College we packed up the rental car and headed on a 2.5 week road trip down south to Dothan, AL.

Our first stop was Washington, DC where we got to visit with Joe’s Dad who was there on business and see our friends Scott and Donna.  Scott and Donna were our great friends at Patrick AFB, FL and it was so good to see them after 3.5 years.  We, unfortunately, didn’tget any pics with them but we spent 2 relaxing days at their house enjoying Donna’s amazing cooking.

Our next stop was Fayetteville, NC to visit the Vairas, our friends from Spain.  They moved from Spain to NC last summer and we miss them dearly.  It was so nice to see them and catch up on all the latest news.  We only got to spend one night in NC but it was awesome to see them.  We miss you Brady and Lisa.

On our way to GA we stopped in Sumter, SC to visit some girlfriends from Korea.  Debra and her 2 boys and Erika and her 2 girls came out to meet us for lunch and introduce our littles to each other.  The last time I saw these girls Debra’s oldest was a newborn and Erika’s oldest wasn’t even 2.  We all have growing families and love emailing each other for Mommy advice, although I’m usually the one asking for advice.  One perk of the military is the friendships you make everywhere you go but Korea, in particular, stands out as some of the best friendships I have ever made and I know I will keep in touch with a lot of the girls I met during our short tour there.

From South Carolina we headed even farther south to Warner Robins, GA to visit the Whitfords.  They were also friends from Spain and lived down the street from us, just like the Vairas.  We spent a great night there, enjoying Shane’s amazing BBQ (he was always a fabulous BBQer when we had parties in Spain), catching up with Shane and Michelle and visiting the Mossy Creek Festival.  We really miss you Whitfords and all our backyard chats over margaritas and chorizo.

We finally made it to Dothan, AL, the home to 2 of Joe’s 3 brothers where we camped out for a week with Joe’s brother and his wife Vicki.  We always love visiting Steve and Vicki because we all have such a great time.  It was their 3rd time seeing Tripp since he was born and he was a ham all week.  He quickly fell in love with his uncle Steve, as you can see from the photo above.

Tripp excitedly explaining something to Hailey, Joe’s cousin’s daughter.  They are a few months apart and were adorable together.

Steve, Thomas & Trevor (Tom’s boys) and Joe

As you can see male genes run in the Taylor family – Steve, Tom (Tom’s sons Trevor and Thomas), Tripp and Joe.  I may never have a girl at this rate. 🙂

We always eat our fair share of Cracker Barrel when we visit the States and always take a few minutes to rock on the chairs outside.  Tripp looks angry in this photo but he was just concentrating on trying to rock his own chair.  Before I met Joe I had never eaten at a Cracker Barrel and I am now a convert, I love their breakfast, although it doesn’t hold a candle to the Waffle Shop in PA.

Tripp getting the hang of rocking himself.

Tripp spent a good portion of our vacation being pushed around hotels on a luggage cart by his Daddy.  The two of them are two peas in a pod.

After a week we said goodbye to Joe’s family, and left Dothan to head back north.  We stopped in Asheville, NC for a night to visit.  We had heard great things about Asheville and wanted to see if it was someplace we would want to get stationed.  There is a small Weather Station there that employs a handful of Air Force weather people.  We weren’t as impressed by the area as we thought we’d be although the town of Asheville was adorable and the surrounding area was beautiful.  We’ll definitely come back to visit someday but we crossed it off our list for places to live.

One more night in MD at another Hampton Inn, our favorite hotel EVER and then off to Dover, DE where we got on a plane that same day.  Tripp always has a great time at the Dover AFB Terminal because their Kid’s Room is stocked full of goodies.  They even had the same little playhouse that Mimi and Papi have at their house.  It felt just like home.  We were home in Spain after a busy but awesome month in the States.  We miss everyone but were so glad to have been able to see so many people in such a short amount of time.