Kid Free Weekend

Joel and I arranged a kid-free weekend with babysitter extraordinaire Sharon this weekend. Joel and I turned in his leased Prius (has it really been three years already???) and bought a new Honda Accord hybrid. This is the first year Honda has made them and they did not make very many. Consequently it took us a while to track one down that was the EXL model (leather, moon roof, upgraded stereo but no navigation) that Joel wanted. We ended up driving to Hickory to get it. Joel was not able to negotiate as well as he has for previous car purchases because of the car being in such high demand. But he did manage to get it for a thousand or so below sticker price. The cool thing about the Accord hybrid is that it is much bigger than the Prius but still gets 50 mpg same as the Prius. We wanted a bigger yet still fuel efficient car so this fits the bill nicely. 

After all the car buying business was out of the way Joel and I had a fun weekend. The weather was beautiful Saturday and we went to the whitewater center for the day. We went whitewater rafting -- everyone managed to stay in the raft except for our guide who ironically was the only one to fall overboard. That was one thing not mentioned in the safety talk-- what to do if your guide falls out. We steered the raft to calm waters and "parked" so he could swim over to us. I did the Mega Zip zip line which was very fun -- although Joel was too much of a chicken to go on it with me! After the white water center, we met friends for a fun and delicious dinner at Cow Fish. 

The kids had a good weekend as well. Ben and Rebecca got to go to Carowinds with Papa and Mary, so Caroline got a lot of undivided attention from Sharon!

Here is a picture of the new car: