by Rachel Hoeing, Triad Moms on Main

I am really looking forward to better weather and camping.  Since we talked about Geocaching yesterday, putting me in an outdoor state of mind, I thought it would be useful now to remember these tips from Rachel on what to bring when you go camping.  Start planning your summer adventures! ~Allison.

Considering the fact that I am usually quite the uncoordinated, not-so-athletic, indoor gal, it may be a surprise to my friends that I love to go camping! I love the fact that there are no electronics to distract our family time and I thoroughly enjoy watching my children explore nature and relish in imaginative play. Read More

by Allison Carter

February usually marks the winter doldrums for our family.  We try to combat this by doing a little adventure.  I am not sure where we'll end up this year but we're considering going back to Discovery Place in Charlotte, NC. 

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by Allison Carter

My mom was pretty amazing. She had a military-officer-turned-airline-pilot husband who was away a lot and 3 little children.  And, with the help of the occasional glass of Franzia white zin out of a box in our fridge, she raised us all so gracefully.  Now that I have 2 little ones of my own I constantly think: How did she do it? 

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by Kristen Bagwell

We were feeling the need for a series, and what better time to feature "summer visits"? Through the end of August, Triangle MOM will be featuring both day trips and weekenders that may be of interest, all within NC. We kick off this series with one of the prettier visits in NC: Maggie Valley.

Maggie Valley is surrounded by mountain ranges in all directions, and the higher elevations mean cooler temperatures, spectacular views, and cleaner air.  Maggie Valley offers numerous festivals, bluegrass music, multiple concerts, dancing, clogging, much more all throughout the year. During the spring, summer and fall seasons you can enjoy  Wheels Trough Time Motorcycle Museum, and Cherokee's Santa's Land Theme Park and Zoo.

Maggie Valley is just over 4 hours from Raleigh, past Asheville but before Cullowhee, home of Western NC University. Situated in the Smoky Mountains, Maggie Valley offers tons to do and see, whether you want to get out and do, or go shopping and do, or even hang out and not-do. Stay with me - we'll go through a little of each below. Read More

by Rachel Hoeing, Triad MOM

I have a large extended family, and we love to spend many holidays and vacations together.  One of my favorite memories was the first trip we took to Duck, NC with about twenty of us.  We rented a beautiful house in the Four Seasons neighborhood and stayed an entire week.  My mom reminded me that it was a beautiful summer that year, but the week we chose, it decided to rain almost the entire length of the trip.  Surprisingly I did not even remember the bad weather because we had such a good time!

We rented our home through Twiddy.  It was a shot in the dark since we had never used their business before, nor had we ever been to the Outer Banks.  I am happy to say that this company well exceeded our expectations.  This was eight years ago, and my family has continued to rent from them every year since then! Read More

By Rachel Hoeing

We took our first family trip to Disney World last October and I can honestly say it was the best week of 2009! My mom was recovering from chemotherapy, and this was exactly the “magical” experience she needed in her life. My children were six and four, which were great ages for our first trip. My father and sister also joined us. So, we had seven people on this vacation. My goal in today’s blog is to share with you what worked for us. Every family has different priorities when going on vacation, so some of you may have had a totally different experience. I can say that we did not encounter any problems on the trip and it was relaxed and enjoyable for everyone, so use what you can below and add thoughts of your own. Read More

By Rachel Hoeing

Last week I wrote a blog of general tips that worked for my family when we took a recent trip to Walt Disney World. Today I wanted to focus more on individual theme parks and rides. Truth be told, we did not do any planning in advance as far as a daily schedule. What worked for us, was to all get together the night before we visited each park, and look over the park maps and discussed which rides we really wanted to hit and which ones were OK to skip if we ran out of time.  Read More