Back around November/December ish I told Jon that for spring break I wanted to go SC to see my parents. He of course agreed especially since its been 9 years since I've been back . (yep that's right, 9 YEARS). When the time came closer it was actually a very busy time for us here. Mainly because we moved into a new house about 10 days prior to spring break. Nevertheless, we were still taking our vacation. I mean really, we fly for free, we have no excuse, right! So Friday after school (every Friday is a half day for the elementary schools here) we packed up our van and drove 45 minutes to Cedar City to catch a flight to SLC. We waited around just to find out that there was only room for one of us on the flight. (trouble with flying standby). So we went ahead and drove to SLC. The boys were great in the car and were surprisingly well-behaved in the airport considering our flight didn't leave until midnight. Yep, we have officially taken our first red eye with the kids. They did great! They slept the entire flight ( I wish I could say the same about me). Once we arrived in Atlanta the boys and I boarded a flight to Charlotte and Jon turned around and flew back home. (Because we drove the van to SLC, Jon had to fly back in there and do the 5 hour drive by himself. Poor guy he finally got home around 1 AM.)
Anyhow, once we arrived in Charlotte, my parents picked us up and we headed to there house in SC. *side note: an older lady sitting beside Kyler on the plane asked him where he was going and he said, "I don't know. I'm going to see my grandma in SC but this plane said we are going to NC". I gladly helped him clarify.
We spent the rest of Sat just enjoying my parents house and eat pizza. On Sunday, we of course went to Lancaster Branch. It was so wonderful to go back and see everyone again.
On Monday, Grandma took all of us to Riverbanks Zoo. I told the boys that the last time I had gone to this zoo was for my 2nd grade field trip... they said I was getting old.
The Gorilla exhibit was great. We were very close to them and we got to see them get fed. I think it was the high light of the trip. We stayed there for about 30 minutes just watching them and listening to one of the trainers.
Feeding the Giraffe
On Tuesday we needed to do some shopping but decided to take the boys for a picnic and small nature hike. We even got to see the bald eagle nest... but the eagles were on the other side of the canal. After lunch I had to stop by my friend Emily's house. She had just had a baby a few week prior so I didn't get to see her at church on Sunday.
Emily and baby Liam
We came back to Grandma and Grandpa's house and had dinner then Grandpa took us over for a tour of his new office building. It was amazing to see the new office and I loved that they took parts of Lancaster history and reused it. While we were walking around the outside we were crossing over the water and Nathan's foot missed the next stone and his shoe went in the reflection pool, so my mom quickly bent down to get it and ended up dropping her car keys in the reflection pool too. We were all joking that the security guard that was watching us on video was probably getting quite a laugh out of it.
Wednesday morning we loaded up the boys for a 5-6 hour drive to see my sister Krista.
After work on Wednesday Jon took a red eye back out east to spend the rest of the vacation with us. Thursday we celebrated little Miss Halli turning one. She was so precious and the boys loved playing with her
Aunt Krista let Nathan and Ky help make the birthday cupcakes
Isn't she just too cute!!
Friday we all headed to the Lost Sea Adventure.
This date was burned into the wall of the cave with a torch during the Civil War
Some of the pictures are hard to see because of lack of lighting... sorry
When we got to the bottom of the cave we got on a glass bottom boat and went out into the water. There were tons of huge fish and the tour guide would throw food out to them and them were going crazy trying to get some. Halli loved the fish. She kept trying to get in the water and laughed and laughed when she could see the fish. Yes, the fish are blind due to lack of light for so long. So they stayed around the same area of the pond and would follow the boat because they knew that meant food. (above pic is the fish, bottom pic is from the boat)
Very early on Saturday morning (4:00), my parents drove us back to Atlanta airport to fly home. (it was a 2 hour drive from Krista's house) It was a great trip and the boys loved nothing more then to spend time with their grandparents and actually see their home. (and to finally put to rest the fact that NO my parents don't live in an airport, they actually do have a home) Hopefully it wont be another 9 years before we make it back out there.
Flying Home!
