Spring Break

This spring break we decided to take a trip to see two of my brothers, Jacob and Jason.  Jacob is moving to Connecticut soon and we wanted to see him before he was even further away.  Jason has been in South Carolina for almost a year and David has never been to South Carolina and wanted to see it and check it (and North Carolina) off his list (he is up to 45).  Adam was seven weeks old when we started our trip.  We were a little nervous, but he was a pretty good traveler. 

First, we headed to Jacob and Alysa's house just outside of Atlanta, GA.  We got there on a beautiful Saturday evening and the kids had fun running around outside and enjoying cousin time.  We went to church and hung out on Sunday and then went to the aquarium on Monday.  Tuesday we headed out to Jason's in Columbia, SC.

The afternoon we got to Jason's the kids were playing outside.  Heidi fell running down the driveway and got all scraped up.  As David was bringing her back out after getting her cleaned up Thomas came running up the street with blood running down his face.  After we got that stopped Heidi fell again in almost the same place and ripped her original band aids off.  After that things went smoother.  We went to the beach one day, went to Jason's lab, and enjoyed being together.

We had heard that Atlanta had an awesome aquarium.  After further research we found out it is the largest aquarium in the world.  We decided we had to go. It was a bit pricey, but we found a good deal and went for it.  Alysa, Levi, and Jubilee were able to go with us, but Jacob had work and Benjamin had school.

Georgia aquarium is the only place you can see whale sharks.  They are in this huge tank with a lot of other cool animals including manta rays.  My favorite part was the tunnel where you could walk through the big tank.

Cousin time in Jacob's backyard.  They had fun playing with the big ball.  The boys really hit it off. That is Benjamin on the ground.  Thomas is in the orange and Stuart is in the background.

Jason invited us to go see his lab.  He is a molecular biologist and a professor at the University of South Carolina.  He has just gotten his lab set up and loves to show it off.  Thomas loved to see all the sciencey stuff.  We told the kids we needed to get to bed that night because we were going somewhere exciting the next day (referring to the beach).  Thomas asked,"are we going to Uncle Jason's lab?"  Thomas and Stuart were excited that Jason gave them a pipet to keep.

The beach conditions were less than ideal.  It was supposed to be 80 degrees and sunny, but instead it was about 60 and foggy and windy.

I mostly tried to keep Adam happy and keep the sand and wind out of his face.  Heidi managed to get sand in her eyes a couple of times and was freezing.  Needless to say she didn't have the best day.

The boys had fun though.  They built a sand castle and found tons of seashells.  

We did get a nice lady to take a family picture for us.

Aunt Tina was a ton of fun.  She kept the kids entertained with activity after activity and fed us lots of yummy food.  Here the kids are making loom bracelets.  

Here they are doing snap circuits with Nathan and Alan.

Adam was a big hit.  Tina's kids were so excited to see him and play with him.  Here Taylor is holding Adam.  All of her big kids were so good at playing with our little ones.

I love getting to see my family whenever I can.  I love seeing their families and how everyone has grown.  We will get to see more this summer when Anna gets married.