The Whirlwind. . .

I haven't had a chance to make a post in the past two months because we have been SOOOOO busy, but at least we have been busy in a good way.  I am going to quickly recap all that we have done and then will be writing more in-depth posts of some of our activities later.  So here goes the list . . .

1. The Columbia Zoo and Botanical Gardens. We went on a beautiful, spring day with pollen floating everywhere so I pretty much sneezed my way through the zoo . . .but the rest of the family had a great time!  It is a really nice zoo . . .not too big and not too small.

2. The Family Reunion. . . everyone on my side of the family except for one sibling and one niece (who we really missed) came to North Carolina!  One family was able to stay for 10 days and another for a full three weeks and we kept really busy the whole time.  The highlight was the trip to Kiawah Island, SC for Easter. . . a beautiful, classy beach town that hosted some really fun Easter activities. (I will detail the reunion in a post as we did lots of stuff and took a ton of pictures.)

 

3. Disneyworld!  A week after the family reunion was officially over (boo-hoo) we went to Disneyworld (yeah!) with my parents.  We had a wonderful time . . . we all love Disneyworld. . .but we were worn out by the time we got home as we opened and closed all the amusement parks and managed to fit in swimming and going out to eat around our fun-filled days at the park. (I will have to do a post on this one too!)

4. Mother's Day, Papa's Birthday, and Baby Bit's Birthday Celebrations.  Right after we got back home it was time for more celebrations . . .It was Lauren's half birthday . . .as you'll see below, my little baby isn't so little anymore.  Then it was my dad's 70th birthday!  Instead of unpacking from Disney world, I decided to spend any spare moment I had making a book that highlighted the major events in his life and the world over the past 7 decades to honor the big day!  And last but not least was Mother's Day - Hunter made me my favorite breakfast (swedish oven pancakes) and Hunter and the kids gave me sweet notes and gifts. The crazy part about that weekend is I decided we HAD to paint the play room and Luke's bedroom nook, so we had some late nights that weekend as its so much easier to paint when all the the little ones are asleep.

5. Experienced real life.  Despite all of the fun we were having, we were quickly brought back to the real world when Kayla broke her collar bone "chasing butterflies" in the school playground.   The first few days were very painful and she couldn't move much, but now she is back doing almost everything she can considering she still has her right arm in a sling. 

6. The In-laws visit... the day after Mother's Day, the in-laws came into town for a week.  We always love having them.  I guess we weren't ready to settle down yet as we went on a two-day getaway to Charleston, SC where we enjoyed the breeze at the beach and walking around the historic district filling our bellies with all of the culinary treats this city has to offer.

This weekend, while the rest of the world is busy celebrating Memorial Day. . .we will be very content hanging out at home doing absolutely NOTHING. . . maybe we will do a little more painting . .. but hopefully we can resist and just relax! Hope everyone enjoys this holiday weekend!