We arrived tired (all except Andrew) and excited to be with family for the first time since Christmas. We had only stopped three times and one of those it was just a 15 min gas up and I was the only one to get out of the car. The boys were troopers and now we had the whole rest of the week to play and be with cousins.
Monday 4-14-14
Cypress Gardens
Our adventure for the day was to Cypress Gardens. A fun park with a butterfly house, swamparium, and an cypress swamp that you can take a row boat through. The swamp was our first stop because everyone wanted to hunt for alligators. Kathryn and I ended up squashing our group into one small boat. With me at the front with Andrew and her in the back with miles. We got a little ways off from the doc and it started to rain on us. We were about to turn around but pushed on. What an adventure. We spotted about 5 alligators and several turtles in the swamp. I'm not sure which was a bigger rush: seeing the alligators or me and Kathryn paddling through an alligator infested swamp with 6 boys under the age of 8 and the little ones standing up and crying. I pick the later. The rest of the outing was a visits to the butterfly house and the swamparium and just trying to keep my eye on our kiddos durnning around the place. We ate lunch and i got my first mosquito bites for the year appropriate souvenir from a swamp. The boys all wanted souvenirs and when Chase was told that Mom wasn't going to buy him anything he was disappointed to tears. I was on Kathryn's side of things but I had promised Adam and Zach that we would come back to the gift shop and we had all ended up in the car with our fulfilling that promise and I felt bad. I looked back at the boys and they looked a little sad. So I ran back and made everyone desires come true and bought everyone the desire of their hearts. Everyone was happy about their little remembrances but Chase's face was priceless. I'm not usually one of those parents that will buy my kids what ever they want but this was a fun occasion and I enjoyed surprising everyone.
After we got all the kids to sleep we went to walmart made a plan for the week and got all the supplies for a fun Easter themed week.
Tuesday 4-15-14
Children's Museum in Charleston
We took the crew into town to the Children's Museum. It was a super cute and fun museum. Apparently everyone else in the surrounding area thought it was a good day to spend at the museum too because it was super busy. We started out the ball room which I think was Adam's favorite room because he spent the most time there. We went to the water room and that was by far Andrew's favorite place. This room had a miniature of the bay with the bridge and tunnel and lot of boats and cars to play with. I think Andrew could have spent the remainder of the day there. He collected three cars that he made into a train and got very possessive with them and it was fun for me to watch him protect his territory from other grabby kids. Zach and Ben and Chase went to the pirate room with this enormous ship. They had a good time playing with one another. We eventually came to a castle room with tunnels and balcony. Adam at some time spotted someone with a sword and shield and he got in his mind that he wanted to go to the art room to make one. So I set Zach and Andrew up at the paint easels so that I could help Adam with what he had in mind. This sparked a huge trend and before I knew it every boy and girl wanted to make a sword and shield including Ben and Chase and Zachary. Kathryn and I were frantically trying to hoard supplies to makes these thing while keeping our eyes on our lil'ones. It was the climax to a very kid saturated morning and we were happy to call it a day after the art room.
When we got back tot eh house and kids were down for naps and we were chill'in Zach and Chase decided that they needed a change up to the relaxing atmosphere and they got their suits on, turned on the sprinkler under the trampoline and jumped in the cold rain. Zach and Chase was out there putting on a show for a while. Andrew thought that what they were doing looked like fun so I suited him up and when he got out there and felt the chill to the skin he decided that he didn't really want anything to do with this. Never a dull moment.
Wednesday 4-16-14
Pilate's Class, Chick-Fil-A, Water Front Park
I got to attend Kathryn's Pilate's class (which was awesome) while with kiddos hung out in a lil kid's room. We stopped the party wagon at the Chick-Fil-A drive through on our way to Water Front Park. There we had a picnic on the pier and played at the park. It was beautiful! I try my best not to be too jealous of where Kathryn's lives every time we come to visit but going to all of these fun cool places has made it hard not to fall in love with this place and want to join myself and family with it's residence. I'm glad that Kathryn lives here so that I have a great excuse to visit often.
We died hard boiled eggs in the afternoon. While Miles snoozed we got out the die and let the kids die some eggs. It was a fun traditional activity to do together.
It was the first night that they all went to bed together at the same time since the nights before the older boys stayed up watching "Harry Potter" while Andrew and Miles were laid down first. After a good duration of squeals and total mayhem in the boys room they were tucked back into bed and warned that if they gave us a hard time that I would have the energy to fill the Easter eggs for the hunt the next day so they had better stay in bed or else no hunt. While we were visiting and finishing cleaning up etc. we heard noises come from the bed room and Ben say "No Chase! if you come here right now I'll be your best friend and give you a dollar." It worked. We didn't hear any noises from the room after that. I wonder if Chase ever saw that dollar.
Thursday 4-17-14
Park - Strawberry Picking
Boyd had a procedure in the morning and needed a ride home from the hospital. So we had a quiet morning and Kathryn made the best buttermilk whole wheat pancakes. We all piled in the car and dropped off Kathryn at the hospital and came back to the house. We went straight to the park and they boys played in the fort that they made in the woods. As I was pushing Andrew in the swing Adam came to announce to me that they had made a new room in the fort and before I could inquire about this new room he says "it's a bathroom! Zach made it. It has a tree in it and he peed on it. It is the pee tree." Great! I thought. I praised them for their resourcefulness. Later we went looking for turtles across the road at the turtle pond and there were several that we could see sunning on the bank and several more in the water. Andrew got pleasure in spotting these creatures poke their lil'heads out of the water.
Later on while Miles was taking a nap and Boyd was snoozing we took the rest of the crew over to Boon hall Plantation to pick strawberries. I've been berry picking before where it had been really picked over and you might find a few good ones here and there but this was not the case. There were red tantalizing morsels everywhere. You could hardly walk a foot with out finding the "perfect berry". The boys had no problem filling their baskets with beautiful ripe berries. It was like a treasure hunt and the boys had a really good time. We stopped by the plantation store and got some southern delicacies like boiled peanuts, pecan oil, and pickled okra. YUM!
We had promised the boys an egg hunt the night before and they had been salivating for it ever since. So we hid about a hundred or more eggs for our boys and turned then lose on the back yard. We left one egg empty to symbolize the empty tomb of Christ and we told them about it before so that they wouldn't be disappointed but feel good hat they found that special egg however I don't think that thought it was winning because they shook their eggs before putting them in their bags. Zach was the one that found the empty tomb and was super cute about it. I hope that they learn about the real meaning of Easter.
Friday 4-18-14
Beach Fort Moultry
On our last day we decided to go to the beach cause after all you can't go to South Carolina and not go to a beach. We decided to go some where that had more than a beach so we picked Fort Moultry. We got there to witness a lot of pelican diving into the water and feeding. I got super excited about the dolphin that I saw popping out of the water. They boys were most interested in throwing rocks, shells, and what ever else into the water. Zach, Ben, and Adam found several rocks that were very precious to them and just had to keep if they were too big then they had me take pictures of them. It reminded me of when Kathryn and I found these muscle shells at the lake and we just thought they were the most precious things and we added them to our collection that we kept in our special "hello kitty" box.
We walked our crew over to the fort where it was like Ben had been kept on a leash and was released. His agenda was to see everything and quick. He wanted to leave no tunnel unexplored, no cannon untouched. It was cute seeing him run around. Andrew LOVED going through the tunnels. He spends is time at home building tunnels so his cars and trains can go through them. So he was especially excited to have this experience. Really this place is a boys heaven, dirt, hills, tunnels, and very big guns. We took lot of pictures and simply had a good time just being with one another.
The best part of coming down to visit with the Harris crew is simply that we have a good time with each other. We are family and we understand one another and things and feelings are just easy. Our boys spend every waking moment with each other and there wasn't a single falling out or quarrel. I'm so glad that things fell in place for me to be able to make the tip and be with family.
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