Longwood Gardens

On my mom's birthday during her visit, we went to Longwood Gardens...what a gorgeous day. Why do flowers so speak to the soul? Most of the tulips weren't blooming yet, but we found this cheery patch doing well!

Caden and Alyssa know that trees give off oxygen, so they decided to get a good lung-full.

Caden took this picture of my mom, and I love it. Eyes open, genuine smile...

One lone tulip...the first to open of its kind. I could be longwinded about this, but I'm sure each of you can come up with some deeper meaning. Please leave your version in the comments section.

What a pretty flower!

Hide and seek amongst the topiaries.

Here, we sighed a collective, "Aaaaaah!"

Our feet needed the feel of the grass after much walking.

In her element

While Grandma visited, we went out to a tea room in the afternoon. Alyssa's second time at a tea room, and Caden's first. He wasn't too sure, until the food started coming. A tea pot full of chocolate milk, scones with cream and jelly, marshmallow fluff sandwiches and desserts won him over quickly.
But She loved every single thing about it - loved the tea cups, the required manners, the fanciness. The girlyness...ok, and all the fun food too.
Not sure if you can tell.

In Polly's Garden

Grandma had hid about 35 eggs in the park behind our house, and we were about to begin the hunt, when a woman came up to us, and said "May I help you?" Turns out the "park" is her property, but she very nicely said we were welcome to it. She also introduced her huge black lab to us as "Polly".

Both counting to ensure fairness...

I think this went something like..."no, you already have 13, this is MY egg". The scene looks idyllic, but there was much nashing of teeth over who found how many.

I'm not sure what it is about these that makes them so desirable, since we promptly took them home for a dinner of Goldenrod Eggs. I guess its the thrill of the hunt.

Ripley's Aquarium

My sister-in-law, Sharra, and I took the kids to the aquarium!
My nephew, Reid
the kids loved this scary fish slide!
Lobsters!
Yikes! A horseshoe crabbie...
the boys checking out something... Sharra in the background!
The Manta Ray tank!
I may have some better photos to add once I get Sharra's pictures!

cadster

I was able to take each of the kids out while in Myrtle Beach and on my date with Caden, we specifically sought out this guy for a picture! Caden found this piece of wood on the beach, and for some reason, decided he needed to keep it forever. So he hauled it all the way home!

Does this seem familiar to anyone? If you read the blog often, you may remember Caden's surf song last year...

Mini Golfing in Myrtle

One day during our vacation, the 3 of us went to this cool pirate minigolf place.

While we were playing, there was suddenly a battle between the ship in harbor and the fort behind Caden in the picture above. There was shouting between the men, canon balls hitting water, and it ended with the fort going up in flames. The canon balls were fake, but I'm telling you, the fear was real! But After it was over, it was all Caden could talk about!

The new picture on the right of the blog is also from that day!

The fun Myrtle Beach park