Columbia, SC Weekend

Taking advantage of no school on Friday, we had a whirlwind 35-hour trip from Chapel Hill to Columbia, SC.  The main purpose was to take Abby to the temple, but we did a lot more than just the temple. 

We left first thing on Friday morning, thanks to some very helpful and excited kids. Partway to Columbia, we stopped for Dunkin' Donuts, which was a special treat for all of us. Someone must have charmed the employees there because we walked out with the donuts we bought plus a bag of assorted donut holes. 

My grandma grew up in Columbia and there were a few places of importance to her that I wanted to see and show the kids. But first stop, McDonalds!  This restaurant happened to be about a block down from Lizard's Thicket, which is a restaurant I've heard her talk about. Next, we visited the park across the street from Logan Elementary School, a beautiful brick building. The park was so fun and it's probably the first time Nora was able to play with all of us at a park. Walking is amazing!

A few blocks away is the Cemetary where the Player side of the family has a plot and we visited the grave of my great-great grandparents, Wesley and Mamie (Grandma's maternal grandparents). 

Then we saw the monument the city erected commemorating when Columbia surrendered to Sherman. That place is also significant because it's on the land where my Grandma went to church as a little girl and my great-grandpa served as a bishop. 

The last stop before the hotel was another Cemetary to see where the Joyner side of my family is. We saw the grave for my great-grandparents (Grandma's parents), my great-great grandparents (Grandma's paternal grandparents) as well as several other family members, including Grandma's baby sister.  Abby was especially excited to find that she and Alice Celesta share initials. 

Oliver and Lottie

Alice Celesta Joyner

James and Mary

I honestly wasn't sure how the kids or I would feel about visiting cemeteries, but they wanted to bring flowers and asked questions and were so good. They were very interested in these "people who made us" and I was so grateful for my good kids and was filled with a reverence and love for good people who came before me, raised good children, and taught about love and service and faith. I'm grateful for my family!

After so long in our trusty van, the kids were eager to get to the hotel and explore. Having cable and a pool was a big perk too!  We had arranged with friends to stay at the same hotel, which was a lifesaver in the babysitting department. One mom stayed with all the kids and a very angry Nora while the other adults took our big kids to the temple. 

Abby was so excited she could barely sit still. After a couple silly obstacle moments (cue both parents briefly delaying things), Abby finally got to go and do baptisms for 10 family members. It was a really special experience. 

We got back to the hotel with 6 pizzas and sides in hand just in time to share dinner with our friends and let the kids have the much-anticipated pool time. It was awesome!  After wearing them out and putting them in bed, the adults all played games. 

On Saturday, we took everyone to see the temple, go to the bookstore and Distribution Center, and do a farewell drive around Columbia. We had a slower drive back home, stopping at a really incredible park in Charlotte, stopping after a little carsickness episode, and then arriving at High Point for a little unplanned-for-that-day (but trying to take advantage of literally driving through town) furniture shopping. 

We went to a furniture store that is a million square feet (seriously) and walked and explored for a couple hours, until the kids complained of tired legs and feet and our tummies were ready to eat. It was fun, we learned a lot, and we still came back empty-handed and okay with that. 

It was an incredible weekend with lots of fun for all. In fact, the kids have decided it is our second best vacation!

Happy 1st Birthday, Nora!

Nora turned 1 on Thursday and we had so much fun celebrating her!  She is my Mary Poppins baby--practically perfect in every way.  We are grateful for her happiness, flexibility, and good-natured attitude.  I love that she can give kisses now, even though she guards them and only shares them when she wants and not always when requested.  She also started walking this week, which means that if she's awake, she is most likely walking around the house.

Nora had some great sibling helpers for wrapping paper removal.

Andrew, Nora, and I went to Kidzu Museum on her birthday morning.  It was a fun little kid play space that wore us out after a couple of hours, just in time for lunch and a nap.  It was a great way to start a birthday!

I love this sweet girl!  She fills our lives with such joy and love and is the perfect addition to our family.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had such a fun week and it went by so quickly!  We had some friends come stay with us so they could check out the area and do a couple job interviews.  They have 5 kids too (ages 1-7) so the house wasn't lacking in noise, giggling, or fun.  It was awesome!  Everyone had a favorite buddy and we were really sad to see them go.  Our friends have twins who are just a few weeks older than Nora.  She taught them to climb the stairs, pat the dog, and to know the best place to find toys.  Lydia loved having more time with her friend Ella, Abby and 3-year-old Cora were best buds, Sam was the baby whisperer for Henry and Harper, and Andrew was probably the happiest kid in the world having Jake to play with.  Seriously, the boys were up until almost 11 the first night just laughing and pretending to snore.  

It's fuzzy, but these three were so cute together!

The kids got spoiled for Valentine's Day and wanted to take a picture of their treats and cards.  Right after we took this picture, Nora took the bag of chocolate she was holding and kissed it.  She hasn't kissed anyone or anything before so while I was happy she was smart and chose to kiss chocolate, I was a little jealous.  I made her come kiss me a handful of times, but made me super happy and cry a little because baby kisses are magic.  And now I try to make her kiss me, a sibling, or Roy way more often than she wants to :)  She also learned to blow kisses this week.  Such an adorable girl!

Andrew found his sunglasses and hung them on his shirt and announced he was just like Baba Z.  :)

Sam just being Sam.  He put a horse head on and we cracked up and just couldn't resist a picture.

Yesterday we celebrated Roy's 36th birthday.  We had a lot of fun eating at Golden Corral for dinner--it's a family favorite--and spent the afternoon playing together.  It was relaxing and just what he wanted to do to celebrate.

Celebrating Sam

Sam turned 9 on Monday.  He was so excited and counted down for weeks.  I decided to eat lunch with him at school, bring cookies in to share with his class, and then surprised him with having Abby bring cookies to his after-school Chorus rehearsal (where he had 65 kids sing to him).  It was a good day for celebrating with Sam!

The funniest gifts Sam got were bottles of Ranch dressing from Abby and a game he had been looking at for a while called "What the Fish", which we played that night and enjoyed a lot. Sam is such a fun kid, full of laughs and jokes, dotes on Nora, plans fun adventures and activities for everyone, and is so creative.  I love my Sam!

We threw Sam a party for his 9th birthday.  He helped with the prep and planning and was so excited.  After the party, I asked him what his favorite part was and he answered, "Being with my friends!"  Sam helped me make the party list a few weeks ago and we invited 16 boys, thinking that we would get about half here.  We got yeses for everyone (at which point I may have hyperventilated), but 2 ended up not being able to make it.  It was a lot of fun to see Sam with his friends, a lot of loud to have that many boys at our house, and an impressive amount of hugging for a group of boys :)

January in Review

Abby and her friends really want to help the animals at the county animal shelter.  They made a deal with our neighbor who runs our neighborhood food drive--they would deliver the bags to the neighborhood if she would add pet supplies to the list of requested items.  They had a great afternoon delivering bags.  I love that she has good friends!

Abby was super excited that her prescription changed and she gets to get new glasses.  She has a good system for picking the frames and it's fun to watch as she decides how she is going to create her new self :)

We got to celebrate Andrew's half birthday this week!  I can't believe he's 4-1/2.  We celebrate our half birthdays with any treat the half-birthday kid chooses.  Never one to completely follow the rules, Andrew chose frosted animal crackers on top of rainbow sherbet ice cream.  Since he's the only one without a birthday during Dec-Mar, I caved and he got both treats.  It's hard to be the only one missing out on birthday spoiling but he is such a good kid and finds ways to celebrate his siblings but still make sure he gets in on that spotlight at least for a few minutes.

You guys, Nora is 11 months old.  The kids took this picture for no reason other than the fact that everyone loves Nora and wants to have a turn to take her picture :)

Lydia's cousin, Hailey, sent her Flat Stanley so Lydia could take him on an adventure and send back a letter telling all about the fun they had together.  Lydia took Stanley to school and loved it.  Now to write that letter back... :)

We have been doing some massive spring cleaning/dejunking/reorganizing at our house, which means we have remembered some fun things we have.  The kids have loved introducing Nora to toys and costumes they loved as little ones.  Nora has gone back to the costume box, grabbed a costume, and taken it to someone for help multiple times.  She and Sam then played a strange pirate-shark game with Abby in tow as Nora's walking help.

We have a lot of fun at Walmart.  The Valentines monkeys were calling our names...plus Aunt Carla needs more pictures with crazy kids and monkeys!

Abby loves alpacas so we found a nursery nearby that has alpacas to visit.  It was freeeeeezing that day, but we did stop there for 5 minutes and made Abby's whole day.  It was almost worth it for her to spend the whole morning cleaning with us :)

Sam created the Zwahlenosaurus with input from siblings on the Jurassic World Wii game.

I love this quote!

We just felt like we all need to be prepared for the next royal wedding.  

Every time we see pigs, we have to take picture for Far Far.  Dad, I hope you appreciate the fact that it's a purple piggybank pig.  Abby thinks you need it on your shelf.:)