Friday, April 24, 2015

Aunt Phyl's 80th Birthday Weekend

Aunt Phyl turned 80! The weekend was a very special one with family that hadn't been together in a long time.

I took a personal day April 17 so Andrew, Ethan and I could embark upon the whirlwind WV adventure to celebrate. It went like this:

Friday, April 17
Drove to York, SC at 5:45 am, piled stuff and people and hound dogs into Jack's truck and headed to Yeager airport in Charleston, WV, where we picked up a rental car in the afternoon, then picked up Aunt Rena in Sissonville, then headed to the farm at the Mellin Ridge, where the boys and I hung for a while before driving to Harrisville to be with Mom for a couple of hours and then journey North to Morgantown to Mary Beth's place, where we arrived before 10 pm and crashed in her gorgeous basement.  Woosh!

Saturday, April 18
Breakfast at MB's, then I took the guys to Skyview Elementary for a few minutes so I could see and hug Jennifer, Heidi, and Janet because they were running an Orff music workshop there, played for a while at Aunt Phyl's and had lunch there, I bummed around Morgantown for an hour or so by myself, then we headed back to MB's for naps.  By then it was time to get ready for dinner at the Montmartre restaurant, which tops the historic and beautiful Hotel Morgan.  It was definitely the fanciest dinner the boys had ever attended and they both did pretty well.  After that, we all headed back to MB's to chat for a while and then it was off to bed for all.

Sunday, April 19
We awoke early and were on the road headed South by a little after 8 am.  It rained on us nearly the entire drive home, but we arrived back in Columbia around 6:30 safe, sound, and a little weary.

The weather was beautiful Friday and Saturday.  Here are my favorite photos from the trip....
Playing on the swing that was just hung by Uncle Jack as I know their Grandad Chuck overlooked

Three generations of the Welch family!  Here we are with Aunt Rena, Dad's sister


Pre-dinner chat at the Hotel Morgan

Asked a purple-haired passerby to take some shots of us.  She did well.

Beautiful Welch sisters.... I can only hope I look that great at 80 or 85!

Right before digging in!  Al was hiding.

This time, Aunt Rena was the one hiding.

Aunt Phyl and Uncle Jack (who the boys call Big Jack)


Ethan's reaction after witnessing a kiss moments before...

Always giggling

Still broken up over Ethan the comedian

Peek-a-boo

Ethan was "leading" the Happy Birthday song, but decided to
 take a ginormous bite of his ice cream right in the middle of the song.

Happy Birthday Aunt Phyl!

Friday, April 3, 2015

Carowinds!

We've been on spring break!  One of the fun things we did was check out our local amusement park on Tuesday.  We have season passes this year and really plan to get lots of use out of them, especially when the water park opens in a couple of months.
Andrew's very first loop-d-loop coaster: Carolina Cyclone.  This was a huge dad moment.

Cool animatronic dino exhibit!  The boys were supposed to be looking scared here,
although they really just look like they might throw up.



Mommy/Andrew coaster time!


This was our first ride of the day.... a dangling feet coaster.  We feared Ethan might freak out but he loved it and we ended up doing it a second time!

In a few months, Andrew will be tall enough to ride "The Intimidator." (sigh)

The only "Easter Bunny" pic we'll have this year.

Can't wait to go back!