Happy Easter

We rolled back into town with a car of dirty laundry and a bunch of stuff to do. We did make it to Easter morning Mass, but the kids changed before we had a chance to take a picture of them. The Easter bunny was very clever and hid the eggs so hard that it wasn't until after church the girls thought to look for them.

Annalise found her basket and some peep bunny met his end in her mouth.

the kids go through their sugarly loot.

And the chocolate bunny was eaten, ears first!

On the way home through Bourbon Country

All good things must come to an end as so did this spring break.   We packed up our things and said goodbye to the Turners and headed back up North.

We were making great time and were about 3 hours from home when Jim and I decided to take a detour off the highway to visit a distillery.  We drove through beautiful horse farms and estates.  I tell you what, those Derby people sure like white fences and fancy barns. Then we arrived at the home of our favorite bourbon, Woodford Reserve.

It was a lovely, historic place to visit (complete with free samples).  We had just missed the last tour of the day but we decided to walk around the grounds and enjoy the sights.

We balanced on the barrel run from factory to aging barn.  I'm sure that there is more production elsewhere, but this was so charming.  Not a lot for kids though.

A cute pic of our girls.  They are growing up!

Annalise and Mom putting the kabosh on the bourbon fun.  We had to get to "Luhivile" to have dinner with our friend Dan. We made it back to Carmel around 10 pm. End of a memorable tour.

More Spring Break in Clemson

Clemson SC, although lovely, isn't exactly a hotbed of entertainment.  A Lego challenge was issued by Aunt Elizabeth up north.  We repsonded with our own challenge of Butterflies...

...and ducks.  It was Eastertime after all.

This kept the troops busy for a long time. They focused first on building the creations and then we let them take their own pictures.  This is one of Henry's creations.

The one thing that Evie wanted to do while in SC was go to the county park that you could play on the rocks in the river. Aunt Becky has nightmares about kids breaking teeth and cracking their heads open here, but she was a good sport and took us.  All three kids went.  Some of the more fearless ones took off right into the middle of the river.

June and I found a whole bunch of tadpoles in the still warm water.  There were hundreds.  We even held them in our hands.

Annalise and JoJo were more interested in collecting rocks with Aunt Becky.

The water was cool and refreshing on the 90 degree day.

Aunt Becky ended up taking the little girls back for lunch and nap while the rest of explored the rapids and other waterfalls.  It was great fun. We saw lots of butterflies and native woodland flowers and mushrooms.  The bugs weren't even bad yet as it was still spring.

The troops found a way to a big waterfall and took an up close look.

Back in Clemson, Spring break, Day 5

Back at the Turner house, the kids lounged around in their PJ's while Aunt Becky and Aunt Jenni went on a training run.

No one would feed the baby so she had to eat plastic food.

June didn't go to the Cabbage Patch, but she enjoyed playing with the dollies.

Annalise flopped around all day.  I'm not sure if she ever got dressed.

Later, we took in a Clemson Baseball game.  I was feeling generous so I sprung for a bucket of popcorn. We all stuffed our faces and finished it in about 30 seconds.  This is the beginning of Uncle Jim's beard.  He was looking homeless at this point.

Jo's first bucket of popcorn.  She ate more than her weight.

Spring Break, Helen, Day 4

While we were south of the Mason Dixon Line, the Azeleas were all in bloom.  They were everywhere.  The climate is really suited for them in the south and anyone who tries to grow them up north is just plain crazy because they will never be as beautiful as they were in Georgia.

This is the bridge that spanned the Hooch.  We were there

there were all kinds of over priced import stores to look at.  Annalie really liked the tiny nesting dolls at this store.

There was a bakery we could get awesome pretzels and cookies at.  Check out their door handles.  Nice.

Annalise has mastered Monkey bars!

But all the kids were tired so we loaded up the van for the ride back to SC and a week full of beer drinking and Indian food eating with a smattering of grits.