Week 112

April 20-26

Happy Easter 2011! We finally got to take a family "vacation" away from Florida! It is always nice to get away and see your family. The Friday before Easter we got up super early and drove 8 hours to South Carolina. First stop was Columbia where my mom lives to meet up with her, my sister Caroline, and my brother Andy to have a nice lunch at the infamous McAlister's Gourmet Deli. We also had to drop off Hope because she couldn't go to the beach with us. We had a relaxing lunch and then got back in the car to make our way to Ed's moms house in Sumter.

Friday night we got to see Ed's brother Ryan and sister-in-law Amanda since they weren't able to go to the beach with us. That afternoon Ed's Uncle Tom, Aunt Jennifer, and Cousin Mallory had flown in from Pittsburgh, PA and would stay until Tuesday morning. Friday night was a great time hanging out, dying Easter eggs, decorating cookies, and eating dinner.

The next morning we all (minus Ryan and Amanda) headed out to Myrtle Beach for the rest of the weekend. Jack and Mallory rode in our car and watched Toy Story 3 to pass the time. Once we got there we unpacked the cars and went out for lunch at Oscar's. When we got home Jack took a nice nap and Mallory went to check out the pool at the resort. Saturday night we had a small birthday party for the kids since Jack's birthday was last month and Mallory's birthday was coming up in a week. They loved it! We had the best strawberry layer cake ever!! Yum!

Of course the next morning was the big day...Easter Sunday! Jack woke up first and found his Easter baskets (yes, he had more than one). He thought it was so awesome to get a big basket full of candy, books, toys, movies, and other fun things. I definitely think that next year he will really appreciate the fun of Easter. He definitely loved it, but really wasn't sure what was going on. When Mallory woke up he helped her find her Easter baskets.

After finding Easter baskets we all started getting ready for church. When we got there we sat down and Jack decided he didn't really want to go to church that day so he started acting out. The service had just started when Jack escalated his behavior to the point that it was embarrassing so Ed and I escorted him out to walk around outside. He found lots of fun things to do including walk around the grounds, look at the many fountains, play in the gardens. We attempted one time to take him back in, but he wasn't having it. We didn't want to ruin church for everyone else so we just played with him outside.

After church we went home to start on the delicious Easter meal. Everything was so delicious! We all sat down and had dinner. Ed's mom and Harvin made a ridiculous amount of food and we ate it up!!! We were all stuffed! After lunch Jack napped, then after that we went down and enjoyed the beach for awhile. Jack and Mallory played in the sand while we all soaked up the sun and relaxed. The whole day was perfectly lovely.

Monday morning we went down to the beach once again. We found all kinds of fun hermit crabs in the sand. The sun was hot that day so after awhile we left the beach and relaxed in the pool. After that we went back up to the condo and showered, ate lunch, cleaned up, then loaded up the cars for the ride back to Sumter. The whole weekend was wonderful.