Family Times

This past week my Dad, Rachel & Julie came for a great visit.

We had 5 wonderful days together. My favorite day of all was on Wed., 

when we drove to Columbia, SC to visit with my Uncle Perry & Aunt Janet

 and Grandma Bowers.

Before the sweet Bowers family visit, Julie, me and the girls spent an incredible morning at the Columbia Zoo:

 

I LOVE the Columbia Zoo. It is so "kid friendly"- meaning the animals have small habitats, but that makes them very easy to see! The girls could find the animal at every exhibit, which they were thrilled about!

I think we decided our favorite was the aquarium. 

We made it through the entire zoo, including eating lunch, in just 2 hours! Love it! That was perfect, and left us with time to go on a train ride and a pony ride!!

Alathea was beyond excited.

Abigail was quite jealous. She is obsessed with ponies (including 'my little ponies') and really wanted to ride the horse. She was too small to ride herself, but they let her put on the helmet and sit on the pony. That made her very happy.

After the zoo we headed back to Uncle Perry & Aunt Janet house, just down the road, where the rest of the family was hanging out. Abigail had a nap and we had a lovely visit together.

Grandma B and her boys

After Abi's nap we walked down the road to Lake Murray. 

We didn't bring bathing suits, but that didn't keep us from enjoying the lake!

Alathea loves her Pop-Pop

The girls with Dad & Rachel

(they LOVE Dad & Rachel :)

my all-time favorite sister

Uncle Perry and Aunt Janet

We ended the lovely day with a meal at Cracker Barrel. The only thing that could have made it better, was if Joe could have been there too. Poor boy was working hard in the office while we were having fun. It was another precious visit with my family and makes me miss them even more! I keep telling them they need to move to Charlotte :)