We were very lucky to have both Pappy and Aunt Jen visit us in January. Pappy stayed with us for five days and Aunt Jen stayed with us for another week after that! They really enjoyed getting to spend time with Colin and seeing how much he already changed from Christmas. We spent a lot of time sightseeing and for the most part we had gorgeous weather!!
After a long drive to what Mommy thought was going to be some nature trails, to find you have to take a ferry to get to them that only runs once a week, we settled with spending the afternoon at the Palmetto County Park (Remember my post about the day I spent here with Colin when he slept the whole time?). It really is a beautiful place...Aunt Jen and Pappy agreed.
Colin wasn't so sure about the sun in his eyes, but loved cuddling with Aunt Jen.Three generations photo op
After our walk, we stopped by the park where Colin got to swing...
...and go down the slide. Fun, right? Well, he was a little sleepy and not so sure about the whole situation!
Another day, we planned to go to Boone Hall Plantation (Pappy was really looking forward to seeing it). Unfortunately, they were filming a movie on the plantation grounds and closed for the week. Lots of movies have been filmed here including my favorite, The Notebook. Remember Allie's summer house? That's Boone Hall! We went with Plan B instead, Charles Pinckney's house just across the street from the plantation. Pinckney was a former governor of South Carolina and signer of the United States Constitution. Sorry no pictures of the house, I was in the car with Colin while he slept as Pappy and Aunt Jen checked it out.
The grounds of the Pinckney House had a nature trail we walked. Colin remained sleeping for much of our hike (boy, does he love sleeping in that car seat!)
On our walk we noticed these holes....Aunt Jen was a little creeped out but trudged on anyways...
Later on the trail, we found this sign...notice the fine print on the bottom...
Venomous snakes...."AHHHHHH"
Aunt Jen was so scared she climbed up a tree. Fortunately, she was able to calm herself and turn back to pose for a picture.
Mommy went for a climb as well....
...just in time for Colin to wake up! "Hey, where am I?"
On Pappy's last night we all went out for a special dinner at Hank's in downtown Charleston while Colin stayed home with his favorite babysitter, Miss Angela. It was a great time to catch up as adults and we enjoyed a delicious meal.
The next morning, I woke up to this...
Pappy heard Colin awake in his crib, got him up for us, and was playing with him in the guest room when I woke up. It gave us a few extra minutes of sleep and was such a sweet moment to walk in on!
We were sad to see Pappy go but we're happy Aunt Jen stayed for a few more days and helped take care of our little man. He's sportin his Unv of Delaware bib for his auntie.
His auntie who just so happens to be a political news junky and in South Carolina during their Republican primary elections for president. She was quite disappointed that we didn't get MSNBC on our cable but was glad we made up for it by taking her to The Best Rally The State Has Ever Seen, The Rock Me Like a Herman Cain South Cain-olina Primary Rally.
It took over a hour to find parking so we had to drop Aunt Jen off on her own and meet up with her afterwards. Luckily, Colin and I were able to make it for most of the rally and snagged a picture in front of Cain's tour bus. 9-9-9 (seriously?)
The idea behind the rally was Stephen Colbert, the political comedian, using his Super Pac Money to put in a bid for president. Since his name could not be placed on the ballot he was using Herman Cain (a drop out candidate) as himself. Herman Cain willingly went along with the whole thing and even participated in the rally. Confused by the whole thing? That's ok, so was Colin...
Vote for me "Herman Cain!"
Yes, that's right, he even had a gospel choir as part of the rally...
If you want to watch the rally yourself you can watch the first part here and the second part here. Following the rally, we were able to find Aunt Jen in the mob and had lunch at a Greek restaurant downtown. At lunch, Colin showed off his new move of the week - placing his pointer finger in his mouth like such:
I regret to say that on our way home from downtown we got in a car accident. I decided to check out a children's park that was sort of on the way home. If Colin was still awake we were going to take him out to play...well, he was asleep so we drove right past. I was in a neighborhood I wasn't familiar with and "failed to yield" at a stop sign. I made a complete stop, thought I looked both ways, and ran right into a car driving past while I turned. Thank God, no one was hurt and my precious baby boy continued to sleep in the back unharmed. It did some damage to my bumper and major damage to the side of the other driver's car. I'd never been in a "real" accident before and this was very scary! It was a huge wake up call to me that I need to be more careful, especially with my constant feeling of sleep deprivation. I've got far too important cargo tagging along with me everywhere I go now and I never ever want anything like that to happen again.
To brighten up our spirits the next morning we turned to chocolate. A visit with Aunt Jen is not complete unless it includes baked goods. Colin tried his hand at his first cupcakes - Aunt Tess's Blackbottoms - Yum!
We wanted to do a little more sightseeing with Aunt Jen so we headed to Cypress Gardens.
Remember my favorite movie, The Notebook, it was filmed here as well. We got to see the spot first hand from the super romantic scene where Noah and Allie are boating with the swans and get caught in the rain.
But first, we stopped by to see the alligators that were on sight.
We went inside the butterfly garden as well. Colin was all smiles.
We had our own tour guide on the boat who shared lots of facts about the gardens and did all the rowing for us. It allowed us to sit back and enjoy our time on the water with Colin.
There goes that finger again:
We sure did have a great day!
Another one of Colin's new found tricks of the week, was screaming. Aunt Jen didn't find it too funny when he was doing it "just for fun" at 3am a few mornings. I figure he's just getting her prepared for motherhood. Here here his practicing his screaming (the hiccups were getting in the way a little!):
Colin loved spending time with Aunt Jen and can't wait to see her again soon so the silliness can continue!