Spring Break!

YAY! Blessed Spring Break! As BYU students, we never had a spring break (something about being able to fit all the semesters into the calendar year...some silly nonsense). Our winter semesters were long, cold and absolutely sucked dry of any opportunities to forget school and travel somewhere warm and forget you practically live in the North Pole.

So, you can imagine our excitement when we realized that UK Law students are given five whole days to forget words like "de minimus" and "constitutional interpretation" and actually spend time with their families! Our original plan was to fly to Oregon to visit with Jeff and Ashlee and their adorable boys, but unfortunately I would have had to sell my right arm (we considered it). So, instead, we went to visit my mom and Sarah and Perryn in South Carolina!

The weather was INCREDIBLE. Sunny and warm everyday. I'm just thrilled to be back in Kentucky, where it's frigid. At the end of March. And snowed on the first day of Spring. Woot.

But, let's get to the point. The photos.

The first Saturday was Greenville Zoo day! Jackson was an all star. Not only did he have a blast, he only cried when we made him leave the elephants and he fell asleep in his stroller (with a pretzel in one hand and his snack cup in the other).

He would have walked right in there if he could have.

Checking out the farm animals with Grandma.

This is his "cheese" face. I crack up every time.

Walking with Grandma - she is the perfect height for little man :)

Checking out the alligators and snapping turtles.

Lion! Don't worry, Jackson roared at him the entire time.

Giraffes!

 The Zoo is inside a giant park area that has an incredible playground, a bike path and shelters with picnic tables. It's pretty sweet. So, we grabbed a bite to eat while little man napped and then PLAYED. This little guy had a blast. This playground is the king of all playgrounds. It had three separate areas (one for younger kids, one for older kids and a giant area of just swings), had the awesome rubber floors (is it just me or do wood chips drive everyone nuts?), had shades over two of the areas, had seating all around it, and had the COOLEST playground equipment I've ever seen. I guess what I'm saying is, if you are ever in Greenville, I'm pretty sure your children will worship the ground you walk on if you take them here.

Slide addict!

Just in case those pictures weren't enough, here's a video of him going down the slide too. (Are we those crazy parents who take pictures of everything?)

AND Just in case you didn't believe me about the playground, here's a video that sort of shows how awesome it is. It's kind of long, so unless you seriously doubt my judgement in playgrounds, I wouldn't recommend it :)

During the week mom was at work so we did lots of little random things like:

1. Sew my first skirt! I almost tore it to shreds and threw my machine out the window at one point, but it turned out decent enough :)

2. RUN! It was sooo awesome to run outside and to be able to take Jackson. (Okay, to be honest, it isn't that awesome to take Jackson. He gets bored and cold and throws things out of the stroller.)

3. Visit Apple Dumpling. My all-time favorite antiques mall.

4. Visit the Anderson museum. There was an awesome miniature circus and train that Jackson loved. Also, a model of a fancy home in Anderson where you could press buttons and turn on the different lights and see the different rooms. He was pretty excited about the buttons.

5. PLAY! We went to lots of different playgrounds because it was so warm outside.

6. Watch home movies.

We went to a playground a little past Greenville one afternoon before we met Cam and Em O'Sullivan for dinner (SO good to see them!). It was pretty awesome too, but after the park at the Zoo, I'm pretty skeptical :) Although, I will say there were a lot more cool slides at this park, so Jackson was a pretty happy camper.

He was really excited about being a lion, can you tell?

Note to self: Don't let Jackson eat snacks while playing at the park. He came home with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. 

On Friday, we drove to Asheville, NC to spend the day checking out galleries and exploring. We originally planned on going to check out the Biltmore home but it was FORTY-FIVE dollars per adult. WHAT? $90 dollars for our family - that's like our electricity bill. I was pretty bummed. So we opted to walk around the cool shops and galleries instead.Mom met up with us for dinner at Tupelo Honey (delectable.) and then we headed back to the hotel.

Side note: Finding a hotel that has pack and plays (not actual cribs) and bathrooms big enough for said pack and plays to fit inside them is no easy task my friends. (Yes we called hotels and asked them if their cribs fit in their bathrooms. This is serious business). But alas, my extremely talented and patient husband did just that. Thank you, Sleep Inn.

Jackson went to sleep like a champ even though the toilet was protruding into the mesh of his pack and play. And then we proceeded to watch a miserable UK basketball game. Bummer.

Saturday, we had an awesome morning strolling around Grove Arcade and other shops. Unfortunately, my only photos from our time in Asheville are these ones. But, they are stellar.

Jackson's "cheese" face. He had a whole crowd of elderly people laughing at this one :)

Our last stop was the River Arts District (a few blocks crammed with artist studios that is open to the public on weekends). This was my favorite stop. We met some awesome artists, saw some awesome work and I coveted their work spaces. It was a marvelous time.

Thanks for letting us come and play! We had a blast.