Trip to South Carolina

We kicked off 2014 by taking a six-day family trip down to Aiken, South Carolina to visit Leif and Bjorn's Aunt Jessica, Uncle Mitch, and cousins Rachel and Libby. With four children under the age of five to be entertained, our itinerary was heavy on kid-friendly venues. We revisited a couple of the places we had taken Leif and Rachel back in November 2011 on our first trip to SC, as well as adding a few new destinations to the mix:

[Wednesday - travel day]
Thursday - lunch at the Mellow Mushroom & EdVenture Children's Museum in Columbia (about an hour's drive from Aiken)
Friday - library story hour & dinner at Mitch and Jessica's favorite barbecue place
Saturday - Riverbanks Zoo (also in Columbia)
Sunday - Monkey Joe's "inflatable play center" in Augusta (which, although across the Georgia state line, is actually closer to Aiken than Columbia is)
[Monday - travel day]

I note the travel days because they were a memorable odyssey in and of themselves. We had opted to fly nonstop to Atlanta and drive from there, both to limit plane/airport time for the boys and to give them a chance to nap in the car. Given how much time it takes to navigate the gigantic Atlanta airport and the three-hour drive to Aiken, we really did manage to consume nearly a whole day each way just with transportation. Still, far easier and faster than driving all the way from MN to SC!

It was really fun catching up with Mitch and Jessica and seeing the four cousins interact with each other -- after all, our last trip down to South Carolina was in the pre-Bjorn and Libby era. I think I have at least one good video of the four of them playing together at Jessica's house, which I'll post at a later date. For now, here are a few photo highlights from the trip.

Leif, Rachel, and Libby enjoying some tractor time at EdVenture

For comparison, here is Leif riding the same tractor in November 2011!
 

Bjorn found a dalmatian doggie at EdVenture

Aaron, Leif, and Bjorn at Riverbanks Zoo

Leif and Rachel did a GREAT job of posing for pictures together at the zoo, now that they are a (relatively) mature almost-4 and almost-5 years old!

And here they were at the same zoo back in November 2011 :-) 

(On that visit, when Leif was just 1 1/2 and Rachel 2 1/2, trying to get the two of them to sit on anything together was NOT happening, no matter how hard we tried to coax them!)

Aaron, Jessica, and I all got a good workout helping Bjorn and Libby to climb up the bouncy structures at Monkey Joe's -- particularly this huge, inflated double slide

Christmas / Gock's birthday

On December 25th, we had Gock and Grandpaw G. and Auntie Sarah over at our house for our traditional dual celebration of Christmas and Gock's birthday. A good time was had by all :-) .

Around 19 months, Bjorn was frequently extending both arms straight out backward like this (apparently just for the joy of it), looking like he was a little toddler rocket about to launch!

Also around this age, Bjorn was starting to get interested in demonstrating his taking-clothes-off-all-by-himself skills at random moments, such as in the middle of opening Christmas presents

Auntie Sarah brought a memorable doggie-themed cake for Gock's birthday

Leif is always in a good mood when there is "Happy Birthday" to be sung, candles to be blown out (a service he will happily provide on anyone's birthday, not just his own), and cake to be eaten!