Visit from Rick's New Jersey Family and Brother

Rick's Aunt Bobby, Uncle Jeff, Cousin Janice and her children, Justin and Kaylee, came to South Carolina from New Jersey for a visit this past week (it was their spring break). They drove down to Rick's parent's apartment in Charleston and stayed there from Tuesday to Saturday and everyone had a wonderful time!!! They came on Wednesday to Columbia to spend the day with Rick, myself and Will. We went to Riverbanks Zoo and had an amazing time there with each other and afterward headed out to eat - we chose Carrabba's Italian Grill - everything was delicious!!! After dinner, they all came back to dinner to drop Rick and I off and headed back to Charleston. They took Will with them also so Rick and I had a couple of days to ourselves (we didn't know what to do without Will around but did go out for Frosty's as soon as they left us Wednesday night (Rick knew I might need a pick me up since I was sad about Will leaving) and then Thursday night we went out to dinner together to O'Charley's - was nice to have a "kid-free" dinner). They headed to the South Carolina Aquarium on Thursday and played on the USS Yorktown ship at the Aquarium. They also took a horse-drawn carriage ride and Will, Justin and Kaylee all fell asleep by the end of the ride. They went to the Isle of Palms on Friday and played in the sand, built sand castles and played on the swings and slides! They went out to dinner Friday night and were surprised at dinner by uncle Mike and Lacey (Mike took a flight in to surprise them all and Lacey picked him up from the airport and took him to meet the family for dinner). Lacey, Mike and Janice were the keepers of this wonderful secret and it was such a wonderful surprise for all of them!!! The kids were so excited to see Mike and loved "beating" up on him all night and on Saturday morning! Will, Justin and Kaylee had so much fun having sleepovers together, playing with cars on the car table, watching movies, and acting like dogs! They had pancakes each morning (Will's favorite) and were so excited about this too! They had a wonderful time "vacationing" together but I'm sure the grandparents and Janice were very worn out by the end of the week after keeping up with 3 3 1/2 year olds!!! We appreciate this wonderful trip since Will had so much fun!!! He's already talking about the next time he's going to the beach with grandmom and grandpop!!! Will told me this morning on the way to school that he misses Kaylee and Justin!!! I hated to hear that! I know that he really does miss them - he had so much fun with them - we'll just have to look forward to the next time! :)

Thanks to Rick's cousin, Janice, I have pictures to provide from all of their fun: