The Haines Family: Grandma Visits and a Trip to the Zoo!

My mom was able to come down to NC and stay for a little over a week. We had a great time with her! The first few days of her visit, she babysat the boys for 2 days and 2 nights! Adam and I "went away alone" to the romantic destination of a parenting/discipleship/homeschool convention. While it wasn't a "true" vacation in Adam's definition of rest and relaxation, it was time that we were together WITHOUT our kids needing us. We learned alot of great things at the convention and had some fun times with some friends of ours that also went! For those interested, it was the Teach Them Dilligently convention in Spartanburg, SC. There were so many workshops and classes that we enjoyed, but I think one of our favorites was Pastor Voddie Baucham. We read his book, Family Driven Fatith last summer and had heard a few of his sermons previous to the convention. Ken Ham was also a speaker along with Crown Financial Ministries, HSLDA, Raising Real Men, Jenny from Southern Savers and many more! While there, I found (and bought) the Bible Curriculum we will be using next year for Kindergarten...Positive Action for Christ. I am really excited about homeschooling Wyatt for Kindergarten starting in the fall. Going to this convention really encouraged us in our decision to homeschool, as well as, gave us alot of important information that we needed to know. Thanks Mom for coming! (and Dad for letting her come!) While my mom was visiting and after Adam and I got back, we took the boys to the zoo in Columbia, SC. It's just a 1 1/2 hr drive from our house. The last time we had been to the zoo was 2 years ago, so Levi had only been 2 years old. Both of the boys were beyond excited when we told them that we were going! While they loved everything at the zoo, one of the "highlights" for them was the statues like in the picture below. They loved to just climb all over them and would ask us to take their picture! ha!

They also enjoyed "reading" the map and telling us where they wanted to go next and how they thought we should get there!

We brought a picnic lunch and ate it out in the van. After we had already eaten our lunch, we found out that we could have gone to the Botanical Gardens at a different entrance within walking distance, or taken a tram, and eaten our lunch there. We will remember that for next time!

More fun on the statue animals

We also had a wonderful surprise blessing...a lady with twins saw our boys in our double stroller (and must have thought my kids were twins too) and asked us if we wanted to us her kids "bracelets" to get on the train, carousel, etc. She said her kids wouldn't even wear the bracelets let alone go on the rides. We were thrilled! (and clueless as to how much the "rides" and the "bracelets" for unlimited rides even cost). Later we found out that what she had given us was worth $20/person! WOW!! So the boys got to ride the carousel and train multiple times!