Special Visitors

Last week, my in-laws came up for a visit from Florida and the kids were thrilled! We Skype with them about once a week, so when we get to see them in person, it's a real treat. They stayed for a few days, so we were able to have some fun and visit some places.

One of the places they wanted to see was Busch Gardens. Hooray!
We decided to go on a Saturday- the weather was supposed to be clear and comfortable, but it did end up raining in the late afternoon. Anyways, we all had a good time and were able to stay a while despite the weather.

Our first stop at BG was Sesame Street Land- the kids really wanted to get their picture taken with Abby (which surprised us because they usually aren't fans of characters in costume), so we did!

Check!

The girls kept giving her high-fives afterwards, which was really cute. 

We rode a few rides in that area and then headed over to the bird sanctuary. 
The girls LOVED it. The birds were so colorful and bold as well. When Poppie first walked in, about 3-4 birds just flocked to him and began walking all over his shoulders/back. I wish I had taken pictures of that, but you'll just have to take my word for it. ;)
It probably helped that people were feeding them when we got there, so they had no problem landing on folks- thinking they would get more food.
That part did make the girls a little nervous at first, but they warmed up to the idea of getting close enough to feed the birds.

So fun!!

After playing with the birds, we decided to hit up some more rides, one of which was the carousel. 
We went around on the carousel a couple of times. That's always been a huge hit at BG.

Beautiful girl!

I wish I had more pictures to share of our BG visit, but we were all enjoying the day, so that's all I've got!

It's all about making those great memories, right?!


On one of the less cloudy days, we took a trip to the beach. It had been our first time since the weather has gotten warmer and clearer.  

I crack up at this picture below of our sweet Lydia watering the York River. She jumps at the chance to water things in our yard, so it makes sense to do it at the beach, right? :)

The kids had so much fun playing in the water and the sand, and even made a few new friends. 

  
Tess showing Poppie her water duckie.

Another fun thing we did with family was make home-made icecream. Mmmmm!!! 
We stuck to a simple vanilla recipe and mixed in lots of mini M&M's. We bought some cones for the icecream too and it was a hit, as you can see from this next picture. Our son devoured his while also making a pretty big mess, so I had to take a picture.
It's one to save for his photo album, for sure. Ha!

We always like taking family photos at the end of each visit. Our Lydia doesn't look to happy in this next picture, but she was...I couldn't get the lighting right so the picture didn't snap right away- I think she was just caught off guard. :)

Meanwhile, our oldest, Tess, had no problem posing for the camera no matter how long it took to take the picture. 
Hands on the hip while waving her wand around= fabulous!

So sweet! 
And our pup does have a rep for photo bombing our pictures, so seeing how he shows up in this last one is no surprise. Ha! After all, he is part of the family!

Thanks Mema and Poppie for visiting! Always great memories made!