Summer Trip Part 3: South Carolina

After our whirlwind two days at the theme parks in Orlando, we packed up and left our hotel the morning of July 11th to make the nine hour drive to Simpsonville, SC to spend the rest of the week with Robbie's and Austin's family.  Since we have never visited them at their home and have never met any of their three boys, adding this to the end of our trip was a definite priority.  Thanks to Ron driving, we made it smoothly there by dinner time and enjoyed meeting three nephews/cousins for the first time.  It was so fun to see Robbie and Austin again and to stay in their beautiful home.  For the next three days, Austin stayed home to work and put the younger two children in their regular daycare while Robbie and Sutton acted as our tour guides.  On Friday evening, Derek and Renee and their family arrived from NC.  We enjoyed reuniting with them for the first time in two years since our amazing vacation in the Outer Banks.  It was so great to see them and their kids again!  After spending the weekend together, we said many sad goodbyes before making the big trek back to Seattle on Sunday, August 16th.  This South Carolina leg of our trip was a nice and slow way to end our marathon, 17-day vacation.  I am so grateful that we were able to spend time and reconnect with Ron's family as we do not get to see them that often.  It was the perfect way to end this epic vacation!

July 12th:

After a long travel day on July 11th, we spent the next day exploring downtown Greenville with Robby and Sutton.  He took us on a walk down Main Street and we visited the beautiful Falls Park.  Here we are standing on the suspension bridge above the water fall.

The kids standing in front of some beautiful flowers in the park next to the waterfall.

Logan, Emmett, Sutton, and Ella posing in front of the sign that says, "Just hanging out in Greenville, SC."

Since it was so hot and humid every day while we were in South Carolina, we took advantage of Robbie's neighborhood pool every afternoon after returning home.  Here are all four kids with Sutton swimming in the pool on Wednesday afternoon.

July 13th:

After finding out from Robbie and Austin several months ago that they lived only 1 hour and 45 minutes away from the Biltmore Estate, I requested that this be added to our schedule.  Luckily, Robbie was happy to comply and brought along Sutton for the adventure.  I had learned about this amazing home a few years ago when my good friend, Kerry, visited there after her daughter read a book series that took place at this estate.  After Lia and Logan both read this Serafina book series, I decided that visiting this estate was an absolute must.  Needless to say, it did not disappoint.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time touring this castle-like home that was built by George Vanderbilt in 1895 and is the largest home in the United States.

The gang in front of the Biltmore.

The Harland kids.

A family photo taken from one of the verandas on the backside of the home with the rolling hills and woods found behind the estate.  The view was absolutely stunning.

Although Austin didn't join us, she packed a darling, Victorian-style picnic lunch for us to enjoy on the grounds overlooking the Biltmore after we were done with our tour.  She even found paper tea cups and saucers for our juice.  Here we are holding our tea cups up with our pinkies in the air!

July 14th:

We headed out Friday morning to drive to Paris Mountain State Park to spend the morning on a guided tour hiking around with a ranger.

We hiked to a creek where we got to hunt for little creatures and bugs with little nets.  We were then able to take these back to a lab where the ranger showed several of them to us under a microscope.

After we finished up with the ranger's tour, we ate another picnic lunch prepared by Austin down on the beach next to the lake.

After coming home from the hike and spending another afternoon in the neighborhood pool, we were so excited for the arrival of Derek and Renee and their family around dinner time.  The kids reconnected pretty quickly and we spent a fun evening of talking and eating a pizza dinner.

The four girls!  Addison, Ella, Regan, and Lia.  I just love how you can see a family resemblance between the four of them.

July 15th:

Since it was so hot and miserable outside, we knew that we needed to find an indoor activity in an airconditioned building to pass the time on Saturday.  After eating a wonderful Southern breakfast prepared by Robbie and Austin, we set off to a brand new bowling alley and arcade venue that had just opened up that week.  Austin stayed behind with the baby and the rest of us met up with Derek's family to play one game of bowling before spending the rest of the afternoon playing laser tag and video games in the arcade.

Emmett enjoyed following the big boys around.  Here he is playing his own game next to Logan and Jake.

Lia and Ella and Regan and Emmett sitting on a simulated ride that even blew their hair with a fan.

All four girls playing Twister.

Although the older girls stayed back at the house, the five younger kids went to the pool for a dip after returning home from the arcade.

After eating a delicious, Southern-style, BBQ dinner, we pulled all of the kids out onto the porch for a group picture.  All ten of the grandchildren in Ron's family are together in this picture!

Top Row (from left to right):  Addison, Regan, Lia holding baby Merritt, Logan

Bottom Row (from left to right):  Jake, Emmett, Ella, Reid, Sutton

All three brothers together!

August 16th:

After a morning full of packing, we enjoyed a large lunch of leftovers with Robbie's family before heading out around noon to make the 2.5 hour drive to the Atlanta airport.  After returning our rental car and making our way to the airport, I was so relieved to see that the TSA line was nothing compared to the lines we had to battle at SeaTac on June 30th.  We made it to our gate with plenty of time and and had a smooth flight home to Seattle.  Needless to say, when we arrived back at our house at midnight (which was 3 a.m. East Coast time), we were so grateful to be home and to sleep in our own beds again!