Moving South!

Shane and I drove to SC Thursday morning! We headed out around 11 AM after chores and other odds and ends.

It was cousin o'clock the moment we arrived! 

The kids all started roughhousing.

Pop went out to pick up dinner from McDonald's and Hungry Howie's to meet every kid's preference! Stu dished out some fruit to meet a minimum health quotient which is hard to do with only fast food.

While the kids started at their own table, everyone came into the dining room to sing Happy Birthday to Pop! It was a couple of days late, but not lacking in volume.

From there, excitement continued to abound. Tenley couldn't come in through the door of her choice, but Pop opened a window. Once Tenley realized windows could be entrances, she used it as an exit, as well!

And she used Shane to grow taller! He kept calling out "Chicken Fight!" but that was never going to happen!

Nana put me to work slicing and dicing while the kids played. She was preparing food for Matthew. He's still battling chronic Lyme disease. His doctors have him on a restricted diet to help with symptoms. Unfortunately, he's been on antiobiotics and "herxing" (imagine the medicine makes everything worse as it tries to make you better).

I was surprised the kids played as long as they did before the electronics came out. Cole's been grounded from Roblox, so the boys have been on their Switches more.

But everyone was too excited to do only electronics! 

Once critical fun is reached, the other kids hop on.

Tenley was in an especially good mood, because Kathleen agreed to take everyone swimming (Tenley had been begging!).

I drove over to Ka and Stu's to help out. 

It was my first time seeing their pool in person.

It was a rectangle. Honestly, it looked much larger in all the swim team photos. The team was huge! There may have been more kids on their swim team than our local pool has members.

Ka had counted on the kids swimming for a short time before the lifeguard called break. When the guard came over and said, "You all can keep swimming" it messed the plan up!

The kids were all doing their best to drag Ka into the pool to play with them. She's used to dealing with just her kids, and Shane ended up being a deciding factor!

Cole impressed me. He and Shane lined up for a quick freestyle race across the pool. Shane is larger, stronger, and pushed off the wall first, but Cole had much better technique. Every time Shane picked his head straight up to breathe instead of turning to the side Cole gained on him. It ended up nearly a tie, but I'd say Cole was the faster swimmer (Swim team really paid off!).

They had a second race doing breast stroke, but the difference in age and stamina was more telling at that point.

Stu was ready for everyone to go home, because the girls had camp in the morning. They needed to go to bed to prevent crankiness!

Shane and I drove back to Nana and Pop's after that. We talked and hung out a little, but bedtime wasn't far off. Tomorrow was scheduled to be a busy day helping Matt and Renee move their family into their new house in Columbia, SC!

PS:

Originally, I was going to post about the whole trip in a single post. However, my first draft included 102 photos and that seemed....excessive.

I usually trim down photos as I go, but half of 102 is still a lot! The bulk of the pictures are of the new house, so tomorrow's post is still going to be a big one.