Well, our vacation has come to an end, and reality sucks! OK, well reality isn't that bad, but it isn't nearly as fun as being on vacation. I haven't done much of anything (except sleep) since we got home Friday morning, but today I finished uploading the last of the vacation pictures...

Wednesday we did go to the children's museum, and we also went to the "rainbow market" in downtown Charleston. The children's museum was kind of like Strong's Museum in Rochester (Strong's is bigger, but this one did have some neat things for the kids to do). They played in a shrimping boat for a long time - there were even rubber boots for the kids to wear, which is exciting if you're Gabe and you have a thing for rain boots (Yellow rain boots are the only thing he wore on his feet for almost a year!) In this picture, they are all in the little lifeboat that was off to the side of the shrimping boat.

They had an area where the kids could "paint" with water, which is a fun thing for them to do in the summer time on the side of the garage or fence... Cadence thought it was great.

They also had a medieval room that looked like a castle and had all kinds of dress up stuff in it. One thing that found at the museum and at the park we went to, is that people really are more polite down south! In Syracuse, if you take your kids to the park (or a museum or anything like that) the parents are completely disinterested in their children, usually talking on a cell phone, and only take notice if they think your kid has done something wrong to their kid - they pay no attention to the fact that their kid won't take turns and completely lacks manners. But down there, every where we went, parents were right on top of their kids making them take turns, say excuse me, etc. As a result, taking the kids to do things where there are other kids around was a much more pleasant experience than we are used to!

The last big thing we did on vacation was a hike through Biedler Swamp. There is a boardwalk built through the swamp, but other than that it is undisturbed - they don't do anything to encourage or discourage the animals from being near the boardwalk. The boys were really hoping to see more gators, and they were a little disappointed that didn't happen, but we saw lots of neat things! We saw a couple different kinds of turtles, lots and lots of dragon flies, and 3 snakes. One snake was up close and personal. It was right on the railing of the boardwalk. Jacob really wanted to touch it, but we were asked not to disturb the wildlife, so I wouldn't let him. I think he would have chickened out anyway, what do you think?

The kids really enjoyed getting to know their cousins, and of course all the time with "Bobby and Nanny". That is the first time EVER that we have taken a full week of vacation (even our honeymoon was a few days short of a week). We had a great time, but why is "relaxing" so exhausting? Now I must go and subdue the laundry!