A weekend with family!

We took a little road trip this past weekend!  We went to Greenville, South Carolina to visit with my cousins Jimmy & Danielle. It was fun!

First of all, I drove part of Thursday in the rain going up. We left later than planned, which put us there later than expected. Friday, Jimmy & Danielle both had to work, so we got ready and visited the mall. It's a nice big two story mall. There was a store in that mall that my son Blake had been wanting to go to...so we went there and got some t-shirts with band names on them.

Jimmy & Danielle have a beautiful home. It's decorated so modern. Their dogs Chewy and Bruce are awesome. I am so proud of Jimmy. He has a beautiful wife who is expecting their first child, a beautiful home, and he lives in a really nice town with a lot to do.

Friday night was the Winter Jam concert with Newsong, Toby Mac, Sidewalk Prophets, Matthew West, Jamie Grace, Red, Jason Castro, Royal Tailor, OBB and Capital Kings. We enjoyed it. The over all theme was about forgiveness and letting God lead your life. Their speaker, Nick Hall, talked about being Reset and Recharged. I certainly felt that after the concert. It was refreshing!

Saturday we spent most of the day with Jimmy. He showed us some of the sites of Greenville and we went to their downtown area. It was so busy. They have a lot of cool stores, a water fall and this cool bridge. Danielle met us with us for supper downtown and it was fun.

Sunday we attending their church. They go to church in a movie theater. It reminded me of when I worked at The Pointe and we met in a theater.  We had lunch at a mexican place afterwards, and Rick's burrito was the size of small baby! LOL

On our trip home, we knew we had 2 places to stop in Atlanta. However, I hadn't checked the weather and had no idea it was raining in the entire state of Georgia AGAIN! We stopped at the Sugarloaf Mills Mall, formerly Discover Mills Mall. They have a cool air soft gun range for kids to have teams and shoot at each other. I was very impressed when we walked in and they had 2 Timothy 2: 5 on the wall. "Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules."
Blake & Andrew spent over an hour playing air soft. They loved it. Julie got a Duck Dynasty t-shirt with Si on it. She was excited.

THEN, for the first time in my life I got to go to an IKEA store! That place was the size of a mall itself. We were short on time and our feet were sore, but we went through most of the store. I really like their stuff.

The ride home was slow and rough. It was raining and hard to see. I drove the whole way because Rick doesn't like driving in the rain. (Plus,I would probably have been scared to death and possibly car sick if he did.) We made it home safe and slept late.

Sometime this spring, we hope to go back. They have a place called Hollywild that houses some animals that have either been in movies or used to draw cartoons like Lion King. They also have a zoo we didn't get to go to. Julie is excited about a return trip...well, actually, we all are. There is nothing like visiting family and seeing new places with them!