A Tale of Two Titus Tots: After-Easter trip: South Carolina!

Two days after Easter, we said goodbye to Matt’s mom and stepdad (who flew home to FL) and we got on the road to go south! We left about 8am and were making good progress until we arrived near Toledo. Traffic stopped. We weren’t moving an inch. After about 10 minutes, Miriam started fussing, so she and I got out of the car and walked around. We talked to the people in the car behind us who said that they had heard there was an overturned tractor trailer up ahead. The most frustrating thing was that we were right past an exit ramp. If we had seen the cars stopping ahead of us, we would have just gotten off. Now we were stuck. We started to see a few people go up the down ramp (does that make sense?) We decided to do the same thing. So we waited until enough cars had done it, and then the traffic ahead of us started to move (I had to run alongside the interstate because I didn’t have time to get Miriam and myself back into the car before Matt had to move!) He stopped off to the side of the road right at the end of the exit ramp, we got back in the car, and we went UP the DOWN ramp. Then we went on our merry way!

We stopped at a few rest stops to let the kids get some energy out.

We met up with Laura and her three sweet girls for dinner at Chickfila in Knoxville! It was wonderful to eat yummy food (and sweet tea!), let the kids play in the playground, and get to catch up with a wonderful college friend!

Look at all those girls! ( Poor Matt and Ben!)
We got back on the road and made it to Brevard, NC where we stopped to stay at my parents’ mountain house. Oh it was so beautiful! The weather couldn’t have been more perfect! We stayed up there for two days and did lots of relaxing and hiking and waterfall-watching!

Downtown Brevard

Fish Hatchery

Ice Cream at Dolly’s

Covered Bridge at top of High Falls

Hiking wore out the little girls!

(Okay, hiking wore out this mommy, too!)

Zaxby’s. Sweet tea. Tiny crushed ice pieces. Ahhhh.

Carl Sandburg’s House

Our diva in the back seat on the way back from hiking

The next morning, we drove to Chapin to meet Matt’s dad at his work. We got to see his office and meet a few of his coworkers. Then he took us out to eat at Grouchos (45 sauce craving was fulfilled!). Then we swung by Ginger’s church to see her! We headed on back to the Titus house in Columbia. We had a wonderful dinner of barbeque ribs (YUM!) with his dad and stepmom. The next day, we went down the road to the Sparkleberry County Fair. There were plenty of rides and lots of exhibits. Ashleigh had a ball! She was so excited to see her cousins Olivia and Sean!

Looks like somebody was worn out from the fair!

After the fair, everyone came back to the Titus house for dinner! Yummy food once again!! Ashleigh loved playing with her cousins. Matt got to play with Jason and Tatiana’s Google Glass.

The next day we went to church at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. It was great to see Kris preach! Of course Ashleigh wanted to play on the playground after church.

Miriam looking cool at breakfast at Brueggers.

(I know what you’re thinking… wow Erin, another nap? Oh yes, and it was wonderful!)

The playground/park in their neighborhood.

Aunt Stephanie and her girls :)

We finally introduced Ashleigh to a Bo Berry biscuit! She loved it!

Then we headed over to Lexington to the Corley’s house.

While we were there, we decided to get Ashleigh’s hair cut at a cute place near their house called Snip-Its. She got her nails painted and they even braided her hair at the end. She was a bit hesitant at first…

We went to the Chickfila in West Columbia for lunch and were able to spend some time with Uncle Bruce!!

Matt was able to stop by his old stomping grounds…

Miriam enjoyed trying her first Rush’s hamburger!

They loved riding in the carts at Publix. (Please come to Michigan, Publix!! I miss you!!)

We played at the playground at my home church, too!

We had a little get-together to celebrate April and May birthdays (Dad’s and Uncle Wayne’s birthday are on the same day in April, and we celebrated Miriam’s early birthday!)