John 3:16

(Pause or stop the music before you press play)

Rollins Women Weekend

The women of the Rollins family had a weekend getaway to Charleston, SC! I had never been to the city before and was just blown away by how beautiful it is! It reminded me a lot of Savannah, but it's much bigger and there is so much more to see. We arrived to our hotel, the Hampton Inn in the historic district, on Friday evening and left Sunday around lunch. We spent all day Saturday walking around, but I think we only made it down two or three streets. This is due largely due to our need to stop in every store we passed to do some shopping :) It was great to spend some time with just the ladies of the family!

Check out that packing job! We have two strollers and two pack & plays in there, along with the luggage for three women and two babies!


Our whole group... Me with Naomi, Mom, Arin with Asa (the only boy we allowed), Mel (adopted into the family whether she likes it or not), Megan, Whitney (another adoptee), and Amber. Megan pointed out that aside from the mommas with the babies, no one in our group was blood-related. (Picture stolen from Arin's blog).


The Rollins sisters-in-law (yet again, stolen from Arin's blog! Arin, how pale does Amber make us look?!)


Naomi and Asa, ready to hit the town


King Street, where we spent the first half of Saturday shopping


Farmer's Market on King Street


The Market, where we spent the second half of Saturday shopping


Gucci, where we did not do any shopping!


Asa was a little upset so Naomi lent him her thumb


Interesting fact: State Street used to be named Union Street. Sometime shortly before the Civil War (or the "War of Northern Aggression" as it is referred to here in the South), they changed the name for obvious reasons


As we rode past this house on our horse-drawn carriage tour we created our ideal Saturday... sitting on the porch sipping on lemonade and sweet tea, in rocking chairs, watching the children in their matching outfits play in the perfectly manicured lawn, with a nice breeze blowing in from the harbor through the oak trees. We call the children in to let them know it is time to take their naps and they politely reply, "Yes, ma'am!" The men come in from their day of fishing, proudly showing the dinner they've caught for the family :)


I'm looking forward to the Second Annual Rollins Women Weekend!

Happy Easter (two weeks later)

We had a very nice, relaxing Easter (two weeks ago... better late than never, eh?). For the past few years we have spent Easter over in Keystone visiting family, but this year we stayed in Jax for the whole day. We had a great morning of worship with our church family, celebrating the resurrection of our Lord. My mom came to our church and to our house for lunch afterwards. We invited her to have lunch with us and somehow she ended up bringing the majority of the food. I'm not sure how that worked out, but I'm not complaining! Here are a few pictures from the rest of the day...

Naomi snuggled with her Grammy


We put Charlotte in an old t-shirt to dye eggs and she slipped on Jared's flip flops. Poor thing looked like a little orphan child!


Charlotte had a blast dying the eggs. Most of them ended up the same color because she liked to dip the eggs into every color. (By the way, how genius is the wisk idea?! I saw it on someone's blog and it made for a much less messy time of egg-dying than those little wire holders do.)


Charlotte hunted for the eggs


Charlotte dropped the eggs


And afterwards Charlotte was given her Easter basket: Veggie Tale's An Easter Carol, some stickers, a couple small board books, and some candy.

Cutie Patooties

We took Charlotte to the park near our house to ride her tricycle. There's just a little bit more room there than on our back porch :)


Charlotte let Naomi have a turn


Taking Naomi for a ride


"I got a rock." (Name that movie!)


The first time Naomi rolled over!