Good Times in March with Our Delightful Family in the Southern States

March started off with my (Elaine's) trip to Texas to visit the Stinsons. 

 Lissa, the girls and I took a trip to the mall, and Kiera and Savannah had fun trying on sunglasses.  (Yes, that's Savannah's shoe in the background.)

 In the mall there was a carousel, which the girls really enjoyed.  They got to ride it once with Grandma,

 and once with their Mommy.

The little train that drove through the mall was pretty fun, too.

I thought this was a cute shot of Kiera and Savannah sharing a drink with their Daddy.

 A couple of weeks later on March 20th, Kent and I drove to Alabama to attend Tyler's graduation from Army Aviation training. He's now trained to fly Blackhawk helicopters. We're very proud of him!

 The day after his graduation we went together to Savannah, Georgia, to spend a couple of days.  The weather was colder and wetter than we anticipated, but other than that it was a fun trip.  The spring flowers were in bloom, including the azaleas,

 and the wisteria.  (Two of my favorite flowers.)

 We were there on the weekend of the Savannah Tour of Homes and Gardens, so got to go inside and see lots of big, lovely, old homes and their gardens.

 Unfortunately, we got caught in a rain shower as we were waiting in line to enter one of the homes.

 But it cleared up by the time we went down to walk along the river.

 Here we are in one of the city squares that Savannah is famous for.

 This is another view of a city square, and I thought it showed the feel of Savannah with the Spanish moss in the trees and the horse-drawn carriage with tourists on a city tour.

After attending church in Savannah on Sunday, Tyler and Rachel returned to Alabama and Kent and I drove to Charleston, South Carolina, to spend the night. We went to the Fort Sumter visitor's center, famous for being the place where the Civil War officially started.

Like Savannah, Charleston was also full of large, lovely old homes.

 

One of the places we went in Charleston was the place where gun powder was stored back in the early 1700's.  I usually think of Charleston as it relates to the Civil War, and don't remember that it was one of the cities around before the Revolutionary War.

 Kent misbehaved on the tour and got thrown into the stocks. 

 This cemetery with the Spanish moss in the trees looked like it would be pretty spooky at night.

Even our trip was in our usual whirlwind style, we had a good time and especially enjoyed the historic homes and lovely spring blossoms.