Over the River and Through the Woods

To Grandmother's lakehouse we went!

(Josh's grandmother, that is.)

Yep, it's lake season!  Woo-hoo!  It was last year that I really, really, began to enjoy the lake.  I mean, I've always enjoyed going down there with Josh and his family, but once we had Bennett and he got old enough to really enjoy it, it became so wonderful.  We made several trips down there last year, and I hope we can do the same this year.  Memorial Day weekend has always kind of kicked off the season for us, and it was no different this year.

We go to Jackson Lake, which is about 20 minutes or so from McDonough, where Josh's grandmother lives.  Josh had a meeting at the corporate office on Friday, and the corporate office just so happens to be located in McDonough.  So rather than have Josh drive down to McDonough for his meeting, drive back, pick us up, then drive back down south of McDonough, we decided to go on to his grandmother's house on Thursday night.  She lives in an assisted living facility, so her house is vacant.  It was perfect - Josh could wake up, drive 10 minutes to his meeting, and then drive 20 minutes to the lake once the meeting was over.  Lynn and Steve were coming down Friday morning to pick up me and the boys and take us on to the lake.

We didn't get out of Douglasville until it was almost dark, so it was definitely dark by the time we got to McDonough.  Very, very dark.  It had rained (and actually, hailed at our house) before we left.  Nothing too severe, but there was a small storm that passed through.  Well, anyway, once we reached the square in McDonough, the traffic lights were out.  We continued on towards Nana's, and the streets and houses were unusually dark.  We kind of started going, 'uh-oh.'  Then Josh said, "Ugh.  I just saw someone with a flashlight in that house."  We hoped that maybe Nana's neighborhood would have power, but no such luck.  Darkness.

Long story short, it was dark.  It was hot.  The windows were all nailed shut, so we couldn't even get a breeze (yes, we tried to open them - they weren't budging).  The candles we hunted down made it so that we could see, but they also made it hotter.  We had two boys that were tired and wanted to go to bed.  I take that back.  We had two boys that were tired, but only one of them really wanted to go to bed.  Cannon was hot and tired and cranky.  Bennett was hot and tired, but loving every minute of our "fun" adventure.

We finally just gave up, went to bed, and I woke up COLD.  The power had come back on in the night, and boy, there's nothing wrong with her A/C!

So Josh went to his meeting, and Lynn and Steve showed up to get us.  We first went to visit Nana at the assisted living facility.

She has a drawer full of beads that the children always enjoy playing with.  Lynn started putting some on Bennett, and Cannon wanted in on it.  So, she and Bennett helped him out.

Then, on to the lake.  No big, long story to tell here.  All that needs to be said is that we had a great time, and we have on our hands a little dare-devil that isn't afraid to try anything.  Bennett went from jumping off the side of the dock into someone's arms, to getting a running start off the end of the dock while we all watched from dry ground.  He tubed by himself; didn't even want anyone to come with him the first time, and after watching Josh kneeboard, he said to me, "I want to do that!"  So Josh let him lie down on the kneeboard with him while Steve pulled them.  They rode until Josh's arms gave out.  :)

We're seriously thinking about purchasing some training skis for him.  I think he'd totally do it, and I love that!  I was never that way about trying things, and I have never wanted that to rub off on my boys.  I'm glad to see that, so far, so good.

So without further ado, here is our trip in pictures:

Clean Feet

Everyone else getting ready to go to the beach, Bennett says, "No doh wimmin, Mama." He wants to do this instead:

A Most Interesting Duet

My first idea for a title was "The Only Time a 2 Year Old Tantrum is Funny." Josh wanted to name it "When Parenting Takes a Backseat to Entertainment." Any of them would have worked.

We are at the beach with Josh's family this week, but that doesn't mean the tantrums stay at home, unfortunately. I'd like to thank Truett, Matthew and Lauren's dog, who provided the lovely accompaniment here:

Weekend in Asheville

Just got home this evening from a bachelorette weekend in Asheville, NC. It was a nice, much needed weekend away with my best girl friends. My girlfriend from college who happens to have also been one of the photographers for our wedding, Annie, is getting married next Sunday.

So we all took off to the mountains this weekend to celebrate "Hell Freezes Over Weekend." Because since we have known her, she has sworn she'd never get married. Well, what do ya' know? She happened to meet the right guy and has been forever changed.

Asheville is such a great little town. The downtown area is so great, with tons of cute boutiques and great restaurants. Friday night we went to an Indian restaurant called Mela. I have to be honest - when Miranda first told me we were going to be eating Indian that night, I was a little disappointed. Of course I wasn't going to say anything, but Indian is not my favorite. But I figured I could find something that I would be able to handle.

Oh, man. If you are ever in Asheville, you should try this place. It was so wonderful. We started with some appetizers, one of which was an Indian version of fried chicken tenders that were served with the most wonderful sauce of cilantro and mint. Heaven! So, so good.

My entree was grilled chicken that had been marinated in cashews, yogurt, cream, saffron and cardamom. It was served with a pineapple mango chutney. Wow. I'm going to puree pineapple and mango and dip my grilled chicken into it for the rest of my life now. It was so good and refreshing!

Everyone loved their food. We all had said that we would all kind of share our meals, but halfway through dinner we realized no one had offered to share anything because everyone was so into what they were eating! Not only did we not want to give up any of our delicious food, but we didn't care to try anything different. I highly recommend it.

Saturday morning we headed to a spa. We each had a facial and a massage scheduled. Since there were 7 of us, we couldn't all be serviced at the same time. There were only a few of us being treated at one given time. Not to fear for the rest of us who weren't, though, because we had full use of their heated pool, sauna, and hot tub. Of course, I wasn't able to take advantage of the sauna or the hot tub since that's a pregnancy no-no, but I did put my legs in the hot tub. It was seriously hard to keep myself from just getting on in. Really, I had to keep telling myself that it wasn't worth risking the health of my baby just to feel good for a few minutes. But it was like having a big piece of warm chocolate cake with a scoop of cold ice cream in front of you and being told you can't eat it. Gosh, I don't know which would be worse. But let's hope I'll only have to be faced with one of those situations in my lifetime.

Also making the time pass nicely was the great food that Miranda so graciously brought for us to snack on. She and a couple of the other girls stopped by an Earth Fare on the way over and picked up some fresh fruit, olives, cheese and crackers, hummus and pita chips, sandwiches and orange juice and champagne for mimosas. It was so good! And the ladies at the spa were nice enough to take it and transfer it to nice serving trays and bowls. We pretty much took over the spa for the afternoon. It was quite the experience. We all walked around all day in big fluffy robes and sandals, sipping on hot tea and mimosas, getting our faces renewed and our bodies massaged. What more could you ask for?

That evening the ladies partied it up, but being preggo, I decided to abstain from the festivities. I joined them for dinner but headed back to the house afterwards. I had some sleep I needed to catch up on anyway. It was fun listening to the all the night's stories this morning, though. They had a good time even though it sounded like Asheville may not have been ready for that rowdy bunch of girls!

I was glad to get back home today. Josh and Bennett picked me up from Miranda's this afternoon and I was so glad to see them. They both had huge grins for me when they saw me.

Josh's parents were at our house with them this weekend. We had a closet project that needed to be addressed, so Josh thought it would be a good opportunity to accomplish that while also having a little help with Bennett while I was away. Steve and Lynn were happy to come. Steve is a huge help when it comes to carpentry projects, and Lynn is fantastic with Bennett. He absolutely adores her. They must have had fun - he didn't take a nap at all yesterday! His little engine just kept on running, and they let it, since as soon as Bennett laid down it would mean the work would have to stop. The closets that were being worked on were right next to his room.

Anyway, thank you to Lynn and Steve for all your help, thank you to Josh for being a wonderful dad and husband, and thank you to my girls for helping me relax for a weekend! I love all of you!

Blue Ridge Mountains

A few months ago, my sister-in-law called me and asked if Josh and I would like to go up to the Blue Ridge Mountains with she and her husband this fall. Matthew's family has a cabin there (actually, it is called a chalet). The two of them went this past June for their anniversary and enjoyed it so much they immediately started planning another trip. Fortunately, we were considered in that planning! So of course we accepted the invitation and it was this past weekend that we all went.

This is our chalet on Beech Mountain in Banner Elk, North Carolina.

When we woke up the first morning, there was a light dusting of ice/snow.


It was chilly, but we were prepared for it and we headed into town for the Woolly Worm Festival anyway. "The what?" you say...

The Woolly Worm Festival! Okay, we hadn't heard of it either, but apparently it's a big deal in Banner Elk. It's just a good ol' festival with crafts, bluegrass, and booth upon booth of scrumptious festival food (turkey legs, gyros, philly cheesesteaks, corn dogs, roasted corn, chili cheese fries, hamburgers, fried mushrooms, barbeque, polish sausages, funnel cakes, fried peaches, hot apple cider, etc., etc.).

All that plus the Woolly Worm race! Kids from all over bring their woolly worms and they have heats all throughout the day in which the kids (and adults) put their worms on a string and see whose will get to the top first.

Here, Josh and I are standing in front of the big Woolly Worm Race stage.

Lauren and Matthew, also in front of the stage.

I don't know if you can tell from those pictures, but it was snowing the whole time we were there. Pretty chilly, but very nice. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

When it came time for lunch, it was so hard to decide on what to eat! Well, it was hard for all of us except Matthew. He had his heart set on a turkey leg.

After the Woolly Worm festival, we headed over to Valle Crucis where they were having another festival. We checked that one out for just a little while; it was just about over when we got there. Thankfully, they were still serving up funnel cakes. Just like Matthew and his turkey leg, Lauren and I both would have cried if we didn't get to enjoy a funnel cake. And oh, did we. Yum.

We also went to the original Mast General Store in Valle Crucis, which was an awesome place that must have had everything you could imagine. It was in an old farmhouse and the place was packed! We enjoyed looking at all the neat gift ideas, sipping samples of hot cider, and listening to the bluegrass band that was set up right in the middle of the store. Pretty neat.

The next morning, it was time to leave (we were really only there for one full day), and we were delighted to see that there was a little more than a dusting of snow then.

Our drive down the mountain was so beautiful. Actually, from where we were, we had to go up to the top of the mountain and then back down.

At the top was Fred's General Mercantile, where we stopped the first night and got some breakfast stuff and rented a movie to watch (Gran Turino - highly recommend it).

We slip-slided into their very icy parking lot so I could get a picture of these gorgeous trees. Does that not just scream Christmas? I love them!

And across the street, some more.

As we continued on, we saw some little friends crossing the road.

We stopped to try to get a good picture of the view from the mountain, but it wasn't working out. So Josh just took a picture of me instead.

It was pretty amazing how you could drive around just a few curves going down the mountain and the climate seemed totally different. At the top everything was covered in snow and ice. A little ways down, the fall colors were as vibrant as ever with just a very light dusting of snow. Then at the bottom, no snow at all, just beautifully colored leaves and warm sunshine.

From the road down there, you could look up and in the foreground you see mountains speckled with red, yellow, orange and green, and in the background, taller mountains that were silvery white. As Mama said, we got the best of both worlds.

Not exactly the weekend we were expecting, but in a good way. I loved it and so enjoyed the company of Lauren and Matthew. Guys, thank you so much for the opportunity and for all your love and support.

One for the Road

I took this picture of Bennett this morning before he headed off to Montessori.

We're going to the mountains this weekend with Lauren and Matthew and while I'm really excited about getting away, I'm also really anxious about leaving him. Exactly how long is this going to last? Until he's 30?

St. George Island, Florida 2009

Last year, I posted like 4 pictures of our St. George vacation. This year, well, get ready for photo overload.

Bennett with his puppy dog friend on the way down (thanks Keira, Hana and Sandi - he loves that little guy!)

We all got there around 5 or 6ish. We decided not to waste any time getting out to the beach! Bennett and Rachael headed for that water with no hesitation.

Our days on the beach consisted of the kids playing with the buckets and shovels Gigi brought for each of them,

playing in the water, which all of them loved, thankfully,

and fishing. Mac enjoyed helping Pop and his Daddy reel them in, and Bennett got to check them out before they were set free.

We went for walks,

played in the sand pool that the family worked together to create,

took breaks for a quick snack,

soaked up some good ol' vitamin D,



and just all together enjoyed the heck out of ourselves!



Even when we got tired out and ready for our naps, we still had a smile on our face.


It came a pretty bad storm one night and the next day it rained all day. No worries! Bennett and Mac got out there anyway!


The ocean isn't the only body of water we got to enjoy. Our house had a pool, and it was always nice to be able to stop there before going up to eat lunch and lie down for a nap.

Some days Bennett was a daredevil and loved jumping off the edge into the water,


and other days he decided just to hang out on the pool deck and watch us swim. Either way, he had fun.


We watched some Elmo DVDs in our down time,

and Mac sang for Bennett one afternoon. Bennett applauded and said "YAAAYYY!!!" after every song. Very cute.

For dinner, we all took turns making the meals. Man, did we have some good ones!

We did go out to eat one night, and after the meal Lynn wanted to get a picture of her and Steve with all three of their grandkids.

Oh, darn. Let's try it again.

Aw, surely we can get a better one than that...

O-kaaay. Guess not. They're great pictures of Lynn and Steve, though!

Lynn did get a great one of Lauren and her family.

And of course she tried to get one of our family, but guess what? Yeah, it didn't turn out so great. Josh just couldn't stop squirming and wiggling around. (ha!)

After supper each night, we'd go back out to the beach. What a great time to enjoy it. It was nice and breezy, mild, and the kids had an absolute BALL.

Bennett ran and ran and ran some more.

Rachael played in the sand and usually wound up wet from not being able to resist that water! :)

Mac blew some bubbles, but you had to have a fast eye to see them - it was so windy!

If that's not a happy boy, I don't know what is.

This is from one of our other evenings on the beach. This is about as good as we could do for a family photo.

Me and Lauren with the kids, and y'all... it's official. I have a mom butt. :/

This was our last beach evening. We were a little later than normal, so it was a bit darker.

Bye bye, beach! See you next year!