Friday, December 2, 2011

November at a Glance

Warning... this is a long one with lots of pics!

I can't believe that it's been almost a month since I last blogged.  And honestly, I don't have the inclination to go back and give you a play-by-play.  But tonight I did upload the pictures from our SC trip onto my computer from my "new" (hand-me-down) iPhone 3G.  Fortunately for me, I had the phone because we left for SC without our camera.  Oops!

So here's a quick run-down of our month:

We finished up our fundraising efforts and achieved our goal for making a trip to South Carolina over Thanksgiving.  It was a wonderful experience with our kids that I have no desire to repeat any time soon - and that goes for both the fund raiser and the trip.  It was wonderful to spend time with family for the holiday, but traveling around any holiday carries it's share of risks and traffic jams.

Since I'm not feeling very garrulous (that means "talkative" for any of you poor souls that never took Mrs. Thompson for high school English) tonight, I'll just run through the pictures from the phone.  They don't necessarily give a play-by-play account of our trip, but they do a pretty good job at covering the "ooh-grab-the-camera!" moments we had.

The first night out we stayed in a small, inexpensive motel room.  It had full-size beds instead of queen.  The hotel itself was pretty nice, but we were glad we were only staying there about 5 hours.  'Nuff said.

After leaving the hotel in Arkansas at 2:45 am, we hit Memphis just as the sun was coming up.  I love driving east.
 

A little after lunch-time we finally made it to the City Park in Moody, AL where we took a break last time we made this trip.  It's an awesome park, and becoming one of our favorite layover spots.  

The girls got a real kick out of these swings, even though they couldn't quite get the hang of how to use them...

Kelsey got a lot of her energy out at the park.  Can you tell?

Maddox mostly wandered around playing with the juice boxes.  He was just happy to be out of that blasted car seat.  By the way, have I mentioned that he doesn't travel well?  He looks sweet, but he didn't hesitate to let us know - loudly - when he'd had enough of driving.

Connor played quietly by himself most of the time.  However, he did invite me to go riding with him.  See him patting the seat?  I had to convince him that I wouldn't fit in that seat.  No leg room, you see.

He sure loved that car.

And he still picked up some passengers before the ride was over.

Once we finally made it to Georgia, the kids found some new things to play with at the Welcome Center: a thick blanket of leaves!

Of course they had to make a huge pile out of them.

And then jump in it.

And try to eat them.

And get them in their clothes.

And search out the biggest leaves they could find.

Ditto.

After rush hour traffic in Atlanta, we got to our friends' house for a"family sleepover" in Georgia.  We got one lone picture out of the stay, but it really cracked me up.  The girls had put colored hair spray in that was leftover from Halloween.  These two girls really know how to ham it up.  We love our visits with the Armstrong family!

Heading out of Atlanta the next morning we got bogged down in MORE traffic.  This is how we all felt:

Eventually we made it.  After 7 hours.  We were so glad to see Noni and Papa!  Ben just isn't happy unless he's hugged his mama at least once every 6 months or so.

Once we actually got there, pictures were few and far between.  Here are few worth sharing:

Connor eating a bowl of yummy... crushed ice?

Maddox giving high fives to his new best buddy, Nathan.

The girls and cousin Jared at the zoo.  I love his expression because it's obvious he really didn't want Kelsey hanging on his arm, but he was being a good sport.  He's such an awesome dude!

Olivia getting attacked by the hungry lorakeets.  (Incidentally, the day after a holiday is a GREAT time to go - they haven't been fed for a day!)

One even landed on Maddox's head.  He didn't freak out.  (Unlike someone else who shall remain nameless... but her initials are K. E.)

More lorakeet mobbing.

Jared with the lorakeets.  And check out the snoozing koala through the glass!

Maddox and Uncle Mike.

Another member of our groups wasn't excited about the enthusiasm shown by the birds... I took him and Kelsey out a little early.

The goats were pretty friendly.

They will eat anything.  Including baby fingers.

And the baby giraffes were hungry, too.

A couple of statue photos...

Notice it is the boys with the crazy faces?

A great visit with a great friend... (can you believe it's been 22 years, Becky??)

And finally... after not enough time to see friends, yet too much time away from home... we hit the road again.  (I love leaving at 2am.)

We stopped for our traditional breakfast at Waffle House.  For the first time, we no longer fit in a single booth there!  The girls have graduated to the counter.

And for the first time on our trip, it rained.  And it was cold.  And it rained.

Which meant lunch was in the McDo-I-Have-To-Eat-The-Food-Here playland.  Barf.  At least Maddox had a blast.

Eventually, we made it home about dinner time on Tuesday.  We loved the trip and being reminded that we really do belong to people.

But we sure are glad to be home.

2 comments:

*Jess* said...

7 hours from ATL to your parent's house? That is just awful! I am so sorry the drive wasn't better. We missed you guys so much but promise to make time next year!!

Anonymous said...

Of all the things you said, I especially like the last part about really belonging to somebody. Been there, done that. In fact, I'm still experiencing it!