Sesame on the High Seas

I have traveled many miles and crisscrossed many timezones since I last posted. We went on a week-long Disney cruise to the Bahamas with Christopher's family. It would take 46 posts to recap the trip in the longwinded way I often do, so I'm going to post a few key pictures instead. Long story short, I'm currently searching Zillow for island homes in our budget.

Exploring Key West in the rain.

Every night our housekeeping man Greyson, made towel animals.
Annabelle liked to play with them and by the end of the week, she had quite the collection.

I don't know why we still live in Georgia when there are places like this in the world.

Here we have one of the few minutes Princess Sesame carried her own dress.
For the rest of the time, she requested I, her lowly servant, carry the train for her.

"I know Elsa and Anna. I've already meeted them at my house."

Sweet cousins!

Bippity Boppity Boutique. I teared up watching her get made over.
She looked so big and I kept picturing her getting done up for her wedding.

old friends are the best friends

A little piece of home flew in to visit us last week.  My sweet friend Autumn arrived with her lavender hair and avocado print shirts.

I never know where to bring guests when they visit. Sometimes I wonder if I just don't know the good spots, but turns out there aren't many local attractions. Members of my family tend to find places I never heard of so I shouldn't have been surprised when Autumn arrived with a list of places to explore. Our first stop was billed as "one of Georgia's seven natural wonders." The website said it was a courtyard with terraces, waterfalls and "exotic flora." We arrived to find the whole place shut down and orange netting around half of it. Autumn suggested climbing over the gate but I am no breaker of the law. We looked at the swamp and strange trees instead. Annabelle was not a fan.

Autumn's next stop was a "prehistoric sand dune." The gps took us on a 20 minutes drive that looped back to right by the closed garden. The sand dune with a history dating back to the early 1800's was nothing more than a pile of dirt with a 'no trespassing' sign. I can't believe someone made a website for it. These people need to redefine their definition of interesting. 

By this point, Annabelle had had enough of sightseeing flops. She was coughing, getting a fever and saying she needed to go home. I told her we'd go to the playground since she'd been asking for weeks. Autumn put the address in the gps which proceeded to send us down a dead end dirt road. The next attempt told us to turn into a cemetery. I'll be honest. I was not my best self at this point. I had a headache and wanted to lay down but needed to give Autumn something to see, even if it was a playground. I took over the navigation and got us out of the wrong side of town. AB miraculously perked up when her feet hit the ground at the park. Funny how 45 minutes earlier she had been moaning and groaning about how she was homesick but a quick trip down the slide fixed all her problems.

That evening Autumn and I went out on the town. We poured over menus on several websites and made a list of who had the best appetizers. We made a game plan- appetizers and a drink at one restaurant than a second round of appetizers at a follow-up restaurant where we would also get dessert. In the 28 years of our friendship, it was one of our best plans and it went perfectly. We ate our weight in fried pickles and onion rings. We shared macaroni and cheese and potato skins. We talked about makeup, education and why some of our childhood friends ended up like they did. Only the most well rounded of conversations for us! We went to the next place but were too full to order more appetizers so we talked and people watched for hours. On the way home, we had to stop to put air in the tire. All the teens of the town were hanging out at the gas station. They were piled in trucks and standing around in little groups. As if the sand dune fail hadn't been proof enough that not much goes on here, those dudes sealed the deal. We were the crotchety old women wondering why the youths of small-town America weren't at home, tucked into their beds at such a late hour. We weren't crotchety old ladies when we got home at 12:30 and put line dancing tutorials on youtube and danced in the living room. We might be bad with directions but we can do the Watermelon Crawl and isn't that really more important, anyway?

I'll use the photos of AB and Grayson at their rehearsal dinner

Now that we're a few weeks from Thanksgiving it seems like time to briefly recap the end of October.

Last week we went to the fair with friends.

 AB's friend Grayson drove her around on the bumper cars. They held hands as they waited in line. When they got in their car, she put her hand on his head and tried to turn it in the direction she wanted to go. There was crashing left and right, but Annabelle was unphased. She continued to point to where she wanted to go while loudly telling him what to do. He paid no attention to her. They looked like an old married couple.  

The next night we went trick or treating with a group from church. I very much dislike halloween and would be fine if the whole thing went up in flames, but I do love seeing babies in costumes and Annabelle was very excited about dressing up.  Several of her little friends were having a get-together and the parents kindly invited us. 

Contrary to how she looks, she was not a Target employee. She dressed as Annie from The Magic Treehouse books. It was the easiest costume to put together. It doesn't look like I put any effort into it whatsoever, but I was told a dozen times that Annie wears a red shirt and jeans so that's what I got from the clearance racks at Walmart boutique.

 Grayson dressed as Annie's brother, Jack. Those two are stuck together like glue. If you think I haven't started planning their wedding you haven't been around here long enough. 

Of course, Prince George is our first choice, but in case he doesn't work out Grayson is a great substitute.