the aunts come to visit

Many years ago, Autumn, Joanna and I formed the Single Ladies Club. Since the founding of the club I've gotten married and the other two have gone through various relationships, but we have never considered changing the name. The Married and Two Recently Singled Ladies Club doesn't have the same ring. Our theme song has always been Beyonce's Single Ladies. I'm not a huge Beyonce fan but we couldn't have found a more appropriate song.

They came to visit over the weekend and I brought out my special poster. The first summer Joanna came for her now annual visit was less than a week after we moved to Fort Campbell. Almost nothing was decorated so I made this poster and hung it in the bathroom. It's become the official poster of Joanna's visits. 

They arrived early early Sunday morning. 12:30 AM early. I went to bed and set an alarm for 12:15. I'm too old to miss any hours of precious sleep. Autumn said there was a meteor shower that night so we sat on our new patio watching the stars and catching up.

After church on Sunday we went grocery shopping and to Walgreens. Don't say I don't know how to show my guests a good time! I went into Walgreens for a prescription and came out with a slip'n'slide.  We showed Annabelle how to use it.

Monday we took them hiking. I've been to the park twice before but never drove so I never paid attention to the directions. The lady at the gate told us how to get to the falls but either she misspoke or I misheard (more likely) because we didn't end up at the falls. We ended up at the other end of the park where we had no choice but to exit, turn around and go back in. The lady at that gate told us to drive 14 miles in the other direction. We finally found the right parking lot and walked about a mile to the bottom of the falls. The view wasn't too shabby. 

There are paths leading from the bottom falls to the middle falls and finally the falls at the top. The first trail was short enough for AB to on her own. She had a minor meltdown on the way back thanks to the heat and the fact that it was the middle of nap time so Aunt Jojo carried her up the 187 steep steps. God bless her. I kept suggesting we stop so Joanna could have a break but she powered on. I was hoping she'd take me up on it since I wanted to rest! Sesame and I ended up sitting on a path playing in the sand while the other two did the second part of the trail. It ended up being a wise choice since they saw a snake.

To save Joanna's back and AB's emotions we drove to the very top waterfall. It's so so pretty.

That night we rewarded ourselves for burning all those calories with THE BEST dessert ever from a chocolate restaurant in town. As we were waiting for them to box up our dessert one of the waitresses started talking about a show she started watching. "It's really inspiring. It make me want to stop working here and join a drug cartel." Well. I guess we'll be seeing her on the news when the police break up whatever group she joins.

I loved having the girls here. We've been friends our entire lives and know each other so well. I loved seeing them with Sesame. They loved playing with her and she adores them. She asks when they're coming back and when she can have a sleep over at their houses. They even sat on the floor with her for half an hour during what can only be called The Bathroom Trial of 2017. They're true friends. I like them even better than I like the triple chocolate mousse dessert.