Little Cabin In the Woods

 We recently went to north Georgia for a long weekend.

During our year planning meeting at the beginning of the year, we penciled in a late summer mountain trip. Then You Know What happened and I didn’t think it would happen. Daniel, Erika, Ivy and Aaron’s girlfriend couldn’t come because of work and school and having to quarantine upon arriving back at home. The week the trip was scheduled, the state quarantine restrictions lifted. By the time they went home, some restrictions were back in place. You never know what exciting new development will come down the path next. Mom, the twins, Willie (our brother from another mother), and his fiance Anna were able to come.

I spent hours on Airbnb looking for the perfect place. The number of people who could come kept changing and I reserved and canceled two places before settling on the cabin. One place didn't tell me until after I made the reservation that the electricity frequently goes out so someone needs to find the breaker box in the basement to fix it. No thank you. I have enough issues with my own breaker box without dealing with someone else's on vacation. I settled on a cabin in the woods and it was darling. There was enough room for everyone to have their own space and a creek outback. It set at the top of a very windy and steep road we didn't know about until we got there. It took 30 minutes to get from the cabin to the main road. Half of our group go carsick going up and down which was a prime opportunity for me to dig through the traveling pharmacy I carry in my purse. You got a bonine! You get a chewable Dramamine! You get a regular Dramamine! You got a zofran!

Annabelle was in heaven. She played in the creek and collected rocks. She spent hours outside and had dessert every day. She and Elizabeth made rafts with twigs and leaves to sail down the river.

Fifteen minutes after we left home, she realized she hadn't brought her Memere blankie. She's slept with it every day since she was born and brings it on every trip. I asked if she wanted me to go back for it and she said no, she'd ok without. It broke my heart a little bit that she wasn't crying for it like she would have when she was younger. On the last two nights of the trip, she cried because our trip was going to end and we might never get to go back. She said she wished she had Memere blankie to comfort her.

We went tubing down the Chattahoochee River and hiked to a waterfall. We went to a swinging bridge and played in the water. The water was calm so I let AB swim near the middle. She swam just fine the first time, but the second time she panicked a little and started to float downstream. I didn't realize at first she was struggling so I told her she'd be ok if she did what her swimming teacher taught her to do. Christopher had to charge in and rescue her. And with that, my hopes of winning Mother of the Year 2020 floated away.

The highlight of the trip, and possibly my entire year, was this old phone in the cabin.

IT MADE ME SO HAPPY. I have wanted this exact phone for years. Christopher refuses to get me one since we have cell phones and don't need to pay for another phone blahblahboringadult. AB and I made endless pretend phone calls using the rotary dial. We tried to call my phone but it didn't work so I assumed it was just for show. I cannot explain my delight and joy when we were eating supper and THE PHONE RANG. I thought it was the regular house phone but it was the old fashioned one. I could not have charged across the kitchen faster if I was being chased by a sworm of anger murder hornets. I answered the phone in such a fit of giggles I could barely get out the word "hello." I forgot I had to hold up the mouthpiece and kept letting go. Everyone else was laughing which made me laugh even harder. The laughter stopped quickly when the man on the other end said he was calling from the police department. In that split second, I went through any actions in my life that might have warranted the police calling me on vacation. The policeman said, as he was sure I was aware, the force is struggling right now and would I be open to making a one-time donation. I explained we were at a rental property but I'm sure the owners are supportive of the police. I forgot to hold of the mouthpiece so he heard nothing and I had to repeat it. I ended the call with "Good luck on your campaign" like he was running for president. It was embarrassing but nothing could bring me down from that high. I know it's a silly thing but it really was a lifelong dream to have a conversation on that phone.

Forget about the latest and greatest in the tech world. I know what kind of phone I want for Christmas.

Denver, where the souveniers are germs and tamiflu

Seven years ago my BFF of all time and forever got married and moved to Denver. I wanted to visit her for years but it never worked out. She came out to visit me a few times and we visited in MA in the summer but I never made it out west to her. I assumed it would cost several hundred dollars but low and behold, I found tickets for $97 round trip and we whipped together a last-minute visit. I've booked plane tickets dozens of times but I very seldom cross to a different timezone. That's why I didn't realize that arriving at midnight was the price I paid for such cheap flights. The website said we'd arrive at 9:40 which I thought was very reasonable. We ended up landing at 11:40 our time which meant we were both tired and very hungry. 

We special ordered some snow from Amazon prime and they really pulled through. AB and I were THRILLED. I miss snow so much. I don't love the bitter cold of winter but I love watching the snow fall and taking walks in the quiet.

I'll be honest- the trip did NOT go as we planned. We had so many fun things planned but they were all derailed when sweet Kezia came down with the flu. Instead of hiking and ice skating, we were quarantined to the house for the first several days. With each day that passed, Kezi got sicker and Annabelle got more cabin fever. On Wednesday we really reached the peak of things going wrong. We ventured out to the library and coffee shop while Katie took Kezi to the doctor. While Katie was at the pharmacy, she got an SOS from a neighbor asking her to watch their son while they went to the er. I stayed back at her house with the girls. Kezi could barely reach her cup without help and kept crying for her mom. Annabelle had enough energy for seven children. She knocked over three drinks, did backflips, bounced on a ball, spilled beads, threw pipe cleaners around "like snow" and made a ruckus. We had a runaround with doctors offices trying to get Annabelle and I Tamiflu to take as a preventative. After speaking to multiple doctors and being told we could get a prescription, I went to the pharmacy to pick it up but it had not been called in. We ended up rationing Kezi's prescription between the three of us like we were living in a war-torn country with no medicine instead of a first world country with laws about transferring prescriptions across state lines. The day would not end. Katie and I kept saying if only we could make it to bedtime we could sit on the couch and watch a show. Kezi must have caught wind our of relaxation plans because a few minutes into Wonder Woman, she suddenly got worse and Katie was on the phone with the doctor at 10:30pm. We tried so hard to Wonder Woman our way through the day. We made it by the skin of our teeth, but our hair didn't look nearly as good as hers. 

All that being said, I am 1000% glad we went out to visit. Kezi started to feel a little better on our second to last day so we took a trip to Ikea for bedroom decor. We went to the children's museum and the girls had a blast. We were so happy they had some good play time before we left. Finn is a doll and he's the first baby Annabelle really paid attention to and wanted to hold. Last time we saw him he had several baby chins and now he's turning into a little boy.

There's no one I can laugh with like I can with Katie. Even though almost nothing went as we planned, we had some great talks and laughed until we cried and couldn't breathe which is my absolute favorite kind of laughing. This visit was the first time I had seen her husband since they got married and he had the great fortune of seeing us in rare form. He had a very similar look to Christopher's the first time he experienced us together. It's a cross between confusion and impressed that two grown women can laugh so loudly/long and communicate using so few words.

Katie is such a wonderful mother and I loved seeing her in her own home. We took a grand total of one picture of ourselves during the entire trip but it's not great. I look like a beached seal and Katie's hair looks like a founding father's wig. We've been friends for almost 30 years so I'm allowed to make comments like that. 

I hope it won't be another seven years before we make it to Denver again, but it for sure won't be during flu season. 

Christmas Past

It's been fourteen days since Christmas and I'm finally getting around to blogging about the holidays. I haven't posted about the holidays on time for the last five years and I don't see that changing in the years to come. 

We celebrated our family Christmas the Sunday before Christmas. We went to church in the morning, swung by CVS because nothing screams festive like a three-foot long receipt and opened our gifts after lunch. I had all the gifts we were bringing on our trip separate from the gifts that still needed to be mailed separate from the gifts we would be opening that day. To me, they were organized as each group had its own wrapping paper. To the uneducated, it was a jumble of gifts and the labels on some had fallen off. Thanks to this clear as mud system, half the opening time was spent having conversations about not opening the wrong gifts. Christopher and Annabelle gave me a Downton Abby bell. I knew they had gotten it because AB kept telling me, "Mama, you're going to love what we gave you. I can't tell you what it is, but it starts with a B and came all the way from England. I've never seen anything that came from England!" Sometimes she'd go so far as to add "It goes ding ding!" 

Lucy keeps climbing up the tree so the angel is constantly crooked.

The next morning we blissfully and ignorantly set out on what was to become a horrific travel day. The plane that was supposed to leave at 6:21 in the morning wasn't there because nobody remembered to fly it in. This is a tiny airport that only has two flights at exactly the same time every day. It's wasn't as if the flight was a surprise. When the plane finally arrived hours late, we were delayed waiting for flight plan and gas approval. Just as we got started taxiing down the runway, there was a thud at the front of the plane. "Ladies and gentlemen, we'll be experiencing a small delay. The wheels on the front of the plane fell off and maintenance will have to come look at it." Merry Christmas, everyone! We were about to take off in a plane with wheel issues! A while later, "Ladies and gentlemen, maintenance has suggested we turn the engine off for about five minutes then turn it back on." I'm no plane expert, but I know WITHOUT A DOUBT that turning it on and off won't fix a wheel that fell off. The plane was towed back to the airport where we all deboarded and Delta was flooded with calls from upset customers. The people at the desk didn't know what to do besides call in backup maintenance from an hour away. They wouldn't give us access to our gate-checked bag so Christopher couldn't get his keys and we couldn't leave for lunch. We could see the spot under the plane where the bag was so I almost skipped out there and grabbed it myself. This whole time we were barely 20 minutes from home but we couldn't leave the airport. Several hours later, a plane sent to rescue us appeared like an angel from the heavens. The pilots from the new plane walked in and wondered why no one was on the runway to greet them and why they didn't hear anything from air traffic control. None of the workers at the tiny airport knew the rescue plane was coming. They were completely clueless. God bless the pilot who looked like a Hallmark actor for rescuing us. If not for him we'd still be in that tiny waiting area. 

What felt like years later, we made it to Williamsburg. Annabelle was THRILLED to be with the cousins. Ever since she listened to the Kirsten stories she's wanted to do a Saint Lucia day celebration. Stephanie happened to find a white dress with red sash is exactly the style Saint Lucia wore. The girls went along with AB's idea and they brought us milk and cookies. Seeing them together was one of my favorite parts of the trip. 

never say never

I am not a a sporty person. 

I love baseball and the Olympics but football, soccer and basketball could be banned and I'd never once miss them. I always assumed that I'd have children who played sports and I wasn't overly thrilled about it. It's not that I don't want to give my child the opportunity to excel in sports, it's just that I don't want to do all the driving and sitting through practices necessary for her to become proficient. I want the benefits and glory of an pro athlete child with the work of a 30-minute practice once a week. I have a feeling it doesn't work like that but come back in 15 years and we'll see if I succeeded. I wouldn't mind being a baseball mom, but soccer mom? Thanks but no thanks. Don't even come at me with your talk of me ever being a football mom. 

But as life goes, that which I don't want to be is what I have become- a soccer mom.

We missed the spring soccer signup but told AB she could do the fall season. She was thrilled and asked endlessly when soccer would start. I had to work the night of her first practice and I felt AWFUL about it. It seemed like a big moment in her life and I was missing it. Not to mention that it won't make me look good when she's giving an interview at the Olympics and mentions how her mom couldn't make it to the first practice. I'm very concerned about how her potential sports career will affect my comfort and reputation. 

The tides have turned in an unexpected direction. While I have no desire to watch adults play soccer, I have become a very enthusiastic sideline participant of kids soccer. I like to yell helpful advice from my blanket even though I know next to nothing about the sport. The Strikers are not an organized team and seldom have a clue what's going on, but they try. Antonio is off in the corner practicing is leaping skills. Robert can't decide if he is going to be a useful part of the team or a hindrance. Annabelle is too polite and doesn't want to get the ball from the opposing team, but she has lots of time to practice before the summer Olympics of 2036.

Mainely we ate

Of the three members of the Single Ladies Club (SLC), I am the oldest, therefore the first to reach the big 3-0 milestone. The two youngsters in the group planned a weekend extravaganza to celebrate my birthday. 

It took place on the second weekend we were visiting at home, so AB would have a weekend o'fun with Grammy while I galavanted around the country with the party animals. It was the day after Annabelle had gotten sick, and the same day she developed mysterious spots on her arms, so I hated leaving her. I didn't want to leave a sick child with Mom. Our pediatrician had diagnosed it over the phone as something more serious than HFM, and I didn't want Mom to be in the position of having to take her to the ER if needed. Mom kept saying it was fine so after many tears from Annabelle and much hesitation from myself, I decided it was ok to leave.

Autumn and Joanna wouldn't give me any details beyond that I needed to be ready to leave around 10:30. I rushed to leave Aunt Camp and make it back to Mom's house in time, but A&J didn't show up until noon. Autumn's life is always 2-3 hours behind the rest of us of it wasn't much of a surprise. They offered to let me sit in the front but I'm terrible with navigation so Joanna was the copilot. I can get almost anywhere I need to in my home state without knowing street names. I barely know highway numbers. I know where to turn based on what houses and Dunkin Donuts I drive by. It's not foolproof but for the most part, it works well. On this trip, I was kicking myself for not being better at directions. All I knew was we were traveling north/north-east. Mom and Aaron could have mapped out the whole route in their heads within 5 minutes.

Given that we were driving and would only be away for 2 nights, my main guesses about the location were Cape Cod, Maine or possibly New Jersey. I highly doubted NJ since none of us love it there, but I wasn't ruling it out completely. I would have had a great time with any location. Autumn and Joanna are a hoot anywhere we go, so we could have gone to the parking lot of Pier 1 and had a great time. To my great joy, they took me to Old Orchard Beach, Maine. They didn't know Maine is one of my very favorite places but they couldn't have picked a better spot.

Our first order of business after dropping off the luggage at our Airbnb was to get lunch. Eating was the main activity of the weekend and we started off well. We got shrimp wraps and fries and took them down to eat on the beach. For some reason, we started talking about old age and death which turned into me saying they should have living wills and make sure their affairs in order. Is this what old age is like? You get together for the weekend and spend time discussing who in your life can make your medical decisions if you're in a coma?

"Let sparty."

We spent the first evening eating our way through Portland. We started around 8 o'clock with dumplings and pork buns, then walked around town for over two miles, stopping to eat wherever we desired. At one place, we ordered a bread and cheese platter. The thin bread came with three small pieces of cheese with a dab of pepper jelly, little squares of jam and a swirl of organical sourced honey. It was all superb but tiny. Any of us could have eaten the entire plate as half an appetizer. We were still hungry after that, so we found a more substantial third course that we topped off with dessert from a chocolate restaurant.

After a spectacular brunch the next morning, Autumn wanted to visit a cryptozoology museum. She studied each and every plaque as if her life depended on it. She believed every single word. Joanna and I breezed through the exhibits in no time and rolled our eyes the entire time. It was so fake. There was even a sign that said, "Upwards of eighty percent of the data is misidentifications coming from known species. For example, a sample of sasquatch hair that turns out to be from a buffalo rug." If Jojo and I hadn't been skeptical before that sealed the deal. There was a display of sasquatch and yeti themed games, one of which was Yeti in My Spaghetti, a game we have. How ironic that the yeti from our spaghetti game has not been seen for many a month, much like the yeti that is supposedly wandering the earth.

We wanted to visit a cheese factory but ran out of time, so we went to a chocolate store and saw the worlds largest (and probably only) moose made out of chocolate. For supper, we went to a gourmet pizza place and we're still talking about how delicious it was. I CANNOT emphasis how good the pizza was. We ended the evening with gelato by the pier and a movie night.

We didn't stop talking for nearly 48 hours. We've been friends for 26 years and come from very similar backgrounds. We're VERY different in some ways now, but we all accept the differences of the others and it doesn't hinder our relationship in any way. We can talk about what we think and believe and not once get offended or feel insignificant because the others might have different opinions. 

We've come a long way from the days I wouldn't hang out with them at church because I thought they were too young to associate myself with.

The biggest takeaway is that Jimmy Carter does not sing You Raise Me Up

I have very few marketable skills, but one is the ability to draw out blogging about events for an entire month. I need to wrap up our visit north so I can get onto other events like mice invading our pantry and other such news from the homefront.

* We gave Mom a surprise 60th birthday party. She knew we were having a get-together but didn't know the real reason why. We sent her off with Annabelle and Ivy while we got ready for the "cookout." AB knew about the party and hoping she wouldn't spill the beans was putting a lot on her little shoulders, but she did relatively well. When she mentioned the party to Grammy, she immediately tried to backtrack and take the words back. "I told Grammy when we get to Uncle Daniel's for the party, but I meant when we got there FOR THE COOKOUT. We're having a cookout not a party."

* Dad took me to see Josh Groban for my birthday. In case you missed it, I said JOSH GROBAN. I spent many years hoping he'd propose to me which sadly (and obviously) he did not, but I hold no ill will towards him. I will continue to adore him all my days. I spent weeks leading up to the concert giving what I believe were beautiful renditions of his songs to Annabelle who was not appropriately thrilled. Come to find out, she had Josh Groban and Jimmy Carter confused. She didn't understand why I was singing along to a music video with Jimmy Carter.

The geriatric crowd and I enjoyed Josh very much. When Dad and I went to see Josh ten years ago, 80% of the audience was under the age of thirty. This time, I saw less than forty people my age. I was surrounded by grandparents. The others my age may have moved on, but I remain loyal and true. 

* We went strawberry picking with various cousins and relations. I babysat Zack and Molly for years and years, but now they're both taller than me and Zack was talking about how he has three years left before college. I need them to shut down that growing up stuff. I love them both, but now that Molly is older we've gone from little cousin/big cousin to friends and it makes me so happy. She's so funny and I love how her personality is still as big as ever. Annabelle has gotten quite a few hand-me-downs from Molly and this orange and pink dress is her absolute favorite. She's been wearing it for 3 summers now and says it's her "traveling dress." I wish I had a picture of Molly wearing it at this same age since it was her favorite as well. 

* I took Annabelle to a walk-in clinic. All week long she had been developing weird marks on her face. Naturally, they were barely an issue before we left home when I could have taken her to our doctor, but they took a turn for the worse as soon as we left the state. I'll keep the description of them to myself, but Sunday I decided we needed to see a medical professional because I had diagnosed her with boils. The Russian nurse said it was impetigo and prescribed an ointment to use for a vague 7-14 days. I'm sure she also wanted to prescribe shoes for Elizabeth, who unexpectedly showed up to "entertain" us as we waited and immediately took off her shoes in the very germy, very public exam room. 

* We had our 4th annual Aunt Camp. I was very popular this trip north so Aunt Camp could only be two nights instead of our preferred three or four, but I made it a priority. It's very important to me that Annabelle spend time with her cousins whenever possible and I want to see Erika as much as I can. Annabelle got a headache, fever and threw up on the first day which damped the mood but we partied on. Daniel watched the girls while Erika and I went to our favorite gift shop. We visit every year and encourage any purchase the other wants to make. When earrings are only $7-12, it makes financial sense to buy 3 pairs. 

Aunt Camp has really become a hands-off event. Besides judging the occasional chalk-water tea content and handing out constant snacks, we didn't have to do much. We gave them water and plastic dishes to play with and they were happy campers.

We never get a picture of Erika and I, but you can count on us to get a million pictures of the girls. It's in my aunt contract to supply matching clothes every year.

We encourage sharing at Aunt Camp, but sharing isn't caring when it's your child shares hand, foot and mouth with her sweet cousin. That's not the type of souvenir we like to have from camp. The spots started shortly after the headache and random vomiting, so I had to call our doctor on a Saturday for which I apologized profusely. I haven't had to call him since the quarter swallowing incident of 2018, but I still felt like a needy parent. He said it sounded like a complication of impetigo and recommended I go to urgent care if she got another fever. That brought us to urgent care visit #2 where she was diagnosed with HFM. Our go-round with HFM was so much easier than I expected but poor Ivy was hit hard. Here's hoping next Aunt Camp has less germs and more days to play. 

our best friendship of 28 years is going strong

As has become our late spring/early summer tradition, AB and I traveled to Massachusetts for our twice-yearly visit.

The trip here was filled with quite a bit of metaphorical turbulence. 

We've flown so often we have a pretty good system down. I know I need to have extra patience and be 300% on. Not only do I need to keep her occupied for hours, I need to keep her safe. It's a lot of work but we usually make it with little to no issues (unless someone throws up in which case BIG issues). We didn't get delayed or have air sickness, but every other little thing that could go wrong went wrong. I went to bed at 10 the night before we left but didn't fall asleep until 2:30. I got up at 4am. For those doing math at home, that's one and a half hours of sleep. It was barely a nap. Annabelle had gotten up at 4:30am and by the time we were about to board the second plane, she had been wide awake for nearly five hours, eaten two breakfasts, played with all the toys we brought, rubbed her hands on the toilet seat, smelled her strawberry-scented jelly shoes 15 times an hour and flopped down on the carpet in the boarding area. I barely had the energy to correct her. She talked nonstop the entire time she wasn't sleeping. I was not in the mood to talk which presented an issue. 
We got on the plane and were settled in when two ladies said we were in their seats. I didn't realize we had seats 34C and 35C instead of seats in the same row. We moved, then the ladies moved, then their friend in row 33 moved. It was musical chairs in the crowded plane aisle. We're all going to the same place and getting there at the same time so why does it matter if the seats are wrong? Honestly, I would have been happy to hand Annabelle off to someone in row 34 while I relaxed in row 35. 

We seldom travel with a car seat but I did this time since I was renting a car. I didn't factor having to carry the car seat as well as our two bags and carry on, so I looked like a pack mule. A kind TSA agent took pity on me and asked if I needed help. I said we were trying to get to Enterprise and he looked at our mound of possessions, looked at AB and her flipped over unicorn suitcase and told us where to find a shuttle that would take us to car rental. I almost kissed the feet of the man driving the shuttle. I would have been 35 years old if we had to walk there. There were several issues with getting the rental car but I finally got on the road. I put the address in the gps and somehow ended up with directions to Greece. 

It was worth all the angst and frustration because look who we were reunited with the next day after two years apart- my very best friend Katie.

She gained a child and I gained several pounds in our two years apart, but we're just as close as ever. We picked up right where we left off and stayed up late at night eating ice cream. We had so much to catch up on. We had a rocky start with the girls because Annabelle started crying the minute we arrived to pick them up, but she recovered and they had a great time. 

It's so much fun to see them together. It was especially fun since they got to play at the same lakehouse Katie and I played at 23+ years ago. They were sleeping in separate bedrooms but had the classic sleepover conversation of "if I wake up first I'll wake you up, but if you wake up first then wake me up." Last time we visited, AB was in diapers. This time we set out breakfast on the table at night and told them to have at it and serve themselves breakfast in the morning. It was a new dawn of parenting. 

The first full day we visited the beach in the rain. We said we'd visit for just a few minutes didn't bother bringing the kids a change of clothes. What a rookie mom mistake. Of course they went in the water, rolled in the sand and got wet! We let them get as wet and dirty as they wanted. We live so far apart and never get to see them, so this was a fun memory to make. We wrapped everyone up in towels and listened to the new Aladdin soundtrack on the way back to the house.

God bless Massachusetts and God bless a Dunkin Donuts that makes good ice coffee.

it was in in-tents trip

Last week I was applauding myself for 10 years of blogging then I abruptly and unintentionally took 10 days off. 

I wish I could say I was taking a blog-funded trip to the beaches of Bora Bora but alas, the monetary gains from this blog are very low. Instead, we were on a budget camping trip.

I've been trying to go camping since we got married. The closest we got was our brief babymoon at the Loretta Lynn cabins in late 2013. Other than the fact that I spent most of the time popping zofran, it was a great trip. I was determined this would be THE YEAR we finally took our family camping trip. I made reservations two weeks ago on Airbnb for the cutest little cabin. Fifteen minutes after I reserved the cabin, I got an email saying there had been an issue with scheduling and the cabin was already booked, but please come visit us again later! I thought my camping dreams would once again be put on hold for several months but at the last minute, I found the last available cabin in the entire state of Georgia that was less than $225 per night. I made a list of the 35 camping items I'd need to pack (not counting clothes and food) and wrote a schedule for the next day. I've spent many a night in a tent, but we knew a cabin would be easier for Annabelle to sleep in and overall give a less stressful trip. I could not wait to take AB in a kayak or play with her on the banks of the lake. We would read bedtime stories by the fire. I was so excited. 

Annabelle had to a pottery painting class that morning and told me on the way there that she didn't feel well. Naturally, she would require a visit to the doctor on the day we were going camping. I called the doctor to beg for a prescription but they said I would need to be seen, but they didn't have any openings for the rest of the day. I didn't want to visit urgent care, but I also didn't want her to suffer from a UTI for four days. We did the pottery class, stocked up on supplies at Walmart, ate lunch, packed and drove ourselves to the nearest urgent care. I bought myself an iced coffee on the way for liquid courage. We prayed we'd be in and out quickly and the Lord who hears our cries and pleas got us out in under 30 minutes.

Thanks to our unforeseen visit to see the doctor, we got on the road late and rolled into the campground around 7:30. I knew the cabin would have air conditioning and a bathroom which I considered fake camping, but I wasn't expecting it to look like a hotel room straight out of the 70's. It had wood paneling, faded floral comforters, and a generic hotel painting. It was not adorable the cabin in the woods I had dreamed of for so long. We couldn't even find a fire pit! What's a camping trip with no fire to sit around while toasting marshmallows?! I was so disappointed I almost cried. 

The next morning we explored the campground. On the website, they advertised boat rentals with a picture of a woman in a kayak. They had no kayaks or canoes for rent. I asked where we could play in the water since swimming was also advertised, and three separate park rangers said they would never swim in that water. It turns out that the campground is more of an overnight stop for boaters and hikers than an actual campground. All the toys I had brought for Annabelle were for water or outdoor play, neither of which she could do much of. There was a playground and we walked around a little, but it was 103* with high humidity. There are no words Daniel Webster could pull out of his dictionary to accurately describe the heat. It was outrageous. I knew camping in May would be hot, but I thought it would be manageable. The thermometer can read the same in Massachusetts and Georiga, but here it feels like someone is putting a wet pillowcase over your head. It's the worst. The gnats were out in full force. I HATE GNATS. I hate them so much, I've been praying since last summer that God would keep the gnats away this summer. So far my prayers have been working well (you're welcome, people of Georgia) but they were all over the campground. 

We did make some fun memories. We went on a boat ride, made a 550 piece puzzle, went on a short hike, and looked for alligators. I got some reading done. On Sunday we drove about an hour to the nearest town to go wading in the little creek. I only slipped and fell in once. I would have stayed upright if I wasn't watching a very pregnant woman crawl over slippery rocks in an effort to get the most Pinterest worthy photos she could. 

 "Here you go, Mama. You can take these and decorate the cabin like you like."

We found the firepit (a circle in the middle of the grass) and Sesame got to roast her own marshmallows.

I'd make s'more jokes but it's too hot.

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.