Our Quick Getaway

Denny & I wanted to spend some quality, baby-free time together before summer ended, so we planned a quick trip to Atlanta. We packed a lot of stuff into only 2 days and we had an amazing time! The only thing I didn't like was being away from Emily for so long. It's the longest we've been apart so far and although it was was much needed, I don't think I'll be doing it again any time soon.

On our way to Atlanta, we stopped in Juliette to eat lunch at the Whistle Stop Cafe. We tried to eat there on our last trip up north but sadly, it was closed. We had much better luck this time! Of course we tried the fried green tomatoes which were good, but I am just not really a fan of tomatoes. The dipping sauce was awesome though.

I wanted to stay and walk around and take more pictures but it was just SO HOT. Denny was practically begging me to get in the car and go! We then stopped in Macon at Bass Pro Shop. Can you guess who wanted to stop there? We have one in Savannah but Denny said that it would be different, so he had to check it out. After that we were off to a store that I have been wanting to go to for years - IKEA! Those 3 hours that we spent there were my favorite part of the whole weekend. Seriously, if you have never been to an Ikea, GO! I could have lived in there. No really, there were beds and bathrooms and kitchens and I literally could have lived in there. While we were there we had to try some of their swedish meatballs. I didn't get a picture of them but trust me, they were good.

Did I mention that we got lost trying to find Ikea? Well we did. And then we got majorly lost when we left. We wanted to go to downtown Atlanta and check out the Olympic Park and Underground Atlanta. When we finally found what we were looking for, we were too scared to even get out of the car. I had assumed that we would be ok - we were right in the middle of everything. The World of Coke, CNN, the aquarium and the zoo were all right there, but let's just say that Atlanta's major attractions are not in the safest area. Or maybe it was because it was 6:00 on a Sunday evening. I bet that it is much different during the week, or at least I hope it is!

After we fled for our lives, I wanted to find a Kohl's store and check that out since I'd never been. If you've never been either, don't go. Seriously, don't even waste your time. So after getting lost again, we made one last stop to eat dinner at The Varsity! I was so super excited to eat there. I'd never been but had always wanted to go and it is super famous here in Georgia. I don't really like hot dogs but I just had to get one and I'm sorry if I upset you by what I'm about to say but, GROSS. There was absolutely nothing special about it and it tasted just like the ones at Krystal. Our fries weren't that good either and I honestly don't understand why the place is so popular! Here are some pictures anyway.

After dinner we were exhausted and tired of riding so it was time to find our hotel and get some sleep. And do you know what we did? We got lost. Again! In my defense, we did have our GPS with us but our hotel didn't show up on it. The funny thing is, we stopped to get gas as soon as we got off on our exit. Then we left the gas station and drove around for about 15 minutes looking for our hotel, only to find out that it was right behind the gas station where we had just been. We were literally a few hundred feet away from it and didn't even know it! 

The second day of our trip was spent at Six Flags and we could not have picked a better day to go. Other than it being about 100 degrees that day and being covered in sweat after being there for an hour, it was unbelievably fun. We went on a Monday and the park was so empty! The first ride that we rode was the Scream Machine and we rode all by ourselves! We rode several rides without ever having to stand in line and the longest line we stood in was maybe 30 minutes. I didn't take my camera because I didn't want to have to keep up with it all day, and I'm glad we didn't take any pictures because we both looked like a hot mess. It was fun spending time with my sweety and it was so much fun to see him get scared when we were going up the first hill on all of the roller coasters. I can't wait until Emily is big enough to go!

The Great CoRnundrum of '09

If you know either me or my mom IRL then you will know that when we get together, hilarity (and a few wrong turns) ensues. What I'm trying to say is, WE GET LOST. Denny was along for the ride too, but he put me in charge of the driving and he took the opportunity to get to know his BlackBerry a bit better.


Before I go any further, let me give you Exhibit A: A map of Georgia with our starting location and our pumpkin patch destination marked in red. 

You can see that we are starting in Statesboro and plan to end up at the dot just to the Northeast of there in a town named Louisville which is not large enough or significant enough to be pointed out to us on this map. 

So, do you think that either of us bothered to look at this map (or any other map) before we left the house? Nope. Did my mom think to ask her husband if he knew how to get where we were going (and let me just say that he actually does know exactly how to get there)? Noooo. That would have been way too easy. All we had with us was the directions from the pumpkin patch's website, which in our defense, they made it seem like their farm was right outside of Augusta. Let me go ahead and make this crystal clear for you. The pumpkin patch is most definitely NOT right outside of Augusta. The pumpkin patch is about 50 MILES from Augusta. Now here is a pop quiz for you: Take one more look at that map. Which way do you think we went? If you guessed that we took Highway 25 all the way to Augusta, you'd be right! (Sorry, there are no prizes being awarded at this time.)  

Their site also said NOT to use a GPS or Mapquest or any other map besides theirs because we would end up on another farm about 10 miles from there. In hindsight, I could have looked up the town on Mapquest to find the shortest way there and then followed their directions. Oh well, just another lesson learned.

We were having a hard time finding the road we were supposed to take and we almost went the right way, but I wasn't sure about it so we kept going straight ahead. We just kept going and going and the next thing we knew, we were being welcomed into South Carolina! At that point, we were about 65 miles from where we were supposed to be and it was almost 4:00. My whole reason for ever wanting to go to this God-forsaken pumpkin patch was so I could take Halloween pictures of Emily, and I could not take pictures in the dark!

There was one thing that made all of that driving a little bit better. I found my own Redundancy FAIL!

Please tell me that you get what is wrong with this sign.

So finally after stopping and asking for directions, we were on the right road to Kackleberry farm and we finally got there around 5:00. There were lots of things to do at the farm, like.......

jumping on the World's Largest Pillow, which was not in fact, full of feathers or cotton, but instead full of air. 

We saw how tall Emily is this fall, and I found out that it takes more to be a photographer than being able to press a button because Denny could not get the entire sign in the picture. (Psst. Back up honey!) 

We swung on a sewer pipe swing, and we had to beg not to be swung off by the big kids.

 

 

We played in a "corn"box.

 

We took pictures with some teeny-tiny, Emily-sized pumpkins. 

 

And we rode on the Cow Train!

 

We walked through the corn "maize" and I realized that Denny is just as good at looking at the camera as Emily is. By the way, if you've never walked through a corn maze, you haven't missed anything. 

 

Emily drove a tractor,

 

posed as a chicken, 

 

and was a sweet little flower with Makayla and I.

I also went down a slide made out of none other than another sewer pipe, and the warning sign about how fast the slide was, was a HUGE understatement. People were getting hurt coming off of that slide. I almost fell down! See?

  

It really was a lot of fun. My sister rode a zip-line and I wanted to too, but it was getting darker by the minute and we still hadn't taken pumpkin patch pictures!

But where were all of the pumpkins? The patch had run out and they had to buy more pumpkins, and they almost ran out of those too! We had to round up pumpkins from all over to be able to take pictures.

 

Now normally, Emily would be excited about taking pictures and would smile her cheesiest smile for the camera. But not this time. She was just not having it. 

  

She wasn't even happy when we presented her with a pumpkin of her very own. I knew I didn't have much longer so we quickly changed her into her costume for some ghost pictures. Are you ready to see one of her meltdowns?

 

So I picked her up and took a few pictures with her, and it was clear that she just wanted to be held.

 

 See how happy she is in Mama's lap? I assumed she was settled down enough to give solo pictures one more try.....

 

 

....but I was wrong. She just looked up at all of us like, "Why? What did I ever do to you?" It was so sad! Picture time was officially over, and after a hayride, so was our trip to Kackleberry Farm. 

IF we had known the shortest way to get there, and IF we had gotten there earlier in the day, it would have been so much better. But now we know what it's all about and we can make better some plans the next time we go. 

Our Labor Day Weekend Vacation

Our Labor Day Weekend tradition is to go camping on Jekyll Island with Denny's family.We always have a blast, and most of our time is spent riding our golf carts around the island. During the day we rode to the beach and to the pier, and once the sun set we would ride around looking at all of the deer, many of them in the street or eating the grass from the yards of the houses there. 

But this year was a little bit different for us. We saw parts of Jekyll that we had never seen before. This year, we were outlaws. We took our golf carts down bike paths, fire control roads, and to spots on the beach that I'm pretty sure many people have never seen. 

 

For me, the weekend was spent sneezing and trying my hardest to avoid going inside our camper, since there is something (who knows?) in there that I am allergic to. Emily had a reaction to something too, but it cleared up within a few hours.

This isn't really a good look for her. 


Anyhow, Emily got to experience the beach for the second time in her short life, and she thought it was the best thing since sliced bread breast milk (she hasn't tasted sliced bread yet). 

 

She liked sitting at the waters' edge and playing in the sand. 

 

She even tried tasting the sand, but she didn't like it. At all. 

 

Then Denny thought it would be fun to bury her in the sand, and she was ok with it, as long as she could still see her feet. 

 

And of course, we had to let her experience skinny dipping while she is young enough to get away with it.

 Another big chunk of time was spent at the playground. Our niece Haley LOVED it and hopefully Emily will too next year. 

 

Also at the playground, we found the first thing that she is afraid of: the swings. She stayed in there for about 10 seconds before she started crying, just long enough for me to get one (not very good) picture. 

 

We took a time out to pose for pictures and become dinosaurs. 

 

  

  

  

And since I am the aspiring photographer that I am, here are a few of my favorite shots from the trip.

 

  

  

  

We had a fabulous trip and wish we could have stayed longer. Those 4 1/2 days felt like only a few hours. But I won't worry; I know that we will be seeing Jekyll again next year!