Enjoying Friends and Family

An hour into Mom's and my drive home, we stopped to visit with my friend LeAnn and her husband Peter at a Starbucks.  An hour and a half of conversation passed way too quickly.  Although this was the first time meeting in person, it felt like we had known LeAnn and Peter for decades.  Made me wish that we lived so much closer than a six hour drive away.

The rest of the drive home was uneventful, but passed quickly as Mom looked up Top Ten lists of extremely surprising facts on South Carolina, scariest films ever and best comedies.  When we made it home, Mom took off for her house to see Grandma Eloise.  There was no food in our house, so we took off for our favorite Mexican restaurant where the kids made a Daddy and iPhone samich.

Roadtrips are fun, but there's no place like home.  :)

A Road Trip and Another Wedding

Saturday morning, Kelley got up bright and early to drive to Raleigh with her Mom.  Mom's long-time boss and friend John Michael was getting married late in the afternoon.  This was such a beautiful location for a wedding.

I loved the music they chose to play for their first dance and the dances afterwards.  Much of it was country or folk music and all songs that they have burned on CD's for each other when one of them was traveling while they were engaged.

 I think this was the first time Mom had seen John in over a year.  The hug was long overdue.  As was this marriage and John's happiness. 

Big hugs were due for her friend Rhonda, too.

I don't think cutting the cake was as easy as they had expected it to be.  :)

The DJ's lights made the dance floor look pretty cool.

Their chariot in waiting.

Complete with spikes on the Just Hitched sign.  Awesomeness.

Roadtrip to Jacksonville

We got home late Monday afternoon and made a quick trip to Target after unloading the van and starting a load of laundry so we could get food for dinner.  The night was filled with thunder and lightning storms.  We had originally planned on getting up early, but after a sleepless night we decided to sleep in as long as we could and take our time getting up, ready and out of the house.

While being better rested was much needed, we ended up getting into Jacksonville much later than we had planned. 

The kids had fun running in the sand and getting their feet wet.

They didn't wade into the water very far, but still jumped the waves as they rolled in.

 Chloe worked on building a sand castle.

And Owen wrote messages in the sand to us about how much he loved us.

Between the time, the chill and all of the jellyfish that had washed ashore, we left after only 30-45 minutes on Jacksonville Beach.  We headed to a restaurant called Salt Life for dinner and Todd was really the only one who ate.  He ordered a low country boil and thought the crab legs, shrimp, sausage, corn and potatoes in Cajun seasoning were quite tasty.  The kids were grumpy about leaving the beach so soon and Kelley still didn't feel up to eating, but it was a nice restaurant close to the beach.  Kelley's friend Suzie met us there with her sister and a friend who had just driven into town.  Even though Suzie had been busy packing and getting ready for her trip to New York City with her sister and friend to hear her son play his instrument (drums?) at Rockefeller Center with his college, she still found time to bake some killer banana bread for us.

The kids loved the hotel room once we checked in because there was a bedroom and then a living area with a couch and a little kitchenette.  We told them to sleep fast because we'd be leaving early the next morning for Disney World.

Driving Home

We headed out early Sunday morning and made good time coming home.  This rest area had plenty of room for the kids to run around.

Owen took off running without waiting for his sister or me.

It didn't take Chloe long before she realized she could play by the lake if she ran, too.

They found long sticks and rocks to wave around and throw in the lake.

I'm not sure what kind of tree this was, but it looked like little tomatoes grew on it.

The kids cooperated and let me take pics of them together on the bridge.

Chloe hung around longer to cheese it up for me while her brother was playing in the leaves.

Then she joined in the fun and searched for the largest leaves she could find.

They worked together to make big piles of leaves.

To jump in AND to kick around.

Todd drove the last couple hour stretch home while I got to kick up my feet and take pictures of the sky in the side rear view mirror :)

We Petted a Zebra!

We decided late Saturday night to take a drive up to Dahlonega on Sunday afternoon to visit a wildlife nature preserve.  It was about an hour and a half drive, which we thought by driving North might earn us temps a few degrees cooler.  We were wrong.  :)  It was just as hot.  But in spite of the heat, we had sooooo much fun!

Owen brought his Pokemon book along to organize and re-sort.

Chloe wanted to keep the chocolate doughnut icing on her face for an afternoon snack, but we were mean parents and made her clean her face before we got out of the car.

Once at the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve, we were greeted by zoo and World Famous Zedonk signs.

Here is the baby zedonk.  She was so cute.  She had striped legs just like my daughter has several days each week!

The baby was very sleepy.  Mom stayed close to her baby at all times.

Meet Dad.  Dad has already been introduced to a new donkey, who is keeping him company in the neighboring pasture to Mom #1 and the baby.  Before we left, he let out a loud, long whinny.  But it was nothing like the whinny of a horse.  It was almost like fingernails on a chalkboard.  One of the strangest sounds I have ever heard!

Here is the South end of Dad traveling North (thanks Chris!).  I love how perfect the stripes are as they wrap around his back end!!!

The kids were able to pet the new hopeful momma donkey, but Dad didn't have time to stand still for attention.  He wanted to be admired from afar.

On our way to the next pasture, Owen was excited to see all of this bamboo.  It was so pretty.  Before we left, he managed to find a piece of dried bamboo and happily brought it home.

The preserve had several emus.  Can I tell you that emus creep me out?  At first glance, I think they are ostriches and love the long legs leading up to this massive body before another equally long and skinny neck lead upwards.  But the face and the eyes and the crazy hair/feathers on top?  Creeps me out.  It was breathing through it's mouth (probably because it was so hot!), so the beak was open and we could hear it breathing.  It looked at me with plotting eyes, like it wanted to eat me for a snack and wouldn't feel the least bit guilty afterwards.  I had no desire to try to pet this guy.  I just knew he would take a finger!

This big fat billy goat was in the same pasture as the emu, the fluffy feathered goose and a few horses.  It was really neat seeing such different animals all thrown together in one living space.  I love goats (aside from the fact I constantly refer to the girl child as a goat), I think they make the coolest sounds.

I loved the big fluffy feathers on the back of this goose.  She was pretty, although slightly dirty.  I have a history of being chased by geese, so I didn't try to pet her.  Sad, considering my Dad nicknamed me Goose as a child and still calls me that.  I'm kin, you silly goose!  Don't chase me!

The horses let us pet them as they ambled around.  They were really hoping we were going to feed them, but all we had were a couple of slim jims (which the kids discovered they liked this weekend) and that just seemed wrong to off a little petrified cow to a horse.

There was this one peacock who refused to pose or give me a face shot.  He also did not cooperate upon request to fan out his tail.  Unruly guy!  But aren't the blues and teals just gorgeous??

We took a little break to play on the playground and be monkeys.

Can you tell Chloe picked her outfit today?  She was adamant the ballerina tutu go on TOP of the dress.

She is such a little monkey and has been my little dangle, hanging from counter tops, door knobs and anything else that would hold her feet (or her head) off the ground.

When Owen saw this lizard, he yelled at me to take their picture together and then separate.  It is rare he wants me to take a picture because he'd prefer I put the camera down already and just play with him.

In case you are wondering what a Kindergartner smile looks like, this is what you get when you ask for it.

KJ, this one is for you!  There were about eight of these beautiful cockatoos in a large fenced in area together.  One of them kept telling me "Hello!".  There were McCaws close by and they wanted to talk about Crackers.  I suppose they were hungry, but we couldn't get close enough to offer them any crackers.

The McCaws were guarded by two of these guys.  They didn't stop walking (and rather fast, I might add!) for the ten minutes we stood watching.  The snappers paced 20 feet, back and forth non-stop.  I wondered if they were nervous, or just health conscious and wanting to keep up their muscle tone to support their big shells.  They were not quite as big as my friend who came to visit a couple of months ago.

Here is the sweet girl who let us pet her.  The whole time I couldn't stop thinking to myself "I'm petting a ZEBRA!!!"  Who gets to do that?  Her hair felt the same to me as a horse.  She was a sweaty girl because it was so hot.  She just wanted some loving and made it easy to rub her ears and her face from her forehead to her nose.  I didn't want to leave.  But there was coughing and shuffling coming from a very hot and sweaty husband letting us know it was time to walk, if only to create our own breeze.

The kids were thrilled to pet her and Chloe offered her Slim Jim to this zebra.  I told her I thought that might not be such a good idea.

She also wanted to offer her Slim Jim to this miniature donkey on the opposite field.

They also had a grizzly bear, who appeared to be very hot.  His mouth hung open and that poor bottom lip just stuck out even farther as he breathed through his mouth in our heat.  He was the favorite animal for both of my kids, but I just felt sorry for him.  So much fur, so hot and no companion.  Sigh.

There were two white tigers in a large field surrounded by lots of chain link fencing.  The female charged one end and stood on alert when two Harley's pulled into the parking lot nearby.  She must have thought their roaring was a challenge to her territory.

We stopped at the outlet malls on the way home.  The kids got into reading a children's Christmas book about Santa's Evil Twin written by Dean Koontz.

Owen and I had fun taking self portraits while Chloe played on the playground.

Driving home after walking around at the preserve aaaaand the outlet mall made for two very hot kids.  At least they knew what to do about it! :)