I took the kids up to Georgia the weekend before last to visit my brother Dave and his daughter Addie. It was a great weekend filled with cats, foliage, cool temperatures and lots of hiking around. But it wasn't all just fun and games, it was also educational. Here is what I learned...
1. No one beats Dave in naming cats.
May I introduce you to Frisky Two Times (left cat) and Cherries Waffles Tennis (right cat).
Growing up we always thought the name "Spatula" was just about as creative as you could get. Clearly, we were ignorant fools.
2. For fear of extreme embarrassment I will not elaborate too much on this, but no one, and I mean
NO ONE, is capable of passing more disgusting gas than Luke. If you are going to be traveling with him in an enclosed space of any kind, you should probably make sure you have a living will, just in case.
3. Going to a pumpkin patch in actual cool, fall weather makes it 71% more pumpkiny. I won't lie, if you are lucky enough to get to do this every year, I'm a little jealous.
4. It takes Luke a long time to get over you NOT buying him a balloon animal from a creepy homeless street vendor.
5. Dave works for an amazing company. It's true. It's all true. The Nerf gun wars, the flying monkeys, the free beverages, the free food, the free candy, the ping pong table- it's all true. We got the tour of his "workplace" and even bumped into the CEO while we were there (who so graciously offered me any of the "libations" that were located in the company fridges). It's a sweet gig and he is dang lucky.
6. People will make jerky out of anything.
7. The word "beach" in north Georgia means something completely different than it does in Florida.
However, it was still amazingly beautiful at this little "beach." It's like Dave said, sometimes kids just need some time to stand on a dock and throw acorns into abandoned canoes.
And here is a terribly average picture taken with my camera phone's panorama setting:
8. And speaking of acorns,
Georgia acorns are obviously on some kind of steroids.
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| Wussie FL acorn on left, Incredible Hulk GA acorn on the right |
And I thought my car was in danger under the oak trees
here! Good grief, those things could take out my entire front windshield.
9. If Luke ever wants a pet horse, I will buy him a Great Dane instead because they are practically the same thing.
In Luke's hand you will also notice his souvenir, which is a pencil made from a real stick, with the bark still on. It's so naturey!
10. I need a DSLR camera. I am now going to post the rest of the pictures from our trip and I am sure you can pick out which ones were taken with Dave's fancypants camera....
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| Horses in Georgia wear hats. Who knew? |
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| Easy. It's Kinetic sand, not the litter box. |
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| Way down yonder on the Chattahoochie |
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| The Three Musketeers |
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| It did get down to 48 degrees at night, so the fireplace had to come on or my children could have died |
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| Do they look like cousins? |
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| Anna Ruby Falls. Cindy was SO excited about getting her picture taken. |
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| Hoodies! In October! |
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| What a stud. |
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| On to the Falls! |
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| Look at this nature, man! |
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| And though she be young, she be fierce |
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| Great job, Georgia. So beautiful. |
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| Rocks!!! |
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| We found another dog! Imagine that! |
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| Helen,GA. During Octoberfest. Been there, done it. |
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| Carving up the pumpkins |
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| This was about 4 minutes from Dave's apartment |
Here are a few pictures that Cindy took completely by herself:
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| Nice eyebrow action, Luke! |
Not too shabby for a rookie!
And here is one last picture that a very nice man at the falls offered to take for us :)
Cindy? Oh she was already hiking back. Yeah, yeah, it's a waterfall. Wow.
A few months back I noticed that there was a glow in the dark 5K listed on my local Groupon. I thought it would be a good bucket list experience and Cindy could come along with me for the exercise. Having never done one of these quirky-type races I imagined it would be like a 5K while running through some sort of paint car wash. Not exactly the way it works. It's more like walking an untimed 5K on a conveyor belt where you approach the paint sprayers every half a mile and get as much or as little paint as you tell them to spray on you. Which is not to say it wasn't fun, because we had a blast. Cindy was a maniac with the paint. She ran the race just fine and the 50 degree weather didn't really even phase her once we got going. By the end she was covered from head to toe and when she got to church this morning I was quick to notice she still had tons of pink paint on her scalp and a nice collection of neon green paint in her ear. Just so you know, no, it does not come out of your clothes :) It did come out of my spandex running pants, but definitely not anything made of cotton. Or my headband. Or my shoes. But my wedding ring cleaned up nicely. But not my socks. And my phone still has some pink paint in the home button. Yep, it gets EVERYWHERE. A bunch of other friends from church signed up for the race as well and were so kind to share most of the pictures we took. Overall, it was probably the best $20 "race" I will ever do. Cindy hugged me several times during the night and told me that it was the best night of her life. Food won't motivate her, money won't motivate her, but paint will. Who knew?
