Our Crazy-Long Vacation

I think I have finally unwound from our vacation. Vacation with toddlers is a lot of work, and not much of a vacation for parents. But I don’t know if I’d ever want to go without them. We were gone a total of 18 days. We left Bentonville late in the evening on Friday, June 29 and arrived in Atlanta early Saturday afternoon. We spent a week in Atlanta and headed to St. George Island, Florida for another week. This was Leighton’s first and Kathleen’s second trip to the beach. We didn’t go last year because Joshua’s baseball team had us traveling nearly every weekend that spring and then went to the World Series in Dallas, Texas for a week. We didn’t have the time or money for another week-long trip, which a trip to the beach requires if you’re making a 12+ hour drive.

Our family at a Rangers game, July 2011

Kathleen and Joshua

Six Flags Over Texas, July 2011

Week No. 1

Our week in Atlanta was tons of fun. The girls got to spend a lot of time with their grandparents and their cousins, Bobby and Patrick. We really try to take advantage of having grandparents around to babysit for us when we go to Atlanta because we rarely hire sitters at home. But it’s always been that way, even before the girls were born. Joshua came to live with us when he was four, and I can count on one hand the number of times he had a hired babysitter: once for a friend’s wedding, once for our anniversary, once to go to the Kentucky Oaks, and once (the night before Kathleen was born) to see a friend’s band play. Since Kathleen was born, I think we’ve had a babysitter twice. We went to the Georgia/Arkansas football game in 2009 when she was about nine months old. That was a 12+ hour gig and the first time she had ever stayed with someone besides a family member. She went to my friend, Shelly’s, house and her daughter watched her. It was the first time I had really gone out and done anything without her. I really tied one on that day. In early 2011, right after Leighton was born, we went to the Georgia/Arkansas basketball game in with the Pankaus. Leighton went with us and Kathleen stayed home with another friend’s daughter. Now, Joshua is now old enough to stay with the girls so we can go and grab a bite to eat by ourselves every once in awhile, but we only do that after Leighton is already in bed, and we’ve only been doing that for a couple of months now.

Arkansas v. Georgia

Fayetteville, AR, September 2009

So when the grandparents visit or when we go to Atlanta, we take advantage of that and we go out just about every night after the girls are in bed, or are at least ready for bed. We both have lots of people we want to see in such a short amount of time. It is really hard to spend any amount of quality time with anyone, although I feel like I did to get to spend a good amount of time with my sister during this trip. We also really tried to do some things alone with Joshua, just to acknowledge that it’s hard for him to no longer be the only child and to also take on a lot of added responsibility with two baby sisters. Saturday night, after we arrived, Geoff and Joshua went to see the Rome Braves play, and I went with a group of ladies to see Magic Mike and then out for dinner and drinks at Taco Mac afterwards. It was a lot of fun. Dana and Adrienne Bruce came along, and I got to spend some good time hanging with my high school show choir buddy, Amanda, and my cheerleading buddy, Suzanne.

On Sunday, I spent the afternoon at Northside Hospital and met David Christopher, my BFF Adrienne’s new baby. My timing was perfect because I also got to see her brother, John, and her parents, who moved down to Florida a couple of years ago. I love those people. I just love them to pieces, and I hate that I don’t  get to see them anymore when we visit. That evening, we went to my dad’s to hang out. Bobby, was there, so Kathleen was really happy about that. Karen and I were supposed to scrapbook, but we ended up just going to Michael’s. I wasn’t organized enough and by the time we got over there, it was too late to start any project. I had not planned on David's arrival, and my visit with Adrienne cut into the time I had already scheduled with Karen.

The kids having fun at Dub-Dad and Mimi's house.

That night, I took the girls down to Dana’s so she could watch them the next day while we took Joshua whitewater rafting on the Ocoee.

That was a fun day! We was able to get outside and enjoy Mother Nature, while I relived a little bit of my youth. Joshua had a blast! Afterwards, we decided to visit the Mayfield Dairy. We didn’t get there in time to take the tour, but we ate some ice cream!

Just for fun, here is a picture from 1999 taken at the same rapid.

I'm driving!

On Tuesday, we had to go downtown to the Peachtree Road Race Expo to pick up our race numbers. My very first friend, Chrissy, sells Sweaty Bands, so she was there and we got to visit for a few minutes. We stopped at Philly Connection for dinner on the way home. Yum!

On Wednesday, the 4^th of July, we ran the Peachtree. This was not only my first 10k, but also the first race I had ever run. I finished in an hour and a half. Definitely not a great time, but not bad considering that I wasn’t prepared physically. I’ll write more about that some other time.  Notice that Joshua and Geoff were in Time Groups D and F. I was in Y. They had finished the race before I even started, so thanks to them for waiting for me for so long.

After the race, I was wiped out and pretty much useless for the rest of the day, but we went to my mother’s for a family BBQ and fireworks. I was probably not a lot of fun, but the kids got to hang out with their cousins some more.

Fourth of July Fun at Me-Maw and Poppy Jack's

On Thursday night, Geoff and I babysat Patrick while Dana and Jacob went to a Braves game for a friend’s birthday. On Friday, Alycia and I went to Adrienne’s house to visit with her and the baby again. That night, Geoff and I just took it easy. I think we may have gone to Taco Mac late night and regretted it because we were so tired. Saturday was spent on Lake Allatoona with my mom and Jack. It was the girls' first time on a boat. Afterwards, I took all the kids to dinner at Cazadores with Dad and Karen while Geoff went to visit a friend in the hospital. After the kids were all in bed, Geoff and I met up with his friend from college for a beer.

Kathleen did some low-speed tubing on Mommy's lap

Joshua went a little faster (and higher!)

Week No. 2

Needless to say, by the time we reached the beach the next evening, we were ready for some serious relaxation. We left Atlanta at about noon on Sunday and got to St. George just before 7:00. After we unloaded the truck, we headed out to the beach before we went to dinner at the Blue Parrot. They have the best Dreamscicle frozen drink.

I woke up early on Monday and bought a few groceries for breakfast and lunch. After breakfast, we headed to the beach. I was only able to stay out there with the girls for short periods of time. We could never manage to get out there before 10:30, so I really had to watch the sun. Also, Leighton naps at about noon, so that brought me in for several hours every day. We ate out again that night at Captain Snooks in Eastpoint, which is on the mainland. On Tuesday, we drove to Port St. Joe to go to Piggly Wiggly for our big shopping trip. We had a late lunch at a restaurant at the marina and then stopped in Cape San Blas on the way back. That is where we want to buy vacation property…one day. That day, we hit the beach later in the afternoon. The next couple of days were spent just playing on the beach and relaxing.

However, on Thursday morning, I received a call from my sister. She told me that Karen’s mother, Julia, had passed away early that morning. Julia was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the end of May. She was told that if she did nothing, she had about six months. The plan was to undergo chemotherapy to shrink the tumor and then surgically remove it. However, Julia didn’t tolerate the chemo therapy very well and decided not to continue. Her health took a downturn while we were in Atlanta, but I thought it was a minor setback. I was wrong. Geoff, Joshua and I were so shocked and saddened that she was gone. She was wsimply a lovely woman and someone that we all admired. She had great artistic talent and was wise beyond her years. I will really miss her, and I wish that I had made a better effort to see her while we were in Atlanta, but I didn’t want to be pushy since she hadn’t been feeling well.

Julia and Karen

Julia and her own three girls.

I love this photo

Friday was a rainy day. Between thunderstorms we went to the lighthouse, but we weren’t able to go up because it had been lightning. To pass the time, we went over to Eastpoint to visit the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve. It had several aquariums so the kids could see fish and turtles, a really informative and interesting exhibit about the history of Apalachicola Bay, and lots of animal specimens for the kids to look at.

We took the dogs to the beach that night. This was the only time they saw the ocean this year. It’s a hassle to take them out there now that we have the girls to keep up with as well. Azul doesn’t really care to be out there anyway. Brandeis loves it, but he’s the more rambunctious of the two. He’s the reason it’s a hassle.

Our last day, Saturday, was very windy and the surf was very rough. Luckily, the tide had come up far enough to create tidal pools. It was the most fun the girls had all week. The depth was perfect for both of them. They were also able to catch some tiny fish and put them in a bucket of water to observe.

Sorry about the audio on this. It's very windy!

We ate out that night after taking some family pictures on the beach. The girls were both so exhausted. Kathleen cried and cried and when we finally got her to stop, Leighton started crying. We ended up taking our dinner to go and ate after we put them down. We bought floating lanterns to release into the sky. We had six of them, so we had one for each of us, plus one (the blue one) we planned to release to honor Julia. We managed to release one lantern on Saturday night, but it was much too windy. So, we decided to bring them home and do it another time. There is a serious drought here in Northwest Arkansas, so it has to wait until we get some good rain.

I should add that I did manage to cook a little bit while we were at the beach. One night, I made baked shrimp scampi and grouper with roasted tomatoes, capers and feta.

Baked Shrimp Scampi:

http://www.jasonandshawnda.com/foodiebride/archives/1070

Roasted Grouper:

http://chowbellabycassie.blogspot.com/2010/06/roasted-grouper-with-tomatoes-and.html

(The only thing I did differently with the grouper is that I sprinkled some feta on top of the tomato mixture before putting in the oven. It was really good.)

Later in the week, I fixed crab cakes and shrimp n grits. I actually planned to make my own crab cakes, but the guy we buy seafood from was selling some that were already made and he said they were pretty good, so I bought those instead. Totally worth the $3 a piece! I did make a remoulaude sauce to go with them. The shrimp and grits I have made before and wrote about it on Facebook some time ago. I actually combined the two following recipes:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/lemon-garlic-shrimp-and-grits-recipe/index.html

http://www.closetcooking.com/2012/02/blackened-shrimp-on-kale-and-mashed.html

I use the first recipe as my base recipe, but it doesn't have a cream sauce. I love cream sauce and think a shrimp and grits recipe needs cream sauce.So, I use the cream part of the second recipe, minus the andouille. I also borrowed the kale idea from the second recipe, but substitute sauteed spinach instead. Writing about it makes me want to cook that stuff again now that we’re home, but I know the seafood won’t be as good or nearly as fresh, so I haven't.

The drive home was a long one. I wanted to try to go back to Georgia to attend Julia’s funeral, but we just weren’t organized enough to leave on Saturday night to get there in time. It took us two full days of driving to get back to Arkansas. We decided to take a slightly longer route so Joshua could see parts of the country he’s never seen. We took 98 along Florida’s gulf coast to Pensacola, where we picked up I-10 all the way to LaFayette, Louisiana, where we turned North. We tried to get Geoff to take a side trip to New Orleans for dinner, but he wouldn’t. We totally should have because we got stuck in some traffic and ended up stopping in Baton Rouge to eat (Cracker Barrel, of course) and to spend the night. We had some trouble finding a hotel that allowed dogs. We stopped at three or four hotels before stopping at a LaQuinta. The room was $115 a night, but they allowed dogs. Geoff and I were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. I expected it to be dumpy, but the hotel was fairly new and very clean. The linens were nice and the beds were comfortable. The breakfast had lots of choices. When we woke up Monday morning, we first drove through LSU to look at the campus and to show Joshua the athletic facilities. Then we hit the road and arrived home just after midnight. I need to give kudos to Geoff, who did ALL of the driving down to Florida from Atlanta and both days on the way back home to Arkansas. He also did most of the driving from Arkansas to Atlanta.

*If you are still reading this, this, thanks so much for taking the time to do so! We did a lot of stuff!*