Georgia, Here I Come

*Disclaimer: I worked on this post throughout the week in Georgia. It is extremely long and detailed (I went a little overboard!), so, unless you are a close friend or family member, I would advise not reading it. You may be bored to tears.

Day 1

I barely slept Friday night. My mom thinks it was because I was excited, but I think it was because I was starting to get a cold :). We were up and at 'em at 4 a.m., packing final items, making beds, and getting ready. My mom walked into William's room to wake him up, but he was already awake, talking to himself.

Mom: Are you excited?

William: About what?

Mom: No really, are you excited?

William: About what?

William: Excited about Colorado, Missouri, or Georgia?

Mom: What do you think?

William: Georgia, here I come!

We stopped at QT for a nutritious breakfast of Cheese-Its, Sunchips, and crackers. Once we got to the airport, we went through security.

Security Guard (kidding William): Son, can I please see your drivers license?

William (in all sincerity): Um, I don't have a driver's license. . .

The plane took off around 6 a.m. It was Claire and William's first flight.

William (lifting up the window cover): Look, there's a way out!

Mom: Hey, William, we're in the clouds!

William: Wow, mom, you're a genius! There's a chameleon clouds!

William (looking at the emergency instructions): Woah, we get to slide out the back of the plane!

Mom: We are getting off the same way we came on. If we had to slide off of the plane, we'd be in a bad situation.

William: *Sighs with disappointment*

After riding on the tram to get to baggage claim at the Atlanta airport, we saw Nonna and Poppa waiting for us with lots of hugs and kisses in store. We stopped by Nana's on the way home for an afternoon visit :).



For lunch we had Zaxby's. The best restaurant, like, ever. Never heard of it? Not surprising. You've got to be from the good ole' south. That's the place where there's a major difference between sweet tea and iced tea with sugar.












Finally, we stopped by our aunt and uncle's apartment, and had a pizza pool party. We were worn out by the time we got back to Nonna and Poppa's house.

Day 2

After Mass at our old parish and a service at Nonna and Poppa's church, the family came over to Nonna and Poppa's house to hang out for the afternoon. William played Wii the whole afternoon. I'm pretty sure he's obsessed :). We ate Zaxby's (again) for dinner, and then went to the pool.

When we got back to the house, we found that the air conditioner wasn't working. Nonna and Poppa's friend Robin came over to check it out. Nonna suggested that Poppa put on bug spray before going outside with Robin. In the dim light of the garage, he mistook a bottle of polyurethane for bug spray, and sprayed it all over his legs!

We had planned to go stay at our aunt and uncle's old house, but we figured we would be okay sleeping with fans on. Coincidentally, the power went off while we were watching Wipeout (which William prefers to Spongebob), so Robin wasn't able to fix the air conditioner. Nonna called Georgia power, and they said that there had been multiple power outages in the area and the power should be back on by midnight. William had been repeating an episode of Curious George about a blackout, and we thought he was still repeating when he kept saying over and over, "Oh! Where's Robert?!" Eventually we figured out that he was talking about Robin. I guess he thought Robin could turn the power back on!

Meanwhile, we were all burning up. Atlanta heat is harsh without an air conditioner. We used flashlights and lanterns to light the room.




Eventually, we got so hot, we went to sit out on the porch. Nonna lit candles and we hung out there until the power came back on at 11:30.





William fell asleep, flashlight in hand.



Day 3

After lunch, we went shopping. The kidlets picked out Webkinz at American Greetings.



Then, we went to go see movies at the dollar theater. Mom, my cousin Dalton, and I saw Killers. It was hilarious and super cute! The rest of the group saw Furry Vengeance. Most of them were disappointed to find that the plot was so boring.

Day 4

At 5:30 a.m.,William came into Mom's room, as quiet as a mouse, and leaned into her, tapping his nose on her shoulder. Mom, of couse, was scared to death when she opened her eyes to find a head in her face!

Mom: William, don't scare me like that! Just say my name or at least warn me that you're in the room. What do you want?

William: Um, Blueberry (his Webkinz) has a "fred."

By "fred," he meant "thread." Yes. He woke Mom up so she could cut off a thread from his Webkinz. Alrighty then.

Nonna insisted that the grand kids get their pictures taken, so late that morning, we headed up to the portrait studio. The pictures turned out really cute!







We met up with some old friends at our favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch. Afterward, Aunt Aunnie, Mom, Dalton, and I went shopping while the younger kids went home with Nonna and played Wii. William said, "You can call me Wii-lliam." We ended the afternoon with a trip to the pool.
















Day 5

We had a picnic at our friend's neighborhood pool. We swam for most of the afternoon. We came home and chilled out at Nonna and Poppa's house for the rest of the day. After dinner, we shared funny delights. Our family is extremely weird (you have no idea!) and we entertain each other through our hilarious oddities.

Day 6

We went bowling!









Mom, Poppa, Aunt Aunnie, Dalton, and I went shopping at Kohl's and Belk's so I could look for a new bathing suit (I don't love the ones that I have). Sadly, both stores were picked over in the bathing suit section. We came home, ate dinner, and then went to the pool.

Day 7

The younger kids went to Chuck. E. Cheese's. Luckily, Dalton and I didn't have to go to that . . . ahem . . . wonderful place. Nonna and Poppa took us to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice! I liked it a lot, but I didn't love it simply because that genre of movie is not my favorite. We came home and had an "appetizer dinner." My mom made her famous Bacon Wrap-ups and sausage balls. Here are just a few pictures of the yummy food we had!






Day 8

While Aunt Aunnie and Mom went thrifting, Poppa and I went to Starbuck's and the mall. I believe I have found my favorite coffee. A Starbuck's mocha originally has three pumps of syrup, but I think it's way too sweet. One pump = perfect cup of coffee :). We spent the afternoon at the pool. Dalton and I played tennis in the court that was right next to the pool. We were playing best out of five. He won the first two matches, and I won the next two matches. The final match went back and forth, Deuce, Advantage, Deuce, Advantage, for close to half an hour! I finally won when Dalton hit the ball out of bounds. After dinner, we played Guitar Hero.






Finally, we said our last goodbyes to our aunt, uncle, and cousins. Carter cried the whole time. Julia and Claire, the best of friends, hugged over and over again. We wanted to come home and get back into the groove of things, but at the same time, we never wanted to leave!

Day 9

We went to Mass at our old church again, and then we stopped by Gee and Daney's house for an afternoon visit. It was so good to see them! Claire and Gee discussed American Girls and doll clothes. Gee sews beautiful dresses for American Girls, so Claire described what type of outfit she would like. I played The Office theme song for them. We had a fun time catching up with each other and sharing the latest news! We had delicious grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, followed by ice cream and cookies. Nonna and Poppa came by shortly after noon and drove us to the airport.

The Atlanta airport . . . what can I say? It makes things much more difficult than they have to be. You walk in the doors and feel claustrophobic because the place is packed. You never know how long you'll have to wait in line for security, so you have to come two hours before your flight takes off. They have to recheck your bag because there's a candle in there. They randomly pick innocent moms to go through the x-ray machine. Oh, yeah, a mom in church clothes with three kids is really going to try to try to take explosives on the plane. You have to ride in a tram to get to your gate. They constantly change gate numbers, so you have no idea where your gate really is. The waiting seats are nasty, so look out for your seven-year-old brother that may be tempted to lick them.

We had asked William fifty million times if he needed to use the bathroom before we got on the plane. Of course, right as we were about to take off, he started crying because he has to go. So the flight attendant delayed takeoff and gave him permission to go, meanwhile the people in the isles gave us dirty looks, and my mom was just mortified. Fun, fun, fun.

But all the rigmarole was worth it when we got off the plane, and saw my dad at baggage claim. We had missed him so much, and we all gave him a hug. We concluded the evening with a dinner at Longhorn's Steakhouse. We had a fun time at Georgia, but it was good to get back into the swing of things, enjoying the slower pace and simple joys of everyday life.