The last couple of weeks have been crazy for us. For mine and Mama’s birthdays, Cecilia gave us a weekend trip to the Amelia Island Ritz Carlton. The last weekend in September, Mom and I left after work on Friday and made the drive down to meet Cecilia. I have to be honest with you…when I got in the car to leave that afternoon I was less than excited about my relaxing trip with the main reason being that I had decided to leave Brittain at home so we could actually have A RELAXING WEEKEND. But, it was all good when we pulled up to this:
Plus, we got to do fun things like this:
and this (which is the 3 of us doing a cartwheel, in case you can’t tell):
The weekend was incredible and just what we all needed…especially since Brittain and I left 2 days later and made the drive to Jacksonville to visit Aunt CC and Uncle Matthew and get one last trip to the beach in before cold weather moves in.
Despite the (1) 5-hour drive with a fairly newly potty-trained 2-year old who seems to refuse to use the potty in any public restroom, (2) risking our lives for long stretches of time because we were squeezed between an 18-wheeler and cement blocks (due to LOTS of roadwork), we made it the place that I’m sure Brittain thinks of as pure heaven.
There wasn’t much sun time to be had, but there was plenty of visiting. And somehow I left there having taken over 200 pictures. Don’t worry, I only chose a few to include here.
I love it when a birthday is approaching because I know it means the family getting together. Dan thinks this is hilarious because he says we’re all together all the time anyway. Maybe he’s partially right about this, but there’s something about getting together to celebrate something specific.
As an adult, birthdays are certainly not what they used to be, but I love even the low-key ones that we now have. Mom and I always get to blow out our candles together, and I love that one moment as we close our eyes and make a wish for the coming year.
It took a little more coordination this year with Cecilia and Matt now living in Jacksonville, but we pulled it together so that everyone could be here to celebrate, even if it was just for a short time. Cecilia even surprised us and extended her stay through Wednesday. I’m sure Brittain thought that life couldn’t get any better…and I felt the exact same way.
Here is the letter we found on the fridge after Aunt CC left:
A few weeks ago on a Saturday, Brittain and I woke up extremely bored. Dan was at work and as we sat in the kitchen and ate breakfast, I could feel both of us looking around thinking, “this is going to be a boring day.” My friend Amanda recently came up and took her daughter, Kyla Rose to Noah’s Ark in Locust Grove. If you’re not familiar with this place, it’s a non-profit rehabilitation center for animals, and also a group home for children from birth to 18 years. Since we haven’t taken Brittain to the zoo yet, I felt like this was a great opportunity to get her feet wet. I called Mimi and Aunt Su Su to come along, so when they arrived we spent an hour and a half loading up the car and then headed over to Locust Grove.
I’m sure we were quite a sight as we got out of the car and unloaded everything we would be taking on the trail with us. Fortunately, Amanda gave me the advice to bring a stroller. The stroller ended up not only being Brittain’s “throne” as we walked along the paths, but it also carried her potty chair in the event she needed to take a potty break along the way. And, in case you’re wondering, we did indeed have to stop for a potty break. As if the potty in the stroller didn’t cause us to stand out in the crowd enough, we also took a moment in a semi-wooded area to let Brittain tee tee. Trying to make sure she had some privacy, here were 3 women hovered around a 2-year old on a small, white potty chair, cheering loudly when we heard the sound of the tinkling.
Overall, we had a great time, but you would have never known it based on what we looked like as we walked back to our cars. Drenched with sweat and not an ounce of saliva in our mouths, we could barely put one foot in front of the other by the time we reached the end of the trail. We decided that a cooler, more Fall-ish type of day would perhaps be a better choice in the future.
