In My Mind I'm Gone to Carolina... (part 1)

After a LONG trip (10 hours, to be exact), we made it to my Grandma's house at 2am. We stopped 3 times so I could nurse Adelaide; apparently stopping that much adds on 2 hours to my traveling time... usually we get there in 8. On Thursday, we played with Cameron and Caleb. Alas, Cameron is finally too big for the Pack-n-Play, so there could be no pinto bean party this trip. He made himself useful by lifting the 3 smaller kids in and out of the Pack-n-Play and moaning and groaning about it. :) Adelaide had her big southern debut, meeting Great Grandma, Thomas, Elizabeth, Josh, Papaw, Mamaw, and Dillon (Mamaw's grandson). Sadie and Josie also "re-met" him, and Sadie was not impressed. It takes a while for her to warm up to some people, and he was being a typical boy (he also was trying to be "the boss," as she put it, and she did NOT go for that at all!). He asked her to be his girlfriend, and she just looked at him like he was crazy, then she said, "No, I do not." Josie said, "I will! For 2 weeks!" Then we all swam in the pool; Josie was a hit in her "Superman" floatie suit. Sadie got mad at Papaw because he squirted her in the face with a watergun and she flat out refused to believe that it was an accident. Was she TICKED!!! She finally got over it and decided that squirting HIM in the face was payback enough... and also a good time. That night after I got all the kids in bed, Daddy picked me up from Grandma's house and we had a Father/Daughter date, which was fabulous... I think it's probably been at least 8 years since we've been able to go out by ourselves and just sit there and talk. I loved it!

On Friday, Grandma showed the girls her "Moonbloom" flowers, which were right up Sadie's alley. Anything having to do with the moon or stars are her favorite things at the moment. Then we went up to Angela's house to play and swim (the girls are so brave when she's around...seems like they trust her in the water more than they trust me...?) Josie pigged out on fresh peaches, then we went back and fed the birds with Great Grandma. We had supper with Papaw at the Japanese place, then walked at the park and played on the playground. Papaw thought it was funny when he was pushing Josie on the swing and she counted all the way up to "Eleventeen!" Sadie enjoyed watching the tennis players, and they both pretty much got disgustingly filthy in the gravel/ashes on the walking trails and in the playground. When we got back home and I put them in the bathtub, they streamed dirt all over the place. Yuck! After they went to bed Mama, Nettie, and I played cards with Sharon... I forgot how much fun it is to play Rummy!

On Saturday, the girls got their wish and finally got to go play with Kimmie, Noah, and Dalton at Louis and Brenda's house. I'm telling you, they play the "I'm Noah. You're Kimmie! Mommy is Dalton!" game all the time. It's so funny... anytime they're fighting about something, Jesse will say, "I'm Noah!" and it totally distracts them so they forget what they were fighting about. Anyway (I'm distracted myself, now!) we went over there and played in the pool and goofed around for half the day. Brenda was having a yard sale, which Josie was thrilled to see (she loves yard sales) and she also has a huge stash of UNMONITORED juice boxes in the fridge on the screened in porch. What better place could there possibly be? Louis gave me a deal on a picnic table that he built, and Don offered to drive it home on the back of his truck for me. It's sitting out on my deck now, waiting to be stained! We went home for naps then over to Thomas and Elizabeth's house for the Sunday School pool party (do you notice a pool theme yet?). The girls have no fear now that they have had a)swimming lessons - Sadie and b) the Supersuit - Josie. They jumped right in! Sadie hurt her butt when she jumped so she gave it up and played with her cousin Taylor OUTSIDE of the pool. Then we all rode the golf cart with Josh, and somehow Josie got her feet stained all bloody red. It was the weirdest thing... we figured she must've stomped some Koolaid somewhere along the way. We finally got to meet Bayleigh, Natasha and Britt's baby who is 2 weeks older than Adelaide. She is so cute! She looks like a little Kewpie doll. The only thing cuter than the two of those babies is the two of them TOGETHER!
That night, Sadie said, "Hey. I want my Daddy." I asked if they wanted to call him and talk to him, but Josie said, "NO! I want to SEE HIS FACE."