Family Vacation pt 1

Clay and I have always taken a vacation the week before tax season starts which almost always also coincides with my birthday.  For one reason or another we hadn't actually left town for the past two years so I was super pumped to be going back to the mountains this year.  The only problem was that the Leadership Lowndes retreat was that weekend we planned on leaving and I am on the board so I was supposed to attend and it is in Jekyll Island the completely opposite direction from the mountains.  So we compromised by going to Jekyll Friday night and leaving from there on Saturday to head to Blue Ridge.  It added about 2 extra hours to our trip on Saturday which concerned me because Gavin is not known for his patience in the car.  We decided to stop off in Senoia to see some friends who had just had a baby which gave us a nice break before heading up the mtn.  Clay had been checking the weather religiously for two weeks prior to us leaving and the best forecast for snow we got was like .25 inches.  He stopped checking about two days before we left which is why we had no idea about the snow storm that was heading straight for us until our friends in Senoia asked about it.

Anyway our trip over to Jekyll on Friday went fairly well although we had left Valdosta and were on our way to Lakeland before we realized we had left the pack n play at home, which was an absolute necessity if we didn't want to share our bed with a wiggly almost 8 month old.  Other than that everything went fine and thankfully Gavin slept most of the way.  Clay and Gavin hung out in the hotel room while I was at my board meeting and then we shared a romantic dinner of Chick fil A by the bath tub while Gavin splashed in the water :-).  The retreat is always held at the Jekyll Island Club which is super nice if you have never been.  Thankfully we were put in one of the cottages which meant we didn't have to lug all our crap up too many flights of stairs.



The problem with were we stayed is that 1. there was no "other" room to put Gavin in so we had to be SUPER quiet once we put him to bed.   2. You can make the tiniest sound and it reverberates down the hall, so every time Gavin coughed, I am pretty sure that everyone in every other room in the cottage heard it.  We finally got him up around 4 and tried to put him back in the bed with us hoping he would fall back asleep and so could we.  Did not happen, he thought it was great fun to be in the bed with  us and took full advantage of having us right there to play with.  Eventually he did fall back asleep but I was so worried I would roll over on him or something I don't think I ever did get back to sleep. Oh well we left early Saturday a.m. before anyone walked out of their rooms to glare at us for all the racket we had made.

Next stop Senoia!  we had hoped to get there right around lunch but we hit a few traffic snags along the way so we didn't get there until after 1. So we were all VERY ready to be out of the car for a little while.  I drove most of the way so that if Gavin needed feeding or entertaining Clay could handle it since I get REALLY car sick, REALLY easy.

Me and Griffin, I can hardly believe Gavin was ever this tiny.  It amazed me how quickly I had forgotten how to handle a baby that size.  I kept worrying I would break him when I tried to burp him :-)


Anna holding Gavin and big brother to Griffin, Jackson


Once Anna had filled us in on the inclement weather we were facing we decided we better get packed back up and on our way since we now needed to stop at Walmart and pick up lots of supplies just in we were stuck in the house for a few days.  We stopped in East Elijay at their Wal-mart to stock up and also see if we could find Gavin a snow suit or at least a heavier jacket.  We lucked out because they had both and they were only $10 and $15 dollars!!  There were millions of people there buying everything you could possibly need.  I should have taken a picture of the bread isle.  There were literally maybe 20 loaves left on the entire isle.  After we left there we headed to the cabin where we arrived safe and sound.  We stay in the same place every time which is a beautiful cabin on the side of a mountain with access to the river.  I am hoping to go up there again this year but during the summer so we can enjoy the water and all the outdoor activities.

We woke up Sunday to freezing temperatures but no snow yet so we got packed up in the car to head to town and pick up a few more supplies.



You can kind of see the river in this picture