Sandwiched between Alabama and South Carolina

It started with a 19-hour-long car trip. A friend of mine was in town to visit relatives and say goodbye to an ailing one. After 10 or so days of introducing her daughter to extended family and friends, she hopped in a car with us, headed due southeast. I can't say I was excited about the journey ahead of us. Her 3 month old hates being in the car. She just kind of hates not being held by anyone. (Luckily, she's unbelievably cute to make up for it. See photo.) We left Chicago at 5:30 am our time. (6:30am GA time). We didn't get to our final destination until midnight GA time. It wasn't necessarily a bad trip. No major baby breakdowns until right after we crossed into GA. Plus, there's all the nice scenery.


We got in late, but everyone at the Perry Household was ready and waiting to see us. We introduced them all to my son. (We'll pretend that my son was the only reason they were up at that ungodly hour, and forget anything having to do with the g-d well! :D )

The first full day we were there was Patrick's 15th birthday. I won't even get into how weird it is that he's almost grown. I babysat him. He's my first little summer buddy.

I had lots of fun with James, and it seemed like he had lots of fun with us and with Dexter. He's growing up so fast too. Those boys are my practice babies. I got to help raise them and I will be forever grateful for that. Especially when I can tell them to make a crazy face and it comes out like this:

How can you not love these guys?

There was much running around and getting things done. I took over 300 pictures over 4 days. Not all of them are gems, but they are all HERE. Check 'em out. Tell me if they're good. Even after taking 300 pictures, I can still think of about a million more I should've taken. My mind wanders to the million I'll never get to take. It wanders and wonders about the missed pictures with those now gone. My son will never get pot liquor from collards from his grandaddy. He'll never know the house on Maple Dr, or the creek behind it.

But enough of that...

I went on a hiking adventure with James. I got to visit the trail I ran/walked when I lived in Georgia. We were Dr. Grant and his assistant keeping an eye out for dinosaurs ("You know, like in that movie, Jurassic Park? Do you remember it Laurie?") We found the tiniest frogs I've ever seen and I got a good picture of the chimney in the middle of the woods.
As always, I got to eat good food and get some grocery shopping done. (I don't know what I'd do if I was in GA and didn't go help with the grocery shopping. Another common thing with Georgia visits is them going by before I know it. Luckily Dexter slept better than he has in months. I was rested enough to stay up until 2am talking most nights. In amidst the well trouble, there was a lovely little visit wedged in. My only regret is not being able to take Patrick to see Watchmen. I bought him a video game and lunch at 5 Guys, so hopefully he'll forgive me. :D If he doesn't, next time I give him a mohawk I'll make it crooked. :D