Family Vacation: Seeing The Midgetts!!!

We had a fabulous trip to South Carolina planned for our summer time. Since Austin and Ashley were getting married on July 4th, we planned a trip around being able to attend their wedding. On June 30, 2014, Gigi took the kids for awhile so I could get the car packed and finish doing any odds and ends that needed to be done. The kids came home and we did dinner and baths. Alex finally got home around 8:30 and we were able to get on the road by about 9 pm. We headed for South Carolina! We drove to Lexington, KY that night. We took the Taurus because it has such an expansive trunk. We got a $100 set of little TV's for the car. The kids were in heaven. We were packed in tight but we had adequate room. We found a room at a somewhat dumpy hotel in Lexington. They only charged us for part of the night because we didn't get there until 4 am!!! When we woke the kids up to go into the hotel, they were both crying. Charlotte was almost hysterical. Poor baby....

 

We slept until about 8:30 am (so four hours of sleep) and then we got up, got ready and headed toward Greenville, SC. We got to Greenville at about 4 pm. We were so so so excited!!! It'd been a YEAR since we had seen these babes!!!!

 

Our four kids. How beautiful are all four of these kiddos?????

Parker and Gavin.

I have missed these two faces.

Our youngest two.

Sweet, cuddley, CHILL Parker Reed.

They all started wrestling right away. Go figure.

Thank goodness Niki has a massive master bedroom!

All four of them. Sawyer and Parker, Charlotte and Gavin.

Gavin. I have missed his energy. His spunk. His sweetness. I've just missed him.

 

Hahaha.

The four crazies....and Alex. They all played so so well together. No one would ever know that they don't play together every single day.

HAHAHA!

Those baby blues...

That look....

THAT LOOK.

That's his pooping face. HAHA

It's a good look.

Sawyer was a little bit intimidated by all of the chaos in the bathtub. But these three. They were good. They loved it.

That's a bath tub full of water and full of fun!

We had a delicious supper. Niki is an awesome cook!!! Instead of us all going downtown and fighting the kids, we stayed at Niki and Ty's house and just hung out. Tyler had to work late. He finally got home and was able to spend some time with us. He was so excited to see Charlotte and Sawyer together. Last summer we stayed with them for two nights and he loved spending time with the kids then. We were so happy he could be home with us for awhile.

 

It took forever to get the kids to sleep. New place. New excitement. Friends everywhere. But they finally went to sleep. Alex and I were exhausted. We finally went to sleep and slept AMAZING.

 

Niki and Tyler are THE BEST hosts. I mean, they gave the entire Master bed and bath in their house. They slept in shambles on the floor!!! (Or in their spare bedroom. But still.) Such an awesome evening and night. The things we could do if we lived near each other again. Oh how I miss them...

The Four Crazies Reunite Part 4: The Rest Of Our Day

Our plans changed in the middle of the afternoon. Our time with our friends was supposed to end around 5 pm. Mom and Dad were supposed to be there to pick us up and head to downtown Greenville for supper and walking around. However, Mom called and Dad wasn't feeling well. They were going to wait it out and see what they needed to do. Eventually they took him to the Emergency Room in Asheville and they got back to their hotel around 9 pm.

Since our plans changed, we decided to stay another night with our bests and enjoy our time together....

So we sang Happy Birthday and had cupcakes together.

Let's make a mess!!

A perfect little face.

Then we played in the water a bit longer so that we could wash off all of the cupcake mess...and burn a little bit of energy.

She is her mother's daughter... butt crack, carbohydrates, wearing boys clothes.

I LOVE THIS SHOT OF PARKER.

And this shot tells you what it is like to have a "spirited" child. Niki gets it. Charlotte and Gavin are spirited. They are always thinking of their next step. They love big, they scream big, they play big, they fight big. A spirited child with a larger than life personality is an amazing child to have but it is difficult at time as well. I would rather have my crazy, wild, quick to anger child than a boring kid that only wants to sit and watch tv and not do anything. I love that Niki gets it. She understands the tantrums I tell her about...and there is no judgement passed. This is why we work as friends and why our kids work as friends.

(Note that Parker and Charlotte are so unaffected by Gavin being upset. This is our amazing life.)

Also like his mother...

Gavin recovered and the result was this amazing pic. I LOVE IT.

Tyler got home from work and we had supper with them. The kids then all got into the bath tub together. (Sawyer cried a lot so Gavin said it was best if they didn't take baths together anymore.)

Charlotte and Gavin snuggled with Uncle Tyler on the couch and the two younger boys played.

We headed to bed because Gigi was coming to get us around 7:30 the next morning.

Mom came and got us from Greenville and then we headed to pick up Dad at the hotel. By the time we got the rest of everything loaded up, we left Asheville around 10 am and drove back to Illinois (We were in North and South Carolina for 48 hours). We drove straight through. The kids were actually pretty good. They played, sang, cried, ATE A LOT, and we had an OK drive back.

Thank you Niki and Tyler for ALWAYS treating us like family. You always help me out with the kids when we are together. My kids love you like family. We can't wait until our next visit. You are both amazing. I miss you more than you know and I am so thankful to have you both. We love you!!!

A Long Drive and Some Time With Grandma and Grandpa

We spent the beginning of our week preparing for our trip to South Carolina. Adam, Alex's brother, was marrying Adrienne.. a close friend of mine that I met through Adam and Alex. She has been around since before me and even though her and Adam didn't always date, I always knew that they would end up together. Since we would be there for four days and three nights and we would be staying in a hotel, there was PLENTY of stuff to be packed.  Thank goodness for Mary. She came over and helped watch the kids so I could get packed and get stuff done.

She even came over on Wednesday, the day we were leaving, so I could get stuff packed and I could do what I needed to do.

Chalk time is the best!

So, while Alex was at work on Wednesday, I got the car loaded and everything set. We took Mom and Dad's Yukon instead of our Tahoe bc it has a bench seat in the back. That comes in super handy with two small kids. When Alex got home, we got in the car and went and picked up Mom at her house. Mom was able to come with us to help in the car but most importantly she came so that she could help out with the kids. We don't know what we would have done if she wouldn't have been able to come help us out!!

We started the drive around 7:30 pm. We stopped and got Mom her Dunkin Donuts, us McDonalds, and we were able to meet Papa and tell him goodbye. I started the drive and was able to drive through Indiana. Mom drove through most of  Kentucky. I finished Kentucky and some of Tennessee. Mom did the mountains in NC. We stopped and ate at Cracker Barrell in Asheville, NC, then we finished the drive out. Mom finished the drive. We let Alex sleep since he had worked all day the day before and Mom and I are more used to the night time driving.

We got to our hotel in Columbia, The Embassy Suites, and we got checked in. We were up in our room unloaded by 11:30 pm. We got showered, redressed, and headed out to get lunch and run by and see Alex's mom and dad. We got Zaxby's (man we miss that!). We were at their house by around 1:30 pm. They hadn't seen the kids(or us) since January when we were there for Christmas! It had been so long. We ate our lunch and even though it was 100 degrees (seriously) outside, we went outside to see the chickens.

Naturally he found the rake. Anything with a really long handle.

Charlotte loves all animals. Such a sweet soul...

I am pretty sure they were fighting over this. We found out later it is used to rake the chicken poop :)

We went inside to cool off and rehydrate.

He is so cute here!!!

Grandma Jackson painted Charlotte's finger nails and toe nails. Charlotte is in love with finger nail polish right now.

Charlotte was loving it!

How cute is Charlotte in this picture????

Sawyer let Grandma hold him for a few brief moments. Mr. Momma's Boy is not into new people so the pictures had to be snapped quickly.

"Mom, I see you."

We left around 3:30 pm and headed back to the hotel. We stopped at Publix for a few things and we dropped Alex off at Adam and Adrienne's place. He was so excited to see his brother and just hang out. I drove the kids back to the hotel... supposed to be a 10 minute drive. It was 35 minutes. Charlotte screamed and cried the entire time. She had been up since 5 am with no nap. She was just done. I knew we would reach this point. We got back to the hotel around 5 pm. Mom helped me get the kids inside and settled. The kids had been SO GOOD but all good things come to an end right?????

The positive is we made it safe and sound and on time. It is time for a fabulous weekend!!!

Bye Bye Georgia

Well, we spent the rest of February 4th, all of February 5th, and the morning of February 6th packing, cleaning, and organizing. We got all of the kids' rooms packed, most of the toys packed, all but one cabinet of stuff in the kitchen (and it's a big kitchen), most of my room, and just a few odds and ends scattered. We got the entire house cleaned. We made piles for what would be travelling back with us when we made the final move. It was extremely productive. We were on a roll!!!

I loaded up the Tahoe on Wednesday morning. We had a LARGE pile of items to go with us back to Illinois. I took clothes, toys, food, all of Sawyer's feeding stuff, medicine, shoes, coats, wedding stuff, etc... all stuff we might need over the next month. I got it ALL to fit. Barely. One of the funniest parts was when we had the entire car piled up, I realized I had forgotten to pack my hanging up clothes. I had a big a bunch of them hanging out in my closet. The car I went to look for room. It was full. There was no room for anything else... just us humans.  But somehow, I found room. I have no idea how. 

We then loaded up.

Mom had her corner of the world in the very back.

The front seat was full. So full that I could barely see over the stuff to see the mirror.

Sawyer was packed in.

And happy pants had enough toys sat her feet and below her to last her a lifetime.

We left our house a little before 1 pm. We got through Atlanta and stopped North of Atlanta for lunch at Chick Fil A. I was the number one mom after lunch and gave Charlotte some hand sanitizer. She had burned her finger on a lamp the Sunday night before. Well, the scab had fallen off and it was raw and open. The gel hit it. She screamed, cried, was hysterical from North of Atlanta to passed Chattanooga. She finally stopped crying when we were in the mountains and we stopped and got her a donut. It's the small things. 

We stopped again in Nashville and went to Opryland Mills to eat dinner and walk around. We had a delicious meal and Charlotte even road the carousel with Gigi. We put both babies in their jammies and we piled back in our white trash wagon that was filled to the brim with items. (We looked like a bunch of hoarders.) We finished out the drive. I drove the entire trip. Mom was a trooper in the back with the kids. (Lots of up and down and feeling for pacis and cups and bottles.) All I did was man the steering wheel. We got home around 3 am. It was a nice long drive but it felt great to know we wouldn't have to be doing that with the kids for a VERY long time. Praise the Lord

So, we are now in Illinois...

We are Land of Lincoln residents. 

A Visit to Mimi's House

On the morning of January 11, 2013, we got up and left the hotel by 9 am...and it was a pretty successful morning. Charlotte has a "thing" right now where she does not like to get ready, dressed, or have her hair done. Hates it. But she threw minimal fits this particular morning which puts everyone in a MUCH better mood.

We got to Mimi's house in Surfside Beach a bit after 11. She was ready and waiting (and had apparently gotten her days mixed up. She thought that the day before was actually Friday and the day we were coming.) We had prepared Charlotte to see "Dadda's Mimi" (she calls her Aunt Anne Marie "Meemee". So she is "Aunt Meemee" or "Momma's Meemee".)

Charlotte went right to Mimi. She was so excited that we were going to open presents with Mimi...since we weren't able to be back in SC during the month of December. 

Charlotte was so proud of the calendar Momma had made for Mimi. She loved looking at the pictures in it.

Sawyer was so happy to be hanging out and rolling around on a blanket instead of sitting in his carseat.

Charlotte LOVED the pictures and took so much pride in pointing out the people she knew.

Charlotte and Sawyer LOVED their presents from Mimi. They got so many fabulous treasures... clothes, rubber ducks, shoes, a bible... 

Love this picture!

Sawyer was in great spirits.

We got loaded back up in the car and headed out to lunch. We took Mimi out. I know that she loves to get out of the house and the very last thing I wanted her to do was have to make us a meal. (She always makes a delicious 8 course meal.) We took her to Texas Roadhouse. Charlotte loved it...and the cinnamon/sugar butter. Big fan!!!

We then headed back to her house to hang out. 

This was not even planned!!! Hilarious.

We were so thankful Gigi was able to come with us to SC. Without her we couldn't have made this trip.

Charlotte was too funny with Mimi. At the restaurant, she helped her walk in and out of the restaurant. She was even helping her with her cane. When we got back to the house, Charlotte was out on the porch yelling "Dadda's Mimi!!"

Charlotte had a blast with Mimi. We ended up heading down to the beach and Sawyer took a nap on the couch with Mimi. 

Life's a beach...