Anniversary Weekend

We ditched the kids again. This time only for 2 nights. For our anniversary this year, we rented a little cabin just outside of Helen, GA, in the North Georgia mountains. It. Was. Awesome. Perfect weather, wonderful cabin, plenty of good food and wine, kidless time...aaaaaaaahhhhhh.

We forgot our camera again. I don't know what's wrong with us. I have a few shots from my phone I'll share here, but when I bemoaned the lack of camera Jeremiah said "good, I don't want to post a bunch of pictures of this place and then, when we go to rent it again, find out I've been cock-blocked by one of my friends".

We had a nice drive up Friday afternoon, and when we arrived, and took a moment to get our breath back upon seeing the view, we became reasonably sure that it was, indeed, an eagle we saw swooping around in the distance. I always think it's really a turkey buzzard or vulture, but I've seen those things in flight...pretty sure that was an eagle. The cabin faces due east, with an entire wall of windows that look out over the mountains. There's a hottub out on the deck, there, and we sat in it and drank wine while we stargazed. On the second evening, we watched Jupiter rise over the mountain. The moon, nearly new, made its appearance in the wee hours of the morning, and when we awoke, without even getting out of bed, we had a perfect view of the sliver of moon remaining, while the sky was all purple and star-filled.

Saturday morning, as we prepared to take a short hike, we got to watch 4, no 5, no 6 hawks downright frolicking just above the cabin's roof. They were circling at various altitudes above us, allowing us to just hang out and watch. Then we saw a bluetailed skink on the front wall of the cabin. Lots of little lizards out there, too.

We spent some time in Helen, which, if you're not familiar, is a funny little town. Originally a mill town, things started to go south when all the trees had been cut down (they're back), so a few guys got together and made themselves a tourist attraction out of their town. It's a little German village that sort of looks like the ski resort in Hottub Time Machine. There is, indeed, some very cool stuff there - a great country store called Betty's, an outdoor adventure company that does tubing on the Chattahoochee River, a wonderful coffee roastery, a grain mill that still uses the original parts...but we spent about an hour in the town and we were pretty much done. Why bother when there's that cabin filled with wine and food waiting for us?

Cake Helpers

When we were in Virginia, working on the 50th anniversary cake, I put Kate and Sarah to work. They colored some of the marshmallow fondant for me. I know Sarah looks annoyed here, but I swear, she was having fun. You just have to take my word for it. They slowed me down a lot, but it was well worth it to have their happy presence all up in my workspace.

Not it!

These days, when I say things like "the shoe basket is empty, but surrounded by shoes, please clean it up, girls" to my children, they invariably say, in turn, "I didn't do it!" I don't need that at home, I get enough of it at work.

Yesterday, I was setting up a movie for Sarah to watch while Kate was finishing her homework. When I found the DVDs out of their cases and spread all over the place in the TV room I commented that we all should be more careful to put these things away when we're finished watching them. Sarah said "I didn't do it!" and I heaved a heavy, end-of-the-day-tired sigh. "It doesn't matter, Sarah" I tried (again) to explain. "It just matters that we take care of our stuff, all of us." Then, because it was bugging me, I threw in "I'm so tired of you girls constantly shirking responsibility for stuff." To that, Sarah replied "I didn't do that!"

The Big Par-tay

We traveled to my mountains to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary and somehow managed to forget a camera. So, I've been stealing photos from other, more responsible participants in the festivities and I will slowly add them here in the way of updates. Here's an adorable shot of Sarah and Ro* at dinner that Friday night. Feel the cousin love!

A Brief Conversation With Kate

Kate: [While getting dressed this morning] Hey, this skirt is actually a skort!
Me: Great, now you can just play with reckless abandon!
Kate: Or with the monkey bars.