Trip to Georgia July 2009

On July 27 we flew out of Cedar Rapids down to Atlanta to spend a week in Georgia with my folks.

We spent most of the week in Colbert (outside of Athens) where my parents live before heading down to Perry (where my grandparents live) for the weekend.

Grandpa getting in on the bedtime bottle routine.

Gabs and Grandmo shared lots of laughs that week!

My middle brother, Justin, and his girlfriend, Casie, came over to Mom and Dad's on Wednesday and stuck around until Friday, when they left on a road trip to Canada.

That afternoon we all (Mom, Dad, Justin, Casie, and the three of us) headed to Stone Mountain Park. Stone Mountain is a gigantic hunk of granite that pokes out of an otherwise rather flat landscape. (Good thing I took Geology in college, huh? Otherwise I might not be able to give such a technical description.) You can usually spot it off to the east if you fly into Atlanta during the day.

Oh, and it has a huge carving of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis on the north face - the largest bas relief sculpture in the world, actually. It makes a southern girl's heart swell to lay eyes on a 100' tall Confederate hero.

While I have a picture of Justin and Casie handy, I should mention that those crazy kids went and got engaged at Niagara Falls on their road trip to Canada! And I'd like to add that I knew my brother was going to propose - despite the fact he never bothered mentioning it to his ol' sis. Or asking for my approval. In fact, all I got was a Facebook message saying, "I'm engaged. Get excited!" But I showed him. I was crazy busy traveling with the in-laws in Brasil so I never even acknowledged his message for like a week or something. ;) Anyhoo, his bride-to-be is awesome, and I'm pretty sure Gabriela spit up on her which is her little way of showing affection and approval - and she's a great judge of character and stuff. And Casie seems to be okay with Justin's love of all things leafy and/or wooden, and I guess she is impressed by the fact that he can recite the latin botanical names of all the trees native to Georgia. And the trees of the world not native to Georgia. And that he is able to talk at length about the attributes of a certain heritage variety of cantaloupe that he grew in his garden this year. But basically it just boils down to this: those of us in the southern hemisphere are pretty pumped about the upcoming nuptials. Especially since this is part of life when I get repaid for putting up with three brothers my entire life - now I get sisters!

Now, where was I? Oh yes, Stone Mountain. Almost every trip Eric and I make to Georgia, we try to take in something "cultural". On past trips we've been to the aquarium, the World of Coke, a traveling King Tut exhibit that was showing, Church's Chicken . . .WHAT? The boy's from Iowa, let me assure you that a trip to Church's Chicken IS a cultural experience! (I mean, I even have to translate for him as, despite his skills in Portuguese and Spanish, he is far from fluent in Southern Ebonics.) So anyway, this year I really wanted to take him to Stone Mountain, especially since I hadn't been in several years.

After riding the Swiss cable car to the top, hiking down the mountain, riding the train around the base of the mountain, taking in a 4-D movie, checking out the glass-blowing, trekking through the tree tops on the new "Sky Hike", and stuffing ourselves with chicken fingers, we stuck around that night for the real attraction: the Lasershow Spectacular (which also happens to be the world's longest-running lasershow). My cousin, Becky, even met us there after work to meet Gabs and watch the show with us.

Camped out on the lawn, waiting for the show to start.

I wasn't sure how Gabriela would do with the loud music, bright flashing lights, and fireworks well past her bedtime. Ten minutes into the show, she fell asleep. And that's is what I love about this kid! So easy.

On Thursday, we hosted a Sip-N-See at Mom and Dad's (where you sip on sweet tea and see the baby). Basically, it was my out though. There were so many people I wanted to see while I was in North Georgia and I knew there was just no way to get around to them all. So I took the easy way out - I invited them all to come to me. Or well, rather to Gabriela. I guarantee we wouldn't have had that kind of turn out if it was just Eric and me at the house waitin' for folks. But bring a baby around . . .

We had a great turn out and really enjoyed seeing extended family and friends. Go figure that my dear daughter wasn't in much of a pass-the-baby-around mood though. So most everyone got to hold her for just a second before she demanded that she be put down on the floor to stretch and play. She plays well with others, but only on her terms! :)

On Friday we headed down to Perry where we were met by all but one member of my Dad's side of the family. Aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents all got together and had a great time, as usual! We played in the pool, hung out telling stories, went shopping, attended church together, grilled ribs, and my Grandma did what my Grandma does - fed us all waaay too much! But oh, was it good!

Oh, and they all took turns spoiling Gaberdoodle to no end, the benefit of being the first great-grandchild . . . we haven't had a baby around for a while!

Catching some Z's with Great Uncle Ed




Hanging out with Uncle Travis (and trying to convince him she needs a cousin - hehe)

Not sure if this was a nap session or just some cuddles with Grandpa.

Aunt Brii was all smiles - I don't think she needs convincing in the cousin department! ;)


My Bathing Beauty out by the pool, complete with new sunglasses and hat (which was the contents of 1 of the 14 boxes I had waiting for me at my Grandparents when I got there. I love Amazon. Grandad suggested Eric might want to take away my credit card. I said go ahead . . . I have the number memorized.)

Going for her first swim with Daddy!

Post-swim. All worn out and ready to nap in Great-Grandma's arms for a while.

This guy again. Grandpa couldn't stay away from Gabriela for very long at a time! Even with 18 other people around, my Dad somehow always managed to sneak in there close to the baby!

Napping in the same crib Mommy slept in as a baby. (Also where she adopted her new face-down sleeping position . . . after winning the battle with her swaddle-wrap, apparently.)