Gene made me coconut shrimp and turtle cheesecake my first night there to celebrate my birthday a day late. AMAZING! SO YUM!!This is me and the party crew:) I am wearing my coat because I had just walked in from my faxing docs at a local Kinkos for work....
Princess Sheri the BEAUTIFUL and her royal court.I got there just in time for dinner and she and Gene left the next morning for Cancun leaving me to the JOY of being QUEEN of the Chillin's. The tornadoes hit while I was there and that was my first time living through that. A little tense. So grateful for TV, weathermen, & current technology that can track them. It made the 38 who died very real in my mind.
Chad and Becca only live 10 miles away in Mainesville so I made them dinner and they treated me to a visit...my first time meeting their Addie ---and as you can see---stinkin' ADORABLE!!! She can do all the animal sounds...she will charm the pants off you. So so so so SWEET to see how HAPPY and LOVE FILLED their life is together.
Took the kids to an amusement center called Enter TRAINment. It houses the worlds largest model train exhibit...I could have stayed for hours..the details were mindblowing. We all loved it. They also had a TRAIN play area and a wacky fun house. The fun house had a room in it that was built on a slant...I swear to you...it was SO BIZARRE...but when I even got CLOSE to it...not even LOOKING at it, I was struck with extreme nausea and my head just felt so strange.I could not get away from there fast enough. Never had an experience like that were I was WALKING on flat ground and not even the visual of it, the PRESENCE of it near by made me sick! I'm the car sick and boat sick girl too...I think some parts must be missing in my brain.
These pics are poor and can't really give you a sense of how incredible it was....but they will help ME remember :)
We had a day of it...we went to the Train fun place, then to Sonic, then Roller Skating. It is Issac's new love and he has it down! William was just learning and that boy has TRYING skills...he kept at it and kept at it until he could get back and forth across the carpet. Interestingly he could skate backwards more easily than forwards!
Sorry Isaac! This is the best pic I got of you!
Austin went around the rink a few times and decided his phone was more fun :) Too bad we didn't have any other 15 year olds to hang with us.
THEN we met up with Chad and Becca again at a place called GRATER's where I swear we had the BEST ICE CREAM I have EVER had...we ended the day with Pizza Hut and lounging around the house until bedtime.
On my run the first day I remembered how on my last visit, as I got off the plane at home that I had the call that GrandDad had had a massive heart attack and was not going to make it....that run was a flood of love memories for GrandDad --and contentment that now he can see all of us and be with us when he wants...and wondering what he thinks about each of our lives. I love running in Sheri's neighborhood. It is so beautiful and rolling and open...so few fences. It's interesting just to be on new streets and see the personalities of the families in the houses from their landscape, cars, dogs, yard art, car bumper stickers....
I had just downloaded the Eagles greatest hits and Whitney Houston's greatest hits and I had me a personal music fest with the wind and sometimes the rain joining me:) I LOVE MY LIFE xxooxx!!!
I want to bear testimony of the absolute COMFORT a GPS is when you are in a city you don't know...it makes it so fear is completely set aside and you can just relax and ENJOY being there!
Being at Sheri's reminds me so much of my mom. SHE is SO MUCH like my Mom. I LOVE THEM BOTH.
The kids of course were a happy break for me. It is interesting to see which ones got what/whose family traits and characteristics....people so can NOT deny the "STUFF" that comes to them through their DNA :)
Most nights the kids were in bed by 8 (which was 6 my time) so I was able to read and watch netflix (BBC, THE GRAND series) and write and think and dream of the future. It was so nice. William quickly realized what a sucker I am for a snuggle and ended up sleeping the last two nights with me...I should say ON me...another smile bringing moment...he must be a heat seeker...I would wake up and he would literally have himself wrapped/ tangled all over me:) I miss those days!!! Pretty sure the next babysitting visit he will be too "OLD" and not want to sleep with me :( I am so READY to be a GRANDMA!!!!
A quick update to remember WHERE we are were in our lives for this trip...Audry just turned 12 and loves being apart of Young Women's at church. She LOVES to learn and dance the music videos of Taylor Swift with her friend Sophie. Austin is trying out for the Tennis team and goes to early morning Seminary. Isaac is the peacemaker and happy boy who wears headgear each day after school and never complains and is the first to share, or offer to make any situation better. William is Lord of the house and all drop everything to make sure his world is as he wants it. He is obsessed with SKYLANDER's and can name them all and owns most of them all. He is flat adorable to watch do ANYTHING--hence, his charm is his power to maintain his loyal kingdom:) He's not crazy about Kindergarten and thinks...KNOWS, his teacher is mean. If that poor woman could have heard him describe her to me... Anyway.
One of those snug by myself nights it was so clear to me how many parts of my life are so astonishingly PERFECT. I am grateful to the core. Overwhelmed, yet still dreaming of the parts that I would "tweak"!
