For nearly two decades, my grandparents from Lexington have been renting a condo in Panama City Beach, FL, for the entire month of September. Usually, many, if not all, of our extended family members have gathered down there on Labor Day Weekend. When we lived in Thomasville, it was an easy three hour drive. We would make it several times during the month. In recent years, since our family has added spouses and great-grandchildren, many of us have even rented our own condos at the same complex. We don't have a whole lot of family traditions, but September in PCB is one that is very special to us. When we moved to Kentucky in July, I pretty well settled in my heart that we probably wouldn't be able to make the 12 hour drive and pay money for all that gas this year. I didn't really like this reality, but I was determined to be content and to try to find something special to do with our own little nuclear family for Labor Day Weekend.
I was absolutely THRILLED when Chad surprised me by sharing that he needed to head to Thomasville to give a presentation at Flowers corporate headquarters this week, and that Flowers would pay for his mileage, and that we could ride with him since our homeschool group isn't meeting this week...and then I was blown away at the goodness of God when we discovered my parents would have some empty bedrooms in their condo rental this week, starting on Monday! God is soooooooooo good! And my heart is really happy! :)
We attended our first "At the Movies" service at 7Hills Church in Florence on Saturday night and had a great time! As soon as the service was over, we jumped in the truck, found our way to I75, and headed south! We chatted a little bit as we made our way to the Chick-fil-a drive thru just north of Lexington. After our chicken was consumed and it started getting dark, we stopped for a potty break and then declared "silence!" in the truck, in hopes that the kiddos would go to sleep in the backseat. It worked! I slept for about an hour between Knoxville and Chattanooga while Chad drove. Once we were in Georgia (12:30ish), we stopped for gas, and I took the wheel so my yawning man could sleep some. I drove on until we got to Cordele around 4, and by then I HAD to let Chad drive. He normally gets up at 4 anyway, so I figured our chances were better with him driving. I faded in and out of uncomfortable sleep for the next 2 hours, while he brought us through the home stretch.
We arrived in Thomasville at Pops and Grandma's house at 6 a.m. on Sunday. The kids had slept most of the night in the truck. Chad and I were rather sleep-deprived, but he can function on only a few hours. I, on the other hand, can't. I went straight to bed to try to catch one more precious hour of sleep before the sunlight came creeping through the slats in the blinds. Pops had just gotten up when we arrived, so he loved on the kids--who were wide awake--and watched cartoons with them, and fed them all manner of junk food while we slept. The kids had a blast! I think Pops had fun, too. :)
Mary Beth rode to church with some friends. She REALLY, REALLY wanted to go back to Celebration and see everyone. Chad and I would've liked to have gone, too, but we were wasted from driving all night. We laid around until about 10:30, and then we went to visit Great-Granddaddy at his assisted living community. It was good to spend an hour with him and catch up. And of course, Noah loved getting into his candy stash.
After we left Great-Granddaddy, we headed over to Celebration to pick up Mary Beth. Even though we'd missed the service, we were glad to get to catch up on some after-church fellowship with many, many friends...and to once again be standing in the foyer chatting when the "door-locking" volunteer pulled out his keys. :)
Before we left Thomasville, we pretty much had a tradition of eating Sunday lunch at Masato's with the Owens family, so of course, we joined them after church. (Yes, the Owens have all girls--and Noah's gotten used to being "odd man out" at this point...but I think payback's coming because our new friends in Hebron have four BOYS and no girls. ;) )
We ran into the Congers there, too, and I was so glad--there were so many people in Thomasville that we wanted to visit with, and the logistics of seeing them all within 24 hours was more than we could handle. I was glad God allowed us to cross paths with a few friends unexpectedly. :)
There was MUCH excitement in the air as our kiddos feasted on ice cream and played with many of their Thomasville friends who had gathered to meet us at Dairy Queen!
My apologies to anyone not with our party who was at the Thomasville DQ between 2 and 4 on Sunday afternoon. I know it was a three-ring-circus back there, but it was just to wet and nasty for us to take our fun to the park.
Noah's buddies were there, and he was so glad to see them!
Mary Beth was THRILLED to get to spend some time with her "B.F.F.'s" (she has lots!) :)
My sweet flag-waving, Jesus-praising Eliza was there with plenty of hugs for me...
...and with plenty of salt to lick off the table. :)
One of our favorite babysitters (who was also the flower girl in our wedding when she was 3), Hannah, came to visit us, too.
Apparently, the newest kid craze in Thomasville is a slight-of-hand trick that makes a chapstick/lip balm lid "disappear." Every kid knew the trick, and just about every one of them had to perform it for me...and I was impressed, all 20 times! :)
I really enjoyed getting to visit with some of my favorite "mommy" friends.
While the kids and I hung out at DQ, Chad went to visit a friend who is in the final stages of a long battle with cancer, and then he got to spend some quality time (translation: uninterrupted by the grandkids) with his dad. Then he went to see a movie with his buddy Scott. Noah got to have a fun playdate with his buddies Kelon and Robert. I sat in Stacey's SUV and talked Jesus and homeschool for a good while. Mary Beth spent a few hours at the movies with Cousin Makayla, and then she got to play for a bit at Makayla's house.
After we picked up Mary Beth at Makayla's house, we stopped in for a few minutes at Randae and Joy Davis's house. It was good to get a squeeze hug from Timothy and to hear about all they are learning in their first year with Classical Conversations. :) Wish I'd remembered to bring my camera in.
Chad's dad, a.k.a. "Dandy," (because Mary Beth couldn't spit out "Granddaddy" when she was little, and "dandy" was the best she could do) treated us to a yummy dinner at Sonny's. The kids were really glad to see him, and they enjoyed trying to show him the "chapstick top" trick--using the tabasco sauce lid.
We hunted down Chad's grandparents, "Papa and Granny Weeks," at their favorite after-Sunday-night-church hangout: WENDY'S, and we surprised them with a little visit there.
I wish I'd been able to get some photos of the other great-grandparents, but they were basically ALL in their pajamas the whole time we were with them, so I didn't take my camera out. We missed seeing Chad's mom and siblings on this trip because they were all out-of-town. We're looking forward to seeing them when we come back after Christmas.
We arrived at the condo on Monday morning in time to polish off the breakfast leftovers and spend most of the day with my siblings and our sweet nephew Ethan. They were standing on the balcony, 10 stories up, waiting on us to arrive. As soon as we got out of the truck, Ethan spotted "his Noah" and started squealing for him. We could hear him all the way down at ground level. The weather at the beach was still NASTY from the remains of Tropical Storm Lee. We spent about 2 hours out by the pool around lunch time, but much of the day was spent inside with plenty of chasing and tickling by the boy cousins and lots of card-playing by the adults.
My brothers left last night with their families, and my parents left early this morning. Papa and Grammy will be back later in the week. Chad has to zip back up to Thomasville to give that presentation, and he'll bring Grammy back with him. My aunt, uncle, and grandparents from Kentucky, along with my sister, and also my cousins from Colorado and Texas, will be here for the rest of the week. I'm glad we'll get to reconnect. I think the weather is going to get better today, and the rest of the week should be beautiful, so you may not hear from us again before we get home, but we are so thankful for this nice little break to reconnect with some special people we've been missing for a few months now. Thomasville's roses aren't really blooming much this time of year--so we couldn't exactly smell them--but were were really glad we got to stop on our way through and hug so many necks! If we missed you in Thomasville on this trip, we hope to see you when we come back to visit during New Year's week. :)
I was absolutely THRILLED when Chad surprised me by sharing that he needed to head to Thomasville to give a presentation at Flowers corporate headquarters this week, and that Flowers would pay for his mileage, and that we could ride with him since our homeschool group isn't meeting this week...and then I was blown away at the goodness of God when we discovered my parents would have some empty bedrooms in their condo rental this week, starting on Monday! God is soooooooooo good! And my heart is really happy! :)
We attended our first "At the Movies" service at 7Hills Church in Florence on Saturday night and had a great time! As soon as the service was over, we jumped in the truck, found our way to I75, and headed south! We chatted a little bit as we made our way to the Chick-fil-a drive thru just north of Lexington. After our chicken was consumed and it started getting dark, we stopped for a potty break and then declared "silence!" in the truck, in hopes that the kiddos would go to sleep in the backseat. It worked! I slept for about an hour between Knoxville and Chattanooga while Chad drove. Once we were in Georgia (12:30ish), we stopped for gas, and I took the wheel so my yawning man could sleep some. I drove on until we got to Cordele around 4, and by then I HAD to let Chad drive. He normally gets up at 4 anyway, so I figured our chances were better with him driving. I faded in and out of uncomfortable sleep for the next 2 hours, while he brought us through the home stretch.
We arrived in Thomasville at Pops and Grandma's house at 6 a.m. on Sunday. The kids had slept most of the night in the truck. Chad and I were rather sleep-deprived, but he can function on only a few hours. I, on the other hand, can't. I went straight to bed to try to catch one more precious hour of sleep before the sunlight came creeping through the slats in the blinds. Pops had just gotten up when we arrived, so he loved on the kids--who were wide awake--and watched cartoons with them, and fed them all manner of junk food while we slept. The kids had a blast! I think Pops had fun, too. :)
Mary Beth rode to church with some friends. She REALLY, REALLY wanted to go back to Celebration and see everyone. Chad and I would've liked to have gone, too, but we were wasted from driving all night. We laid around until about 10:30, and then we went to visit Great-Granddaddy at his assisted living community. It was good to spend an hour with him and catch up. And of course, Noah loved getting into his candy stash.
After we left Great-Granddaddy, we headed over to Celebration to pick up Mary Beth. Even though we'd missed the service, we were glad to get to catch up on some after-church fellowship with many, many friends...and to once again be standing in the foyer chatting when the "door-locking" volunteer pulled out his keys. :)
Before we left Thomasville, we pretty much had a tradition of eating Sunday lunch at Masato's with the Owens family, so of course, we joined them after church. (Yes, the Owens have all girls--and Noah's gotten used to being "odd man out" at this point...but I think payback's coming because our new friends in Hebron have four BOYS and no girls. ;) )
We ran into the Congers there, too, and I was so glad--there were so many people in Thomasville that we wanted to visit with, and the logistics of seeing them all within 24 hours was more than we could handle. I was glad God allowed us to cross paths with a few friends unexpectedly. :)
There was MUCH excitement in the air as our kiddos feasted on ice cream and played with many of their Thomasville friends who had gathered to meet us at Dairy Queen!
My apologies to anyone not with our party who was at the Thomasville DQ between 2 and 4 on Sunday afternoon. I know it was a three-ring-circus back there, but it was just to wet and nasty for us to take our fun to the park.
Noah's buddies were there, and he was so glad to see them!
Mary Beth was THRILLED to get to spend some time with her "B.F.F.'s" (she has lots!) :)
My sweet flag-waving, Jesus-praising Eliza was there with plenty of hugs for me...
...and with plenty of salt to lick off the table. :)
One of our favorite babysitters (who was also the flower girl in our wedding when she was 3), Hannah, came to visit us, too.
Apparently, the newest kid craze in Thomasville is a slight-of-hand trick that makes a chapstick/lip balm lid "disappear." Every kid knew the trick, and just about every one of them had to perform it for me...and I was impressed, all 20 times! :)
I really enjoyed getting to visit with some of my favorite "mommy" friends.
While the kids and I hung out at DQ, Chad went to visit a friend who is in the final stages of a long battle with cancer, and then he got to spend some quality time (translation: uninterrupted by the grandkids) with his dad. Then he went to see a movie with his buddy Scott. Noah got to have a fun playdate with his buddies Kelon and Robert. I sat in Stacey's SUV and talked Jesus and homeschool for a good while. Mary Beth spent a few hours at the movies with Cousin Makayla, and then she got to play for a bit at Makayla's house.
After we picked up Mary Beth at Makayla's house, we stopped in for a few minutes at Randae and Joy Davis's house. It was good to get a squeeze hug from Timothy and to hear about all they are learning in their first year with Classical Conversations. :) Wish I'd remembered to bring my camera in.
Chad's dad, a.k.a. "Dandy," (because Mary Beth couldn't spit out "Granddaddy" when she was little, and "dandy" was the best she could do) treated us to a yummy dinner at Sonny's. The kids were really glad to see him, and they enjoyed trying to show him the "chapstick top" trick--using the tabasco sauce lid.
We hunted down Chad's grandparents, "Papa and Granny Weeks," at their favorite after-Sunday-night-church hangout: WENDY'S, and we surprised them with a little visit there.
I wish I'd been able to get some photos of the other great-grandparents, but they were basically ALL in their pajamas the whole time we were with them, so I didn't take my camera out. We missed seeing Chad's mom and siblings on this trip because they were all out-of-town. We're looking forward to seeing them when we come back after Christmas.
We arrived at the condo on Monday morning in time to polish off the breakfast leftovers and spend most of the day with my siblings and our sweet nephew Ethan. They were standing on the balcony, 10 stories up, waiting on us to arrive. As soon as we got out of the truck, Ethan spotted "his Noah" and started squealing for him. We could hear him all the way down at ground level. The weather at the beach was still NASTY from the remains of Tropical Storm Lee. We spent about 2 hours out by the pool around lunch time, but much of the day was spent inside with plenty of chasing and tickling by the boy cousins and lots of card-playing by the adults.
My brothers left last night with their families, and my parents left early this morning. Papa and Grammy will be back later in the week. Chad has to zip back up to Thomasville to give that presentation, and he'll bring Grammy back with him. My aunt, uncle, and grandparents from Kentucky, along with my sister, and also my cousins from Colorado and Texas, will be here for the rest of the week. I'm glad we'll get to reconnect. I think the weather is going to get better today, and the rest of the week should be beautiful, so you may not hear from us again before we get home, but we are so thankful for this nice little break to reconnect with some special people we've been missing for a few months now. Thomasville's roses aren't really blooming much this time of year--so we couldn't exactly smell them--but were were really glad we got to stop on our way through and hug so many necks! If we missed you in Thomasville on this trip, we hope to see you when we come back to visit during New Year's week. :)
1 comment:
I hate we missed y'all!! It was probably best though cause I would have felt terrible if Phoenix had gotten y'all sick.
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