Southern Family Goes to London...

Thanks, Shannon, for the cool pic!

Today is my birthday.  Normally, I would spend it with a fun family outing to the Atlanta Zoo or nearby park enjoying a gorgeous spring day.  This year, it is cloudy with a chance of rain and I am inside planning our last big family field trip to a place that is usually "cloudy with a chance of rain": the United Kingdom.

Planning has taken on a life of its own.  I've learned through traveling the USA with three kids that planning makes or breaks a trip.  Organizing an oversea's adventure has become my full-time job.  But what an exhilarating occupation!  When you get hooked on traveling, just making a reservation can give you a contact high.  I've always enjoyed having something to look forward to and planning a vacation or party is a huge part of that enjoyment.  But nothing beats the real thing.  When we land in London next week, we will be prepared for a once in a lifetime family experience.  All I have to do now is pack...

So my birthday gifts to myself are to spend the afternoon finalizing our tickets, confirming accommodations, packing for UK weather (did I mention it will most likely be cloudy with a chance of rain?) and arranging transportation for London... no "riding on a pony" for this family, and to spend tonight celebrating our trip and the end of our long stay on Fripp Island with our new friends in Beaufort County.  How is it that you can be sad to be leaving and happy to be going at the same time?

OMG! Anabel's a Teenager!

"Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?" - Clarence Oddbody, AS2

Thirteen years ago, Greg and I were blessed with our miracle baby.  I know every baby is a miracle, but after ten years of marriage, five years of infertility, and two heartbreaking miscarriages OUR miracle baby finally arrived.  Anabel healed our pain and led the way for two more miracles: her little brother and sister.  Often, I think how different our lives would be without her… the empty hole her absence would leave.  Like George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, Anabel would have left quite a hole, altering our entire lives, had she not been born.  Our guardian angel, Clarence Oddbody (Angel Second Class), would show us a life with no kids, no snuggles and giggles, no small hands slipping into ours, definitely no sabbatical, and possibly, no marriage because I would have turned squirrelly and driven Greg nuts.  We may have had more money, but no one to share it with.

Thankfully, Anabel was born, and we have three beautiful, healthy children.  Our pockets are empty of cash, but overflowing with love and Zuzu's petals.

To celebrate our good fortune and Anabel's life, we spent a family day in Beaufort.  

After opening seven of her thirteen presents (each item from Bath and Body Works counted as a separate gift...even the two lip glosses), we headed to the Beaufort Inn for their very Southern Sunday brunch.   The spread included a grits bar, andouille sausage balls, fresh berry parfaits, shrimp cocktails, artichoke dip casserole with homemade chips, lox and cream cheese pops, caesar salad and beef tenderloin.  Anabel splurged on the the cooked to order eggs benedict while Wyatt and Emma dug their way through a mountain of cinnamon and honey French toast.  Greg and I tried a little of everything, but could have contented ourselves with the basket of popovers and strawberry butter alone.

One Word: Popovers

Did I mention the dessert bar yet?  Holy smokes!  Everyone sampled dark chocolate creme brûlée, banana pudding mousse, angel cake, and chocolate ganache pops. (Part of my recovery program is admitting to all of this.)  We waddled out through the back garden enjoying the Confederate jasmine and admiring the gorgeous day.

Our next stop was a surprise...

 Keeping a secret from Anabel is difficult.  She begs and pleads for you to tell her something and if you don't she drives you crazy asking questions and trying to guess.  Somehow, we managed to keep quiet this time until we turned on the road to Camelot Farms and she immediately shouted, "We're going horseback riding!"  She was excited and nervous.  She hadn't been on a horse since a brief scare last year during a riding lesson.  While being our most cautious child, Anabel is also our most accident prone.  With one broken arm and leg and emergency surgery in her past, I can't blame her for being a little hesitant to jump into dangerous situations.   However, I think there's an old saying about getting back on the horse so we poured out of the family truckster ready to climb on.

Since we were the only ones on the farm, our guide, Ned, let us help prep the horses for our marsh trail ride.  As he brought each horse up, we brushed, sprayed and made new animal friends.  I was very happy with the "getting to know you" period before the ride because it was Wyatt and Emma's first ride and I hadn't been on a horse in twenty years.  By the time the horses were saddled and ready, our nerves had settled and we were ready, too.

While brushing and petting, Anabel became attached to a horse named Shoes, but when Ned started assigning mounts he gave her the friskiest horse.  I was so proud of her for speaking up and asking if she could ride the horse she liked.  Sometimes it's hard to admit your kids are growing up, but speaking up for yourself is a difficult lesson to learn so I was happy to see this evidence of our daughter's maturity.

The trail ride was fantastic.  We went all over their farm's acreage at the end of St. Helena Island riding under mossy live oaks, near farmland and through pinewood forests.  After an hour on the trail, we hated to say goodbye, but we had gained more to celebrate: Anabel overcame her yearlong fear of riding again, and Wyatt and Emma found a new love.

We ended her birthday celebration with Anabel's all time favorite meal (yes, we were hungry, again.)  Crab legs, baked potatoes and iceberg wedges followed by strawberry cake were the perfect grand finale to a grand day.

Happy 13th Birthday, Anabel!  We love you!

Wyatt's 11th B-Day

We love this little boy fiercely!  He is strong and funny, yet enigmatic; he is loving and kind, yet aloof.  He is talented and smart, yet incredibly literal.  Our indescribable son turned eleven today and how we survived all the years before his arrival, we have no idea; without a doubt, life is better with him in it.

The Many Talents of Wyatt:

After journeying up the west coast and through the deserts of Nevada and Arizona (seeing the Grand Canyon and Tombstone), his birthday celebration had to be anticlimactic.  However, I hoped to deliver something none of those locales contained: his friends.  I hoped...

One sad reminder that the world was not on our same agenda was trying to schedule visits with friends during the handful of times we have returned to our hometown.  No matter how hard I planned or how early I started, other lives did not bend as easily as ours.  Basketball playoffs were ongoing.  Baseball practices had begun.  Soccer, tennis, golf, recital rehearsals and school functions had continued while we gleefully traveled the country discarding all appointments and "have tos."  This time last year, I remember running from "I have to be at the middle school for a PTA meeting" to "You have to pick up Wyatt from piano and get him to Reinhardt for cello by 5:30."  Believe me, I understand the over scheduled life.  The problem was my ego thought this could be overcome.  In my egocentric way of looking at life this year, I assumed others missed my kids as much as my kids missed them so, of course, they would drop everything to come to Wyatt's birthday party.  Unfortunately for Wyatt, this did not happen.  Life just isn't that easy no matter who misses whom.

Wyatt and Best Friend touching everything in Brookstone

With no one able to make an after school bowling party on his actual birthday, I rearranged the plans and worked with some accommodating parents to meet the needs of all three of our kids.  I drove the family truckster like a woman possessed. (What mother isn't possessed when trying to please her kids?)  I dropped kids, I picked up kids.  I took girls to the American Girl Store and boys to Game Stop.  I bought pizza in food court and sang silly songs to embarrass all.  I got friends back home just in time to make baseball practices and babysitting commitments.  It was a whirlwind Sunday afternoon, but I sincerely thank the parents who understood what those few hours of seeing their close friends meant to our kids and were flexible in letting me cavort all over Alpharetta with their kids.  Just know that I know I owe you.

With the fast paced fun of Sunday behind him, Wyatt was content to sit in the orthodontist's chair on his birthday morning, playing with the controls and making goofy faces in the movable mirror.  Six months until braces!  We spent the rest of the day with family.  Brunch with grandparents, Bobba and Papa, at his favorite breakfast establishment, the Cracker Barrel, which the kids discovered on our travels is a national chain.   Next, it was a game of afternoon bowling followed by a romp through the arcade at Stars and Strikes in Cumming, Georgia.  Finally, we met up with Aunt Mandy, Uncle Shannon and cousins, Hannah, David and Spencer for Wyatt's all time favorite meal: Buffalo Wings at Taco Mac followed by self-serve frozen yogurt.

Did I say he was enigmatic? There's no mystery here.  He sounds like 100% 11 year old boy to me.  Happy Birthday, Wyatt!

Emma's Savannah Birthday

Our Birthday Family Reunion

Is it weird for a nine year old to want to visit a historic city for her birthday?  Is it even weirder if she wants to tour an old home while there?  I do not think this is normal.  I'm beginning to think this sabbatical is having a strange effect on our kids... for better or worse.

Since Sherman gifted the City of Savannah, GA to Lincoln for Christmas in 1864, we decided to give our youngest, Emma Grace, the same thing for her ninth birthday.  Is this considered regifting?  We also threw in The Bobo family who drove down from Canton for an added surprise to help us celebrate.  The weather for the day was pristine and our baby girl got what she wanted: a perfect sight-seeing birthday.

Emma awoke to a new outfit laid out on her bed.  This was a special birthday treat since we haven't purchased new clothes this year. (No need, really, since most school days are spent at home and no new clothes is a great way to save money this year.)  We dined on Emma's requested country ham and biscuits for breakfast and then got dressed for our big day out.  Mandy, Shannon and their new dog, Sophie had arrived late the night before and Emma was thrilled to see them (especially Sophie!)  Leaving the dogs behind to get along or duke it out, we piled into the family bus and headed to meet Hannah and Spencer for lunch.

The door to the upstairs bedchamber where
Captain Flint spent his final hours.

Savannah is about an hour's drive from Fripp Island.  Holiday traffic put us a little behind schedule, but we gathered together in plenty of time for a birthday feast at The Pirates' House.  One of Emma's favorite restaurants, The Pirates' House contains the oldest home in Georgia as it was built atop the original Trustee's Garden established by Georgia's founder, James Oglethorpe, in 1733.  The Garden main purpose was the colony's business venture of growing silk worms which quickly failed; however, Georgia and South Carolina's famous peach trees were first cultivated at the Trustee's Gardens.

Our party was fortunate to dine in this oldest part of the Pirates' House restaurant called the Herb House where the first gardener of the colony lived.  As the Garden failed, but the seaport of Savannah thrived, the Garden area was converted into an Inn for seafaring travelers as it was only one block from the Savannah River.  Soon merchant marines and pirates alike took over the Inn drinking grog and gambling to their hearts' content.  The city of Savannah and the Pirates' House is mentioned several times in the book, Treasure Island.  In fact, the famous Captain Flint died in one of the upstairs bedrooms of the Inn giving Robert Louis Stevenson the opening scene for his book.  On a previous trip, we visited the Pirates' House on a Ghost Tour and searched for the ghost of Captain Flint who haunts the restaurant on moonless nights.  We had tons of fun, but saw no ghost.

For lunch, The Pirates' House has a delicious buffet of southern specialties like fried chicken, BBQ, collard greens, black-eyed peas, squash casserole, fried okra and the quintessential southern vegetable: macaroni and cheese.  Our group of nine all went for the buffet.  I'm embarrassed to say my plate was laden with a little bit of everything!  Being a good southern girl, Emma enjoyed the fried chicken and the biscuits, but ate in lady-like proportions.  Some how she managed to eat a couple of bites of her strawberry shortcake after we sang happy birthday.  She's such a little lady!

What more could a girl want than a pirate
singing "Happy Birthday to You!"

We decided to leave our car at the restaurant to walk off our meal on the lovely tree-lined streets and squares of Savannah.  Oglethorpe planned his city well and laid out Savannah with a grid of streets and city parks every other street.  The result, almost three hundred years later, is a hypnotic and relaxed beauty admired by millions of visitors from all over the world.  We walked past the Colonial Cemetery with its duelers' graves and yellow fever victims.  As creepy as it is, I love a good graveyard!  This one's history thrilled us graveyard connoisseurs with it moss dripping live oaks and a wall of  headstones relocated when the city out grew its original boundaries.  Home owners across the street got a big surprise in the basement while renovating when they realized early civil engineers only moved the headstones!

The parlor of the Sorrel-Weed House in Savannah, GA

Anabel- Future Ghost Hunter

Finally, we reached our tour destination: the Sorrel-Weed House.  Reportedly (by the owners, of course), this is the most haunted house in Savannah with many love affairs and misdeeds including two gruesome murders to brag about.  Featured on both If These Walls Could Talk and Ghost Hunters, the home gives tours day and night.  We opted for the daytime, therefore less frightening, tour, but still got a couple of chills as we traced the footsteps of owner Francis Sorrel, his wife, Matilda and his mistress, Molly.  Anabel had the most fun trying to capture a ghostly image or orb with our camera.  She swears she caught Molly looking down at us from the window of her death chamber...

Can you spot a ghost?

In the basement, the owners have set up many infrared cameras to chronicle the supernatural activity.  Emma loved dancing around with the spectral dust floating by!   Is it really haunted?  Probably not.  But it was easy to let our imaginations run away with us for an afternoon.  We all enjoyed our private tour of this spooky home.

Hannah happily conversing with the other side... of the room.

Our final stop per the birthday girl's wish was River Street Sweets.  Without a doubt, this shop is kid heaven!  The aroma of browned butter and sugar smacks you in the face as you walk in the door.  The store was packed with holiday shoppers and merry tourists vying for the perfect Christmas confection.  After a free taste of their world famous pralines, Emma contented her sweet tooth with a bag full of sour ribbon candy.  Go figure.  We may have awakened her travel buds this year, but her taste buds are still 100% normal nine year old kid.  I guess she's not so weird after all.

Please, Sir, may I have some candy?  It is my birthday.

Happy Birthday, Emma!  We love you!