The girls finally got away for a girls trip to the mountains. I'd been planning this trip for quite some time. Originally, we were to go in March, but a snow/ice storm made us cancel the day before. I believe Stella got sick too at that time so even though we were upset, it really was just for the best. I finally got it rescheduled and mostly everything turned out great. Donald was supposed to pick up Stella from MMO but he needed me to get her so he could wrap up some things at work. So I grabbed her, got her home, packed up the car and waited for him to arrive. Once he did, I drove to Tiffany's, picked up her and we hit the road with Baby Huddy. Traffic was crappy for a bit but not as bad as I expected. We made it to the cabin around 5:00 I think. Britany and Melissa rode together and arrived next. Followed by Kim and then Laura. It wasn't a lot cooler up at the top, but the humidity was definitely less. And the view. Well, the view is always nice, even when it's foggy.
Britany and Melissa still had a bit of work to finish up, but by dinner we all could sit down and relax.
Group shot. Look at that sweet, smiling boy. He was just the best all weekend.
When I gave Tiffany the tour of the house, I found a a dead centipede in the basement on the carpet. It was the largest I'd seen in person. Little did we know this was just a small taste of the bugs we'd find that night.
Melissa and I got together and did "dinner". Really it was just a huge antipasto spread. I made artichoke dip and picked up salami, bread and hummus. Melissa brought cheese, crackers and fruit. We all sat on the floor around the coffee table, drank wine and chatted about every.topic.imaginable.
Donald had Stella for the whole weekend. This was the first time he'd had her for more than 8 or so hours during the day. She'd been asking to go to a Braves game since we brought her in April so he decided to bring her Friday night. He sent me this picture and it just warmed my heart. They look so happy. Which of course, made me so happy. I was also impressed by how well he fixed her hair. Stella won't sit still for much, but she will sit still for you to fix her hair because she hates having it in her face. Honestly, that was what I was most concerned about for the weekend-how her hair was going to look. Not what clothes will she wear? Will they match or will she look like a throw-away child? Or is she going to eat good? "Will she be safe" didn't even cross my brain. Just "Oh Lord. She's going to flip out and have an epic meltdown because Daddy can't fix her hair to keep it out of her face." But apparently he's been watching and did a good job.
We sat around the kitchen for a while discussing more topics. All of a sudden a scorpion ran out from under the island. Everyone starts screaming and jumping on top of chairs and the countertop. I was already sitting in the corner on the countertop so I jumped down, leapt over him all Jack Be Nimble (as he raised his stinger at me), grabbed Tiffany's oh-so-comfy-made-from-a-yoga-mat flip flop and smashed the crap out of him with it. I'd only seen a scorpion one other time in my life and it was there at the cabin, upstairs in the sink. I made Donald kill him and felt all heebie jeebie the rest of the weekend. I felt slightly more ballsy slaying this beast "All by myself" as Stella says.
We then moved to the living room to relax on the comfortable chairs and couch. At one point I put my feet down on the ground, but then looked around. The other five girls all had their feet up. So I promptly followed suit and scooped mine up under me once again.
I noticed Laura started fading on the couch. She was in and out for a while before we all decided to retire. I opted for my aunt's room on the main floor and Melissa was my roommate. Tiffany and Laura chose upstairs and Britany and Kim went with the basement for optimal sleep since neither room has windows. I mentioned to all of the girls, "I'd just like to point out that the first person to fall asleep is the only one without kids."
I went downstairs with Britany and Kim for something-don't remember what and Britany walked through the basement living room. She immediately flips out and screams about a spider. A huge spider. A really big spider. On the ottoman.
Now, I used to be the Jane Goodall of spiders. Really just Daddy Long-Leg spiders, but I wasn't afraid of spiders or bugs until I got older. I mean, as a toddler, I would go outside and bring in Daddy Long-leg spiders and put then under the covers because I thought they were cold. Of course, the weight of the covers would just crush them to death, but this was beside the point. But now, I do not care for them. At all. I, once again, leapt across the chair to be on the other side of the ottoman so I could get a look at this gigantic spider. I couldn't find him and didn't really want to try looking for him but Kim stepped up and began flipping over the ottomans. He eventually crawled out onto the side where she decided to put her cell phone super close to him to take an up-close picture. I proclaim, "If you're that close with the phone, then you can just go ahead and kill him." See in my mind, I'm thinking "Scorpions can't jump, but that spider can" and that's why I wasn't all that keen on smacking him with something the length of a shoe. Now I have no idea if scorpions can jump nor do I care to google it, it was just my reasoning. So Kim saves the day and I head upstairs to get a dustpan. Meanwhile Kim is taking picture after picture of a now dead spider to send to Brian to see what kind it is. He writes back, "Looks like a dead one" in typical husband fashion. I get side-tracked (an even more common occurrence now that I'm a mom) and at some point hear about another spider slaying in the basement. I just hear stomps up the stairs and see Britany shaking her head. You could basically see the thoughts in her mind pouring out above her like a comic strip "I don't do spiders." "I can't believe I decided to come up here." "I really wish there was someplace else I could sleep that would guarantee that no more spiders or bugs of any sort could get to me." I just handed her a blanket from the closet and she made a bed on the couch. Kim headed upstairs to room with Tiffany and Hudson. Zzzzzzzzzz........
I awoke when Melissa got up, but then fell back asleep. When I awoke again, it felt like I'd only been asleep for a few minutes but apparently I'd slept about another hour. I got up and walked into the living room to see Kim, Tiffany and Melissa up. Kim was getting breakfast ready and someone was making coffee. I finally got around to taking a shower in my Aunt's stone-walled shower for the first time. Lovely. Would have been even lovelier if I could have gotten all of the fancy spray nozzles to work. Oh first world problems. Kim made a frittata with red bell peppers and onions and a hashbrown casserole. I normally don't do peppers, but I actually went back for seconds. We ate breakfast outside on the porch while we watched the remainder of the fog lift off of the mountains and listened to Baby Hudson coo and the sounds of nature. Everyone agreed that breakfast was yummy and the night of uninterrupted sleep was so, so nice.
Melissa had to stay back at the cabin due to a migraine, but everyone else headed into downtown Blue Ridge. It took forever for us to park, but once we did, we had lunch at The Blue Ridge Brewery. Lunch was delicious and Hudson was perfect.
We bought fudge (have to in the mountains, right?) and everyone but me got an ice cream cone from Three Sisters Fudge. We walked around briefly and went into a few shops. I bought a kickass sweater with moose(s) on it for 50% off. The tag on it read "Tacky Christmas Sweater" but I disagree with it completely. I think it's more kitschy than tacky and I plan to wear the hell out of it come fall and winter. We returned home to find that Melissa was feeling much better.
I set out the remainder of the stuff from the night before as an appetizer. We just sat around and snacked while supper baked. Laura chose to do dinner. She made an amazing baked ziti dish (already prepared) and Britany picked up ingredients for a salad and fruit for in the morning. We couldn't get the dining room light to work so we just opened the blinds and dined over the romantic mood lighting of the setting sun.
Laura brought games for us to play, but we all just couldn't stop talking about serious things, funny stuff and stupid crap to stop and play. Great idea, maybe next time. Britany roomed upstairs with Laura Saturday night and we went to sleep slightly earlier than Friday night.
I woke up Sunday morning at 6:30 and used the restroom. I laid there for another hour trying my hardest to go back to sleep but it was no use. I got up at 7:30 and walked into the kitchen to find Tiffany. She was starting some of the prep for breakfast. Hudson was playing on the floor. I made a cup of coffee and sat outside for a bit to take this in. My cup is an old tea cup of my grandmothers that reads "Kissin' don't last, cookin' do." It's looks like it was cross-stitched onto the mug. I love it.
Tiffany made bacon and eggs for breakfast and served these adorable and delicious fruit and yogurt waffle bowls.
Melissa and I gathered up the laundry and started washing. Tiffany and I were the last to leave as we were waiting on the laundry to finish but it was fine. We just sat around in the quite house, continuing the chatter from the weekend. Kelsie was missed and the stress of bringing unfinished work Friday for Britany and Melissa was a pain, I'm sure. Plus, Melissa couldn't join us Saturday downtown, but other than that, it was such a good weekend. Oh, minus the bugs. Thankfully no more appeared after Friday night. Everyone got a lot of sleep, we had such delicious food and very interesting conversation.
I returned home to hear that other than one tiny little meltdown, Stella was just perfect the whole weekend. She's still truly terrified of the Home Depot tools and fireworks, but really, really wants to like them both. They went to Academy Sports on Saturday and Donald bought her a Braves bat and ball. Then they had lunch at Irish Bred Pub in Douglasville, she napped and then they went to Donald's bocce game that evening. Sunday, they took Bandit down to Nickajack Creek where both Stella and B played in the creek. When Stella woke up from her nap she was so excited to tell me all about her special weekend with Daddy.
I was really craving fried chicken and Donald needed to get her truck washed and cleaned out so he left to go do that and brought back Popeyes chicken for dinner. It was a good end to a good weekend. I'd love to have another girl's weekend in the Fall or over Christmas Break, but I know how busy and family filled that time of year can be. I'd also love for this to be trip we do quarterly as downtime away from kids and husbands is something both desired and needed, but we'll see. We definitely have to come back when it's cold though-I need a picture of me in my sweater on the front porch with that view behind me.
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