Road Trip!

This weekend we headed to Charles' hometown for the weekend. Mary Louise and Richard, AKA DiDi and Granddaddy, were of course glad to see Emmy after a couple of months!
On the way we stopped in Alpharetta to have lunch with Jane and Jasper. (Jeremy was at work.) Jane is my "Little Sis" in my sorority so we have always had a special relationship and it was fun to finally introduce Emmy to Aunt Jane! Jasper is two and he was really more excited to see Rags than Emmy, but he was cute with her. He showed us around his new house and gave us a counting lesson on the stairs to the basement and then up to the 2nd floor. Fourteen is the magic number! We had a great time visiting with them!

We arrived in Rome and got settled in the hotel and then met Richard and ML for dinner. Emmy fell asleep in her Daddy's arms when we finished eating so it was obviously close to bed time. We went back to put her to bed and ML came to visit during bathtime, etc. while Richard went to the football game. He's the "color announcer" for the high school marching band. Here's a photo of Emmy and DiDi after bath time.

Saturday we took Emmy to Granddaddy's clinic (he's a veterinarian for our readers who didn't know this) to meet some of the staff. Here she is all dressed up and ready to go. Also, we got to see Rags after her little procedure that morning. She needed her teeth cleaned for the first time (at 7, that's pretty good!) and while she was under anesthesia Richard also fixed the umbilical hernia on her tummy. She did fine and was very glad to see us! She stayed at the clinic while we went to get some lunch, but Richard took back at their house later in the afternoon.

After a delicious lunch of BBQ (and fried pickles, yum!) we went downtown to take pictures at the new fountains at the Forum. It's representative of the fact that Rome is built where two rivers meet to form a third. Then we went to the visitor's center to take a few photos. ML's garden club (aptly named the Three Rivers garden club) takes care of the flower boxes around the center so we took some photos there. Then it was nap time! In the photos we are in front of one of the River monuments, and the other photo is Granddaddy, Daddy, and Emmy at the visitor's center. It was COLD outside!

Emmy got a little tired of being put in and out of her car seat, which she let me know by stiffening up so she was practically standing up when I put her in. I love the look on her face, as if to say "see, I told you I was tired of this!"

We had dinner at their house that evening and of course many more photos were taken. I will post more of Richard's photos in my Picasa album, too.


Sunday we went to church and Emmy stayed with us since she was a special part of the service. Each year the United Methodist Women at the church where Charles grew up give donations in honor of all the babies and grandbabies born in the last year. They made a special presentation at the end of the service and invited the babies and their parents and grandparents down to the front to present certificates. Overall, Emmy did SO well during the service. During most of the hymns, she "sang" along with us which was hilarious! However, during the final hymn she fell asleep (as you can see from the photo I posted here). Of course all of the Richard and ML's friends were glad to meet Emmy. She was so good; she did us proud. :)

After lunch we went back to change, and more photos ensued. (For those of you who don't know my father-in-law he's a photo fanatic and rarely without a camera!) Here Emmy is posing with Granddaddy after church. Then it was time to hit the road. We stopped again in the Atlanta area on the way home to visit with friends. David was Charles' brigade commander several years ago and we have stayed close to their family. Walking into Sharon's house is just like coming home and tt was so great to see them. They have always been such a huge source of support with us and I know their prayers helped get Emmy here safely! Unfortunately I didn't take any photos while I was there, but we'll take some next time! We stayed for a delicious homemade supper, then headed home.

Emmy fell asleep in the car and I was able to transfer her to her crib without waking her. Yahoo! Of course then she woke up at 2 a.m. That's been the routine lately. I'm not sure if it's the cold she's had, the fact that we're not swaddling her anymore, or something else, but she is now waking up between 2 and 4 am. (She goes to between 8 and 9 pm.) Sometimes she's ready to eat, sometimes she just needs help getting back to sleep. Needless to say the switch from waking around 6 or 7 to 2-4 has been hard on her Mama. I need to make myself go to sleep a little earlier. I was doing pretty good for a while, but I'm moving back into my night owl ways.

Many more photos from the weekend are posted on Picasa in both the October album and one containing all of Richard's photos from the weekend. Enjoy!

P.S. Sorry that the text is running into one of the photos. I am an inexperienced blogger and with html, so if anyone has a tip, let me know!