Anniversary Trip to Oxford

If you would rather skip the terrible beginning to this story, just scroll down to the pictures. If you want the real deal, well, read on...

If you've lived over a decade, you know life throws curveballs. We seem to be in the curveball business when it comes to getaway trips. We try, despite busy schedules and finances, to prioritize at least one trip a year together, if not more. But the last three (this being the second, I'll get to blogging about the third and most recent trip sometime) have been...particularly interesting. On our previous anniversary, I got a horrible stomach virus and our car broke down on the way home (see the full story here.) We thought, surely nothing like that could happen again, right? Hahaha. (shaking my head)

The story began with a co-worker offering a family lake house "anytime we wanted." While I wouldn't take anyone up on this, she seemed particularly adamant about the offer and another friend/co-worker had already stayed there twice and loved it. So we called the grands about keeping the kids for 5 days and put it on the calendar. Normally we would just stay a weekend away, but the offer of the lake house for free enabled us to stay longer. 

We planned on leaving after I got off work on the last day of school. I arrived to work that morning and asked my co-worker for the directions (which she hadn't sent yet). She then asked if I'd gotten her email that she sent late the night before. I had not, so she proceeded to tell me that the cleaning lady had discovered that the air conditioner was not working at the lake house. Don't start panicking. Okay, so...this can be fixed, right? I asked. She wasn't sure. Her father (the owner of the lake house) had a lot going on in his business and she didn't know if he could get to it. Heart beating faster. No sweat, just give us the number to the company you'd like to look at it and we'll call and take care of it. We don't mind, really. The promise of a free stay somewhere was too good to pass up.

I waited, off and on that day while working, for an answer from her about getting it fixed. I called Davey and we agreed that we would still go, even if the AC was broken. We go camping, how bad could it be? Plus, we planned to go hiking, kayaking, and jogging, so we figured we'd be outdoors a lot. Since our last anniversary trip had been ruined by a stomach virus, we were looking forward to this trip more than ever.

More time went by that day. No answer. I texted Davey and told him to go buy a big fan.

I didn't want to bug her, but seriously? I had to have my kids packed and ready to go right after work and then we were supposed to hit the road. I didn't even have the directions (despite asking and emailing in the weeks prior).

I finally got a text after I left work (at this point, we were really stressed). They told us we couldn't go. Her family completely pulled the plug. On the trip we'd been anticipating for months. The trip we had been so thankful for due to someone's generosity. The trip that had been way overdue. The trip that we'd so carefully planned, from child care, to kayaking reservations, to researching hiking trails. You can't stay there. My stomach is queasy just typing this. We were devastated. "Go and do something nice and stay somewhere this weekend with your husband" I was told. I suppose if you own two houses this is no big deal. Sorry if I sound hurt, but I was!

We did the only thing we knew to do. We thanked God for some Christmas money that we had put away (though we had hoped to use it for something else), and we tried to pick up the pieces. We found a good price at a hotel near the places we had planned on visiting, booked it (with a sinking feeling though...having to spend that much hurts when you had a free place hours ago!), and left, promising each other that despite the emotional roller coaster, we were going to have a great time. 

Well, we did have a great time. We had a wonderful time actually. Once we got there and put the whole mess behind us, we just thanked the Lord that He made a way that we didn't have to cancel it all. Plus, I was with my best friend. Can't go wrong with that.

Wild flowers at Cheaha State Park, AL

One thing we did was a kayaking trip. Tallapoosa River Outfitters is a small place in the middle of nowhere. It was way out in the country in Alabama. Most country people you'll meet, and the nicest too. Funny thing about that kayaking trip. It was supposed to be a 5.5 mile trip...we went about 12. Completely missed the take out. Just kept on going for miles. I had grabbed my iPhone last second (actually went back to the car to get it and rented a waterproof box) just so I could have a camera on the way down the river. Good thing because I also had a GPS to show that we were definitely not going toward the Outfitters place. Mind you, this is in the middle of nowhere. There aren't places to just climb out of the river, and even if we did, there would probably not be a road for miles. Amazingly, I was able to use my phone to call the place, and we pieced together where we might be. We finally found a place to take out near a bridge where some folks were fishing. We hauled the kayaks up a hill, and then waited for what seemed like forever for the guy to come pick us up. Thankfully, they weren't mad, more amused. Apparently, no one had ever done that before. Awesome. Leave it to us. He drove us back to the store where our car was, and we even walked down to the river to see where we should have gotten out. We still have no idea how we missed it. It still drives me crazy. So, even though we were tired and hungry, it was a good laugh!

At the beginning of the 5.5 mi-turned-12-mile-trip

The old bridge and road where we finally got picked up. Deserted doesn't begin to describe it!

Other highlights from the trip include walking around some old towns, taking time to take pictures (not always easy with kids in tow), perusing antique shops, and a visit to Cheaha State Park. We hiked and enjoyed this beautiful place. The waterfalls were really fun!

Don't fall!

 One of the nice things about a trip like this, for us, was the ability to just take our time without a plan. We also got to goof off a bit with pictures and I was able to teach Davey a few things about my camera. I think he did great!

Above the waterfall

Taking the plunge. It was COLD!

 At the end of that day, after hiking and trail running, we had dinner at the lodge and enjoyed the view.

While the trip got off to a rocky start, we forgot about it by the end (in fact, I forgot about it while blogging as well!). We are thankful that we still got to go and have a great time.

Lailey's 4-Year-Old Birthday Interview

If you missed last year's interview or would like to see how much she's grown, go here.

Camping at Red Top Mountain 2013

My blogging as of late has no organizational sense except which pictures I feel like editing first. I haven't even blogged about Christmas! Yes, that was four months ago. Oh well. I'm not too worried about it. One thing at a time. Since I had a lot of picture-taking fun on our recent camping trip, that was what got tweaked in Lightroom first and that's what is going on the blog...

My aspiration for an extended family camping trip became reality last week. We were supposed to leave a day earlier, but bad weather (rain ALL day and in the 40s, no thank you!) required us to postpone one day. Thankfully, we just added that night to the end of our trip, rounding out a 3 night stay. The extended family (as you'll see in pictures) included Amy, Tim, and Matthan (my nephew); Christy, Jason, Sadie (4 and 1/2) and Titus (2 and 1/2); Grandpa Jim; and our family of four. Camping - particularly tent camping- is a lot of work, and we knew that with 5 kids under 5 it was gonna be CAAAARAAAAAZY! It did not disappoint. But a lot of the craziness came from unanticipated situations: the temperature getting into the 30s the first night (NOT in the weather forecast), Christy getting a stomach virus the first morning, and oh, did I mention 5 kids under 5? Right. Talk about an adventure. But nonetheless, it has not discouraged me from wanting to go camping again.

Sadie and Lailey

One of the best parts of the trip for Lailey was this HUGE bunch of boulders between our campsite and Amy's. Unfortunately, as I was weeding out pictures I realized I did not get a shot to show how high they were when they were on top. I would guess the rocks were 9 to 10 feet high. Lailey, always the adventurous climber, made us nervous several times as she scaled them fearlessly.

Amy, Matthan, and Tim

Titus enjoying a biscuit

Another highlight of the trip was all the kids (at least the four mobile ones) playing together and hanging out around the campfire at night. Unfortunately, this only happened one night since Amy headed home early since Matthan wasn't sleeping well, and Christy did the same since she was sick. But it was still fun while it lasted.

Crazy cousins

And thank goodness for Grandpa! He helped watch the kids while we were cooking or washing dishes, or anything else. That was a huge help.

Matthan and Grandpa

If it wasn't for Tim snapping this one shot, I wouldn't have been in any pics all weekend!
 Gotta get Davey behind my camera!!!

Maddox

Jason and Titus

Sunday, our third day, was Lailey's birthday! To celebrate, she had a Pop-Tart with a 4 candle in it at breakfast. She loved that! After lunch we walked down to the lake and she got to play around the water a bit on Lake Allatoona.

Lake Allatoona

Always in the mud

That evening, Grandpa said goodbye since he had to work Monday, and we were the only ones left for the last night. We walked down to the lake again and this time enjoyed the sunset.

My loves

Getting shoes off

Where'd Lailey go? (comes out: "Weh Nay-nee doh?)

My dirty hobo child

Monday we came home with a lot of dirt! I had to mentally release any obsession over thinking I was going to keep Maddox clean. At all. He was filthy, and since he HATES getting his face, hands, anything wiped or cleaned whatsoever, I had to pick my battles. The kids soaked in the bath for probably an hour. They were then given the most thorough washing ever. 

Hopefully next time we go camping it will be a little more relaxing. And hopefully we can pack less! I'm tired of dragging a pack 'n' play and a high chair!

Lailey's Rainbow 4th Birthday Party

My baby girl is FOUR! Phew. Time flies. That should be the name of this blog. I'll be honest (I usually am), I start thinking about Lailey's birthday party right after Christmas? Am I obsessive...or do I really love party planning. I'll pick the latter, but you can decide for yourself. This year, I let her come up with the theme. Don't know where the inspiration came from, but it was definitely going to be a rainbow party. Awesome! Colorful, fun, vibrant, and bright - fitting for Lailey. So the brainstorming begins...and where do I go? Pinterest of course! This is how I do parties:

1. Pick a theme (done)

2. Go on Pinterest for inspiration

3. Check out pictures of other parties that are WAAAAAAY too expensive for us.

(Since when did a child party need to be $500 and up? Seriously.)

4. Find ways to do an awesome party on the cheap

5. Start making DIY decorations well ahead of time

6. Make lists, shop, decorate

7. Enjoy it! It goes way to fast.

I admit: I went overboard with this party. I don't mean I spent way to much, it was just the most involved party I've planned. But one fun rainbow idea led to another, then Lailey saw a picture of rainbow cake pops and asked for them, and before I knew it I was up to my elbows in rainbow stuff! But that's okay. Like I said before, I find cheaper ways to do stuff. Except the tutu...

These tutus can be easily made for under $5 or $10...if you have one or two colors of tulle. Yeah well, a rainbow tutu necessitates 7 colors of tulle. I should really be making these and selling them with all the tulle I have leftover. Geez.

When it came to food, I was SO EXCITED when I realized how easy it is to have rainbow food! Fresh fruits and veggies! Despite my terrible sweet tooth, we usually don't do a ton of sweets at parties. This was the perfect way to have yummy, healthy, AND pretty food. Davey helped with the fruit kabobs. The party bags had some rainbow stickers, Skittles, and crayons (a rainbow of colors), and I decorated them with Lailey's dot art markers. I told myself once I'd never decorate water bottles, but I did. I had enough paper after cutting letters for "Happy Birthday Lailey" and it just made them so pretty on the table. Never say never.

And now to the cake pops. Of course, I saw these on Pinterest and showed them to Lailey before I thought about it. Big mistake. She loved them. And asked me to make them. What have I gotten myself into?

 Here's the short version of how I made these (for the full instructions, go to Munchkin Munchies):

1. Make cake mix

2. Separate batter into SIX different bowls and color them

3. Bake cupcakes

4. Crumble, add icing, knead until mixed.

5. Repeat FIVE MORE TIMES FOR EACH COLOR

6. Seriously wonder "What have I gotten myself into?"

7. Roll each color of "dough" into tiny balls (this equals over 150 balls)

8. Smoosh one ball of each color together to make a rainbow ball

9. Dip in candy coating, add mini M&M's and halved, smooshed mini marshmallows

10. Sigh in relief that you never have to do this again...

until your child wants cake pops again next year!

It was not too bad because I paced myself and started two days early. I wasn't up half the night like last year with Ladybug Pops since I now knew how much time it can take for these. They were yummy though! And of course the birthday girl loved them.

 In addition to the tutu, I sewed felt flowers on a shirt as well. When I showed the shirt to her the morning after I had made it, she calmly said "Mommy, there's not a pink flower. Pink is my favorite color." Oooooookay, you can have a pink flower. That didn't get done until 10 minutes before the party! But she got a pink flower.

 For a fun activity, I bought 3 $1 packs of multi colored beads and separated them by color to make rainbow bracelets or necklaces. A cheap and fun activity, and also a GREAT sorting and fine motor activity for Lailey prior to the party since I had her help me separate all the colors.

 We had quite a crowd in our little backyard! Thankfully the weather was nice and the rain held off.

Cousins Sadie and Lailey - I was tying on her bracelet that I made her
since she was having too much fun to sit still and make one.

Ready for presents!

Time to sing!

Opening presents - thanks, Dad (Grandpa Jim), for taking some photos
so I can actually be in one for once!

We were definitely at capacity.

I had a blast doing this birthday party, which is hopefully evident by this post. I felt like it flew by! I didn't even get all the pictures I wanted but we were having so much fun enjoying the party. Oh well. Can't have it all!