More Travelling and Being SICK...ugh

This past weekend Eden and went travelling again! Surprise, surprise, I know! We went to Georgia for the quickest trip EVER!

We decided to leave Friday evening for Georgia. Part of me thought it was a crazy idea, but Lane was sick and I had a hard time leaving him home to fend for himself. Ginger also had surgery that morning, so I didn't want to leave before she came home and knew that it wasn't going to be too much for Lane to deal with as he was under the weather. Her surgery went fine and the vet is still very pleased with her recovery. The site is on her neck, so she wants to scratch it and we have to keep it wrapped up because she's got a drain and stitches. On top of all of that, I thought I'd give it a go and see if Eden might travel better at night. She did WONDERFULLY! I stopped about an hour into the trip to make a pit stop and I changed her into her pj's and went through as much of her night time routine as possible and she slept most of the way to Georgia as I listened to music on one ear bud in order to keep the car "silent" for her to sleep. We arrived in Georgia around 2am eastern time.

When we arrived at my parents house we, of course, went right to bed. That morning when we got up, Eden ate her breakfast and had all her normal morning stuff until it was nap time again. After nap time we loaded up and headed to Dahlonega for Gold Rush. I haven't been back to Dahlonega since Lane's graduation. SO much has changed up there. Gold Rush was great, I was able to see MANY people who I haven't seen forever. I ran into a lot of Kappa Deltas while we were in Dahlonega. I also ran into a good friend Emily Greene. She had come down over the summer to see Eden, and she said Eden looks the same, just bigger and more grown up.

After Gold Rush, Parker and I along with a friend of his went to Helen for Oktoberfest. This was the first time that I had left Eden with a sitter and was so far away from her. I was about an hour and a half from her, and my nerves could tell! I did good, I think, by enjoying the evening and trusting that she was in good hands. Mimi and Pop sent pictures and videos throughout the night of her after bath time and of her playing catch with Frasier. She loved having another dog around! She's going to be so much of an animal person.

While Eden had fun with Mimi and Pop, Parker and I explored Helen! We saw someone walking around with this goofy German-ish hat and Parker immediately wanted one. I told him that I would buy him one if it was under $10, and lucky for him it was! I also told him that if he didn't have the hat at the end of the night that he would owe me the money that I spent on the hat. It worked and we took pictures of him and the hat for the evening. It was a fun task and it added a little something to the night so that it wasn't all about beer!

This is the store that we got the hat.

Of course we had to take a picture with the German flag!

At the bar with the hat.

Mike with the hat.

Me with the hat.

This is when we ran into Lane's fraternity brothers at the Troll Tavern.

Holley and Gabe with the hat. She took it from Parker - at this point I thought I might get my money back because I wasn't sure Parker would get it back!

Fish with the hat.

And Parker got the hat back...Holley wasn't too thrilled about the idea of giving it back.

After Gold Rush and Oktoberfest Eden and I were able to spend a few moments in Snellville before we headed back home. Once again we travelled at night in order to avoid a grumpy traveller! When we got home, we returned to a still sick Daddy and a stitched up Ginger. Lane went to the doctor Tuesday morning and they told him he had "walking pneumonia" which, from what we understand, is the stage between bronchitis and pneumonia. The good news about it is that it's bacterial so he's able to be on antibiotics and he's finally starting to feel better. He will go back to the doctor on Monday to see if he's well enough to start flying again on Tuesday. We're going to keep our fingers crossed that this is possible because it's been so long since he's flown and he's starting to feel behind.

Halloween, Teeth, and The Park - OH MY!

Eden will be a duck for Halloween this year. We are so excited to be able to do the family Halloween thing with her. We put her in her costume the other day so that we could do some pictures to send to a few friends and family members. By a few, I mean, grandparents, great grandparents and aunts and uncles. When we had Eden in her costume, she didn't even seem to notice it really. I was surprised because she doesn't ever really have to layer up, and the costume has tights and a big BULKY outfit.

The teeth that we've been so anxious about have broken the gums! YAY! Eden has 2 teeth on the bottom in the center of her mouth. When she smiles you still can't see them without looking real hard for them, but when you feel for them - they're there, trust me! Because she's got the teeth, we've started brushing her teeth when she takes a bath at night.

The most recent adventure we went on was to the park with Eden. There's a park really close to the house and I was curious to see if she would be excited about any part of it. We let her swing first and she loved that. She was very indifferent about the rest of it. I guess that's alright with me because she wasn't scared of the slides or looking out from some of the taller places that we had climbed to with her. She got tired before the end of the trip so we were only there for about 30 minutes. When she's crawling well she will LOVE going to the park more and more - and I will love it even more to take her!

Chicago and Iowa

After coming home from Fripp Island and Georgia, Eden and I were able to spend some time at home with Daddy! It was great being home for a little while before heading out again. This time Eden and I were headed to Chicago to spend some time with Angela, David, and Mack before heading over to Iowa for an entertaining and beautiful Timpe wedding.

Eden and I flew from Pensacola to Charlotte and then from Charlotte to Chicago. These are pictures of Eden at the Charlotte airport waiting to fly to Chicago.

After landing in Chicago Aunt Angela and Princess Mack took us back to their house to hang out for a few days before we left for Iowa. While we were at their house Eden fell in love with her cousin Mack and her aunt and uncle. These are some of the pictures that we were able to capture of Eden's first bonfire! We roasted marshmallows, made smores, and even danced...A LOT. We were practicing for the upcoming wedding! Mackenzie showed us how to do the YMCA, the Chicken Dance, and even sang "Ceeeeeelabrate good times, COME ON!" for us.

The morning after the bonfire started the real fun! The 5+ hour drive with the 5 of us to get to Iowa. Once we were in Iowa we got to celebrate Mack's 3rd birthday! She had fun and loved being pampered with gifts. One of the awesome gifts that Mack got was that the family started rollin' in! Her cousins Skylar and Bentley arrived with Grandma, Grandpa, and Stephanie! It was awesome to be able to see them. I haven't seen Stephanie and Skylar since before Bentley was born. This was the first time Angela, David, Mack, and me and Eden had the opportunity to meet Bentley!

Mack in her "party skirt"

Singing to herself with M&Ms as her microphone with her awesome new "party skirt"

The next day was the day we had all been waiting for. Justin and Myra stood in front of everyone in a church in Boone, Iowa and vowed to love each other forever! Angela sang at the wedding and when she finished her song Mack said "Wow, good job Mommy!" for all to hear. It was quite possibly one of the cutest things I've heard. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was TONS of fun - but nothing less was expected from a Timpe wedding! It was great for Eden to be able to see Lane's family that had not had the opportunity to meet her yet. She had come down with a cold and she was cutting teeth, but when there were people around she put on a great show and was very happy to be with family!



After a wonderful trip to Iowa, we were all ready to get home. Mostly in order to get the 5 of us - me, Eden, Mack, Angela, and David - out of the small hotel room that Angela, David, and Mack were gracious enough to share with us! It wasn't much fun to bunk up with a sick and grumpy baby for 3 nights! And let's face it, it wasn't fair to ask Mack to keep it down when Eden needed to sleep! She was a good sport about it though. Back in Chicago we got to go out to eat for some sushi and some icecream. It was a fabulous night and a great way to unwind before loading back up onto the plane to come home to see Daddy!

Fripp for Labor Day

Well, I used to think that getting on the computer to update the blog was hard BEFORE Eden was born, and now I am MONTHS behind on updating!

After Eden and I got home from Mississippi, we were here for about another week before packing up and leaving again (you'll quickly find that this is a theme of this post). This time we'd be leaving for Atlanta and Fripp Island for our family reunion - again without Lane because he needed to stay put for flight school. I chose to drive to Atlanta to be there for a few days because it was a shorter drive to be by myself with Eden than if we drove over to Fripp by ourselves. We stayed at my parents house and were able to have Lane's parents over for dinner one night before we left for the beach. That was nice to have everyone in the same place and not having to drive back and forth between the homes.

Mimi, Pop, myself, and Eden got all packed up and ready to go and we headed off to Fripp on Wednesday morning before Labor Day in order to grocery shop and prep the house for everyone else to come in later that weekend. It was nice to get down there and just hang out and get the lay of the land before the rest of the family got there. Eden was able to go on her very first golf cart ride the night we got there - which is a MAJOR Fripp milestone!

After we were all settled in, we took Eden to the pool the next morning. She LOVED the water and it was lots of fun to watch her enjoy something new!

The next morning Karen and her family and Parker all arrived to Fripp and the real party was ready to get started! Eden made her Fripp Beach Debut and it went very well!

Each day when it was time for Eden's afternoon nap, her Mimi ever so graciously took her back to the house, which allowed me to have afternoons with the rest of the family. I got go be a kid again! We usually had fun at the pool (I tried teaching Noah and Alyssa how to touch the bottom of the 10ft pool and I taught Becca how to do a back dive off the edge of the pool). We had tons of fun and looking back at pictures makes me miss everyone!

One afternoon we had a Bocce Ball tournament and we all had TONS of fun playing this beach-side before rinsing/goofing off at the pool.

To celebrate both Parker's and Noah's birthdays we went to the Upper Crust (always a Fripp Island must) to have pizza and we made and decorated Red Velvet cakes for the boys. While at dinner, Parker challenged Noah to a cake eating contest that turned into having teams with each player having a piece of cake and having to eat it with no hands! Parker's team did win, but with a cheater amongst them! Pop used his hands to hold the plate on the table! I only bring this up because there is picture proof of it! It was a blast and we can all thank Parker for the cake challenge!

 

There were many themes to the family vacation this year, and one of them was Toy Story. Each person got dressed up like a Toy Story character and we watched the 2 movies that have been released to DVD while we were at Fripp. Mimi and Pop supplied everyone with Popcorn boxes and movie theater candy! It was a blast. Here is a list of your Toy Story cast:

Mimi and Pop as Mrs. and Mr. Potato Head:

Noah and McKenna as Woody and Jessie:

Becca, Alyssa, and Lauren as the Aliens:












And

Parker, Karen, Brittany, and Todd as the Plastic Army People:










Not pictured: Eden as the Baby Sister from Toy Story 1

Of course the other theme of the trip was our "Color" which was "tangerine" this year. We all got our shirts and towels again this year in order to take our family picture (minus Lane).

To end the Fripp Tripp Eden made her very own "step" to go in Mimi and Pop's rosemary garden. The Rosemary Garden has a step that each of the grandchildren made with their hand print or footprint and the Rosemary is planted in memory of Alan - my mom's son who passed away at the young age of 12. The whole garden is a very special place for the whole family!

As I mentioned in the beginning of this post - packing up and heading out had become somewhat of a habit for Eden and I. This update took much longer than expected, so, in the VERY near future I promise to update about our most recent trip to Chicago and Iowa to visit the Daigle/Timpe side of the family for a "Timpe Wedding" with all the right stuff (Redeye and dancing included)!