Last Week in Pictures

Here is a recap over the past week, in pictures... and some words.

Jared had to work late one day last week and he wasn't going to be able to make it home in time to see Charlotte and read to her before bedtime, so we went to meet him for dinner and afterwards went up to his office so he and Charlotte could have their story time.


We were headed up to Atlanta on Friday afternoon, so I stopped by the library beforehand to pick up some books on CD to listen to on the ride up there. (Wishful thinking. Riding with Charlotte in the van does not create the best environment for following a story line. It is, however, quite conducive for an environment in which one would like to pull their hair out.) We stopped by the children's library for a little bit for Charlotte to play while we waited on Jared to finish a few things up at work.


After climbing on the big alligator, Charlotte did some coloring...

Then I noticed that she was hoarding the crayons.


We stayed with Dusty & Arin on Friday night. We woke up on Saturday morning, earlier than any of us would have liked since we were up chatting until midnight, and Arin made us a delicious breakfast. Then for lunch, we went to our favorite little restaurant, Penang. Penang is the name of the island where Jared's parents lived while they were missionaries and where Jared proposed to me (awww!). They serve two of our favorite dishes there, roti canai and chicken satay. We've been able to recreate the satay pretty well, but have not been successful at all in making the roti. So whenever we go to Atlanta, a trip to Penang is essential. Here are Ella and Charlotte at the Penang, catching up on some gossip.


From there, Jared, Charlotte and I headed north toward Clayton, GA, where his parents own a cabin that his dad has been building over the past few years. We stopped at the Tallulah Overlook and saw the amazing view.


Charlotte and Jared enjoyed the quick break.


This was the cutest, most quaint little country bumpkin of a town. The gift shop sold RC Colas and Moonpies. It doesn't get more southern than that. The folks were real nice too. We made a friend. Kristina, I gave him your number ;)


We had to make a stop to get some essentials for the cabin that we had forgotten to bring with us, namely a ceramic heater. We stopped at a local shop that we also found some other things at that we thought would be useful. If you're ever in the Clayton area, you'll have to make time for a trip to a place called "Wal-Mart". Great stuff at reasonable prices with that small town charm.
[Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the Wal-Mart]

We finally made it to the cabin and had to bundle up to go for a walk to the creek.


Then we walked to the creek.


Then it started to get dark so we headed inside and hunkered down for the cold night that would be ahead of us.


Sometimes it's just nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of the real world and enjoy a more primitive life. You know, the kind where you have a laptop but no access to the internet.

[Sidenote: That little black beauty on my lap is named Lucy. I am currently typing away on Lucy right now. Some people may find it odd to name your computer, but after the hassle that we went through to buy her, we thought she deserved a name (and a gender designation). It took countless trips to about five different stores, I don't know how many phone calls, tons of checking online and several headaches and letdowns before we finally found her and were able to purchase her. Since we don't have cable, we figured another computer would be helpful since we'd most likely be on the internet more and only had one computer.]

On Sunday morning we hiked down to the waterfall.


Here's a view of the cabin from the other side of the creek.


Charlotte did not quite understand the adventure of it all. "For real, Dad, what are we doing?"


After we packed everything up, went went to the Dillard House for lunch. The food was incredible and there was SO much of it. You don't order from a menu there, they just bring you a little bit of everything. Three types of meats, biscuits and rolls, and I'd say at least 8 vegetabls. We stuffed ourselves completely but still had more than half of the food left over. Here is the view from the Dillard House.


They also have a little farm at the Dillard House so we took Charlotte over to see the animals. She liked the goat.


And the sheep.


That's a bunch of bull.


We then went to some little antique shops near the Dillard House. Jared tolerated it wonderfully as I wanted to walk through the few we stopped in. Charlotte even made a friend in one of the shops.


Then we headed back to spend another evening in Atlanta. We went to the park with Cyrl, a friend of Dusty & Arin's and let the kids play on the playground. The kids were all in bed shortly after we got home and we had a good time listening to Cyrl tell stories of his family and travels. Some of his stories would make for a perfect Tyler Perry movie. On Monday morning, we said goodbye to everyone. Anson was so sweet and almost cried when we left. That just melts my heart! We met Jared's pastor from his church in Atlanta and his wife and son for breakfast and had a great time catching up with them.
[No picture for these events, but get a mental picture of Dusty doing an impersonation of a hyper-Calvinist (as in a Calvinist who has had too much sugar:). Maybe it's one of those "You had to be there" moments, but it was hilarious!]

After breakfast, we headed south for the 5 1/2 hour drive home. Well, it should have been 5 1/2 hours, but it turned into much longer than that. We were stuck on the interstate for about 45 minutes because of a bad accident that was about 1/4 mile ahead of us. And we made many more stops on the way down than we did on the way up to avoid having as fussy of a child in the back seat. She was a happy camper when we let her run around in the van while the van was parked on I-75!


And yesterday, Charlotte and I made a trip over to Gainesville to help with an event called "Let's Eat Cake!" It was a fundraiser put on by MasterPiece Weddings, the wedding and event planning firm I did my internship with. It was an all-you-can-eat cake buffet that benefitted St. Jude's Children Hospital. I'm not sure how much money was raised, but the turn-out was fantastic (they even ran out of tickets! What a great problem to have!) and the cakes were amazing. Kerry Vincent, one of the judges from the Food Network cake challenges (the really harsh one with the foreign accent that always wears the headband) was a judge and I got to shake her hand! I even rode in the elevator with her to show her where the judges were meeting. Yeah, I'm a big deal now... But even better than, I got to see Melissa, who coordinated the whole shin-dig, and Jamie, a friend from high school and my roommate from college! One of the most fun parts of the whole evening was the photo booth they had set up at the event. Charlotte and I had some pictures made.
Yes, I just took a picture of the pictures. We didn't get in till almost 10 last night and I'm pooped!