Stuck in the Middle with You

This week we traveled to middle Georgia to be with M to the Izz-A as he attended a training for work.  This is one of those times I'm thankful to be a stay at home mom, so that we could go with him, instead of being apart for an entire week.  Now, on the flip side, it also meant that we were all crammed into a hotel room that wasn't exactly set up to host a family of four for a six-day duration.  But, I must say we did enjoy ourselves and spent most of our time out of the room thankfully, roaming around, finding things to do. 

And so what if the lady at Chik-Fil-A knew us by name and combo # by the end of the week?  I said we found "things" to do.  Entering Chik-Fil-A, ordering at Chik-Fil-A, eating, and playing on the playground at Chik-Fil-A are "things"...plural.

I also loaded up our cabinet of crafts before we left and brought them along so that Kate could have some free fun things to do while we were there.  She and I both love a little crafting every now and then. 



So we loaded up our lives and headed out.

I just knew we'd forget something, and that 'something' turned out to be Hamp's bouncer seat - his all time favorite seat of the moment.  Not to worry.  We made do with an array of items.  I'm beginning to think the bouncer seat was a waste of money. 


See Exhibit A:

 Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

Kate did a lot of this,

while Hamp did lots of this.

We actually did find several things to do other than make people wonder if we were chicken loving vagabonds.  I, of course, found us a Target to browse.

And somehow Kate managed to come home with twins.



Her specific photo request



Aww, look at Mr. Fella.

And since we didn't have a full kitchen in our room, we did our share of eating out in the evenings as well.  Twist my arm.

The weather was perfect.  Cool in the mornings and evenings, while warming up a bit in the afternoons.

We did find a nice outside shopping area and I had high hopes of doing a little shopping.  But after store numero uno, I decided to just focus on kid-friendly activities for the remainder of the trip.  From Kate ramming Hamp and the stroller into the clothes racks and hanging on the gold necklaces like they were big swings to everytime she picked up something saying with every bit of drama she could muster, "This is gorgie!"  No wait, this is gorgie!"  (as in the shortened version of gorgeous)  I have to admit.  That last part is hilarious.  But shopping with kids is for the birds.  Or crazy people.


We spent a lot of the week in Barnes and Nobles.  Kate ended up absolutely loving it there and Hamp was able to people watch 'til his little heart was content.  The children's section is perfect. 

Kate loved this book.  We read it over and over. 

But at the end of the day, what did we actually end up coming home with?

 Olivia.

Good ol' Olivia beat the llama by a mile.


 

 And we found something to do with all those pretty fall leaves outside.

We were also able to visit the Museum of Science and Art.

Kate enjoyed the art part a lot more than the science.  Hamp, on the other hand, loved looking at the giant insects.  He couldn't keep his eyes off of them...between his napping, that is. 

This trip has been pretty refreshing.  Sometimes it's just good to get away for a little while.

 

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter where you are, what you're doing, or if you've got Olivia sleeping in between you, your kids, and your husband.  What matters most is that you're there, enjoying the moment, making those memories with your family, even if it does include discussions on whether the purple top is more "gorgie" than the blue.