July 2011--Part Three (Babymoon)

After our 4th of July adventure, Adam and I left Kenly with Nana and Papa for a few nights so we could have a weekend away. We headed to Tybee Island and Savannah, GA to remember "us." What a glorious getaway. I love lighthouses, so Adam made sure to get me to the Tybee Lighthouse.
The view from the top.
I climbed all 100+ stairs because I can't miss that kind of lighthouse experience.
I love this shot that Adam took.

Can you see the beach reflected in the lens?

What's bigger--my belly or the lighthouse?
After exploring Tybee for a bit, we headed into Savannah to experience River Street.
We mainly ate our way through our babymoon, but that's what good Brands do. We decided to appetizer hop since there were too many good options. We started at Dockside.
We split a pound of steamed shrimp, some corn, and some coleslaw.
We walked around and relished uninterrupted conversation. We also enjoyed not worrying about keeping our princess on her schedule.

We checked out echo circle. It's crazy. When you talk while standing in the center of the circle, you can hear your voice echo all around you.
We headed into Wet Willies to get Adam a drink. I'm frowning because I can't have one with him. It's a small sacrifice.
Adam was told to order a Call-A-Cab. So, he's pretending to need a cab.
I think he enjoyed the Call-A-Cab.
We had two appetizer samplers at Tubby's. The first one was so good that we had to order another. Did I mention that we ate a lot?
The view from our hotel room.

We walked out on the pier and watched people fish.
We walked hand-in-hand along the beach.

Our hotel...
On day two we ate breakfast, explored the beach, and then started our restaurant crawl again. We had more steamed shrimp at AJ's Dockside Restaurant.
A bit later we headed to The Crab Shack for a bit more grub. I think we ate so much that I doubled my pregnancy weight gain.
At The Crab Shack, we had oysters and snow crab legs. Yum! This picture makes me salivate.
I wrestled a gator or two.

Adam took on a giant crab...
...and lost.
After eating our way through our day, we headed back to River Street.
We caught a ghost tour, and it was campy but fun.
The next morning Adam took me to eat breakfast by the lighthouse. We actually swam in the ocean for about 15 minutes.


After we checked out of the hotel, we headed back to River Street for a river cruise. It was cool to hear some information about Savannah's history and port activity.


Then we ended our babymoon by eating at a rooftop restaurant.

Then we hurried back to Augusta to love on our little girl. We love time alone, but everything reminded us of our little girl. We know how important it is to nourish "us," and we plan on doing it as often as we can.

Brainwashing

I went out with the girls last night. When I came home, Kenly was nestled in bed and Adam was watching Lost. At 4:30, Kenly started crying, softly at first and then frantically, for Mama. I went in to snuggle her back to sleep, explaining the whole time that she could not have a bottle. It was during this snuggle time that I realized that Adam has been brainwashing our child.

In the middle of our quiet snuggle time, Kenly sat up and yelled, "Go Panthers! Daddy says, 'Go Panthers!'"

You're busted mister!

Duckett House Getaway

Mops and Pops came up to allow Adam and I to run away to celebrate his 34th year on this Earth. Adam had a FLANC conference all day Saturday, so I got to hang out with Mops and Pops a bit.

After Adam got home from the conference, we took off for Hot Springs, North Carolina. We love Hot Springs. In fact, Adam proposed to me in Hot Springs, so it will always be one of those special spots. We have never splurged on a Bed and Breakfast in Hot Springs. Most of the time we camp or stay in rustic cabins. So, I decided we were staying at the Duckett House. We loved the house. It is homey instead of Victorian and elegant. When you walk in your are greeted my the loving, loyal dog and a cat named Monster. The rooms are beautiful, but more country than fancy. After we checked in, we took off to the Magnolia Inn to eat at Martha's. We had a lovely dinner in a room all to ourselves which is a good thing. Adam and I were absolutely giddy--getting away can do that to us. We finished dinner and headed back to the B & B to get ready for our soak in tub #5 at the hot springs. We had an hour long soak in our favorite tub that sits where a creek and a river meet. We headed back to the Duckett House relaxed and ready for bed.

The next morning we got up to and had a few cups of coffee sitting on this porch swing. There is a lovely creek that sings to you as you swing. We had a delicious breakfast served family style in the dining room.
After we finished breakfast, we packed our things and headed home. Just a few short hours recharged us and we were ready to hug our little girl. When we got home, Mops, Pops, and Kenly had gone on a walk-about. We met her at the top of the stairs when she got home. I nearly melted when she bounced and squealed, "EXCITED! Mommy and Daddy home. Yay."

Adventures in Dating

Adam has a way of making my birthdays memorable. Since we've been dating, he's managed to make it snow on almost every one of my birthdays. He's powerful like that. On my 30th birthday, we slid off a mountain trying to go sledding. We should have listened to Chance; he was whining in the back seat. He know it was a bad idea. So I guess I should have know that taking off on Friday, February 12, my 34th birthday, while snow was falling was not a good idea. But hey, I live for adventure.

Adam's school closed two hours early on the 12th, but he couldn't get home until a little after three. We couldn't leave any earlier anyways because the Brands couldn't get here until around 4:00, and lets face it, Kenly is not responsible enough to watch herself. Chance is a good big brother, but he's a bit inattentive, so we needed to wait for our loving childcare to arrive. Adam pulled into our treacherous ice-rink--I mean driveway--so that we could pack up. As he did, he got stuck. It took him about 20 minutes to free the truck from the icy grip of the driveway. Mops and Pops pulled in, and we loving tossed the child in their direction so we could get on the road. Seeing as we live up a knoll/mountain, we knew if we made it out of the neighborhood we'd be safe. Well, we nearly plummeted to our death (okay, I'm being dramatic) three times as we ventured down the hill. We decided we'd try to make it all the way to Blowing Rock, NC, but we need to be realistic. Road conditions were iffy, it was slowly getting dark, and snow was still blowing around. We traveled slowly and in 4-wheel drive to try and avoid an incidents. Because we are older and wiser than we once were, we decided to stop in Hickory for the night. We wanted to live through our romantic get-a-way. We got off on what we thought would be a busy highway only to find nothing, and I mean NOTHING. After driving about 5 miles we came to our first major intersection with buildings and lights, and THEN.....

....BAM. We were rear-ended by a sweet teenage girl trying to keep a package from falling off her passenger seat. If you think I'm joking, here's a picture of the police cruiser to prove it.
Adam is such a good sport....he's smiling through it all. I didn't realize it until later, but the police officer's name was Officer Pain. Is that not funny?
We have to wait 45 minutes for the cop to arrive, issue a citation, and write an accident report. B this time the road conditions have gone from iffy to downright nasty. So, we set off for Lenoir, NC. We never go above 30 MPH for the 12-15 miles we had to travel. We stop at the first hotel we come to, a Days Inn. Room 103 never looked so good. Night one of our romantic getaway was spent eating Papa John's pizza and watching the opening ceremonies to the winter Olympics. At about 10:00PM, Adam and I both took a Vicodin and went to sleep. Before you think we are druggies, you should know that Adam's back was still funky, and I had a root canal the day before. Joy oh joy!
We woke up, ate at Bojangles and headed to Blowing Rock. Pops set us up with a condo at Chetola Resort. It was beautiful. See for yourself....


Jacuzzi tub...need I say more?
We went sledding...believe it or not, this is the only picture I have of both of us from the weekend.


We went sledding for about an hour. We split a yummy lunch at Glidewell's. We had an amazing dinner at the Manor House. Adam bought me awesome chocolates, chocolate covered strawberries, and a bottle of wine for my birthday. We watched more Olympics. On Sunday we had to be home by 4:00, so we took time to sled again (without the baby and a dog who goes psycho trying to save us from the sled) and then ate a yummy lunch at Storie Street Grille. Adam took me home using the scenic routes. It turned out to be an awesome, relaxing weekend full of romance and adventure, despite the rocky start. Awesome Adam and Radical Rhonda made the most of their time away.