More Flags, More Fun

The last thing I want to do right now is blog. I am POOPED and I have a headache that is running down into the back of my neck. But...we had a fun day today, and we are planning another fun one tomorrow, so I fear if I don't blog about it now, it will get overlooked and I will not preserve the memory. So, here I go.



Today was Evan's first trip to Six Flags. My sister had some free tickets from her kids' reading program at school, so she invited us to join them. I agonized over the decision to go on a day that Pressley would be in school. I just felt so guilty leaving her out of the fun, but she is too short to ride a lot of the rides, and I was just afraid that my sitting out would mean that some of the older kids would not have an adult to ride with and may miss out, and so I finally decided to just take Evan. It was the right decision. As much as I missed her and thought about her all day, some of my thoughts went like this: "Oh, Pressley would have never tolerated this line." or "Lil' P would have been completely freaked out by that Monster Mansion ride." or other similar thoughts. My sweet parents agreed to pick P up from school to alleviate some of my guilt. They took her for ice cream, let her play at their house, and then took her to dinner before returning her to me. They are the best! I appreciate all they do for me and my kids so much.



Meanwhile, Evan had a ball! He loves doing all things cousin-related, so that was just the icing on the cake. This was the look on his face when we finished his first-ever roller coaster ride: The Dahlonega Mine Train.... Pure Joy!

Here are the kids on the little truck ride in Bugs Bunny Land. It was a little young for them, but they didn't care.

Here, the boys are riding something of a mini-free-fall type thing, only it didn't really fall very far or very fast.

Finally, here are David and I with the boys on the log ride. Yup, it is still there....

It was a great day. We didn't get to cover nearly as much ground as we would have liked, but the kids had a blast and none of us melted in the heat, so I'm calling it a success.

Tomorrow, we are off to check out some new water park up in Gainesville with Beth and the kids. We're trying to pack in the last bits of cousin fun we possibly can before Beth goes back to pre-planning next week. Me - I'm going to need some naps next week.

As always, more photos under July 09 tab. Nitey, nite!

Great Smokey Getaway

This past weekend, Kerry came down from NYC and we embarked on a little Smokey Mountain adventure - McCarthy style. We rented a charming little cabin outside of Townsend, TN on the edge of the park. It was just perfect for us. Corin's parents met us there on Friday night. We all arrived late, so we were excited to wake on Saturday morning to see what awaited us.

After a yummy breakfast out on the deck, we decided to head out to Cades Cove. We had planned to do some hiking, but ended up stuck in Cades Cove's infamous traffic. So, we settled for enjoying the scenery and wildlife (we saw 3 deer and 7 wild turkeys) and taking a few short walks to cabins and churches and such. It was a lovely day and, as a bonus, we got to take this family photo in front of the spot where Corin and I got engaged just over 10 years ago (Memorial Day weekend of 1999).

For those of you unfamiliar with our engagement story, the reader's digest version is this:

Corin decided to take me to the Smokey's to get engaged because it is one of his favorite spots in the world and because the year before we got engaged, we had a lovely, romantic, memorable afternoon in Cades Cove. We found a similar spot (I think it was not the exact spot, but Corin did not have the patience to find the exact spot that day, what with the ring burning a hole in his pocket and all...), and set out for a picnic. On the way out the tree line in the photo above, we met a bear. Because I had already invested in hiking through this tall grass and I was not eager to hike through different tall grass, we decided to swing out around her instead of going back. After Corin popped the question, we discovered about 10 tourists surrounding our blanket with cameras. Turned out the mother bear had 3 cubs who had climbed a tree about 10 feet from our proposal site. We decided it was best to pack up our picnic and head out, but that tree line (and the bears) will always have a special place in our hearts.

Sooooo, Saturday evening while we were cooking supper (and the steaks were on the grill), Kerry and Pressley were out on the 3rd floor deck and saw an amazing sight. NINE bears right outside our cabin. NINE! (And we had already seen one a couple of hours earlier. She was contemplating checking out our trash can, but when she saw our 6 heads peering through the opening of the front door, she must have thought better of it. I didn't get a photo of her, so in my mind, she doesn't count. But, if you count her, there were TEN in all!) Two of the NINE were full-grown bears and the other seven were cubs. The cubs were just the cutest thing you've ever seen. I took about a million pictures of them, separated only by the terrace-level deck railing. I'm guessing my sense of safety and separation was extremely false and that I will look back on that as a pretty stupid move... but, I lived to tell the story and got some fabulous shots.

The kids thoroughly enjoyed all the bear-seeing, rock-hopping, stream-"swimming", dam-building, picnicing, and general merriment. I know it warmed Corin's heart to see his kids enjoying his Smokey Mountains. It was just a lovely family weekend and we are all looking forward to making this a summer tradition.

Many, many more pictures under the July 09 link.

Quite the morning

So, yesterday, we had decided to go meet my sister and her kids for the free movie at the Mall of Georgia. It starts at 10, and I live about 40 minutes away. I got myself and the kids ready and popped the popcorn (because they also let you take your own snacks) and realized there were no drinks in the house to be thrown in the bags. In retrospect, I desperately wish I had dragged out a couple of sippy cups and been done with it, but I made the ill-advised decision to stop and pick up canned drinks on the way.

Pressley, in all her infinite three-ness, decided to pitch not one, but two fits about getting into the car. The first was because Evan had gotten in on her side - OH, the humanity! The second was because she didn't want me to buckle her in, she wanted Evan (who was himself already buckled) to do the honors. And then she wanted DADDY!!! Of course she did. She always wants DADDY when I do something wholly unreasonable like trying to get her into her car seat so I can take her to a movie with her cousins. My bad!

So, we're running late. I stopped a convenience store on the way. They didn't have cans of sprite, which is the only soda I allow my kids to drink (and I don't allow even that all that often). After much pondering and hem-hawing, I decided on a 20 oz bottle and two cups with lids and straws (again - the sippy cups woulda been so much easier...).

I got onto 285, looking at my watch and gauging that we could probably still make it if I pushed the speed limit a bit. Then, I got lost in my thoughts. And MISSED the exit to 85 N. I mean, Spaghetti Junction is SO EASY to miss, for crying out loud. I got off at P'tree Industrial, which if you are familiar with Atlanta, you know is no easy place to turn around since it is itself a highway.

After all the madness, we finally made it to the movie - only 10 minutes late. It was PITCH black darkness in there, but we made it up to the top row where my sister always sits and finally, like blind people, got ourselves settled into some seats by feeling our way around. When daylight hit the movie screen and I could make out some outlines, I reached into the bag and got out the Sprite and the two cups and two lids and two straws.

You know where this is going, right? I unscrewed the top of the Sprite to the hideous sound of impending doom. The hissing warning that I was about to be covered in sticky messiness. And, then it happened. Sprite went ALL over my pants, SOAKING them, and continued to spew out all over the floor. I mean, really all I could do was laugh at that point.

I got up and went to the bathroom. I decided there was nothing I could do about my pants, but stuck my whole arm under the faucet to rinse the Sprite off my skin. Next, I nearly emptied a napkin dispenser at the concession stand and returned to my seat - in the TOP row - and set about placing napkins everywhere I thought there might be liquid. After all - I could not see it in the dark.

Thank the LORD that the rest of the day got better. I cannot really handle a whole lot of mornings like that.

Technical difficulties

We just returned from a fabulous vacation week in Seagrove. I am having major technical difficulties with photos, however. You will be surprised to hear that I did not take ONE SINGLE PHOTO the whole week. You will will not be surprised (if you know my dad), that he made up for it by taking over 300. For some reason, I cannot get his photos to load on my computer. Stay tuned. But in the meantime, you can check out my mom's blog at http://nancypressley.blogspot.com/ for a handful of pictures from the week, or check out my Shutterfly share site at http://themccarthyphotoalbum.shutterfly.com/201 for the whole (pared down) collection.

Later!