At the Speed of Light

That's how fast (or nearly anyway) I feel like our days are going right now. I haven't blogged because after I got back from girls' weekend last weekend I was so tired that I couldn't even hold a decent conversation for a couple of days (no exaggeration). Then, Thursday, we left for a couple of days and nights in Pigeon Forge, TN. You can obviously assume why I would not blog that we left our house unattended...although we do have a GREAT alarm system...and a dog...heehee
So this is a catchup post. Hope you enjoy it.

GIRLS' WEEKEND

We had a blast!! I left Friday at about 1:00pm from home and got to our hotel at around 3:00pm, just as traffic was starting to get slow. Yeah! I finally located the parking garage to our hotel with little difficulty. (I AM getting better!) I checked us in and then went straight to the stairwell to walk down 44 flights to the exercise room. heehee (We were on the 54th floor. Our view was WONDERFUL!!) I worked out for about 1 hour (so nice!)and then headed back to the room to shower. I decided that I didn't really want anything on the room service menu and went upstairs to the bar to order a virgin drink and a fruit and cheese plate. (It was WONDERFUL!- just in case any of you were wondering. ) While I was waiting on the fruit and cheese plate Amy got into town but since she'd never been to Atlanta before it took her a bit to locate the parking for our hotel. Actually she ended up parking across the street and got out cheaper that way. :):):) I ran my stuff to the room and met her in the lobby. I was great to see her. The years fell away as we chatted in the room. She opted not to use the room service menu either and we walked across the street to the McDonald's so she could get a salad. :) Back in the room we just rested and enjoyed the view of the sunset over Atlanta. We stayed up till about 1:00am and then slept. We got up around 7:00am and she got ready while I worked out in the exercise room again. Let me just pause the story here and tell you about my experience in the exercise room. Usually in a hotel, on a Saturday morning, there are maybe 3 people TOTAL working out and we're talking about 1 overweight person, 1 in shape person, and me. :):) At this hotel I was TOTALLY outclassed the last 2 times. There was a guy there (approx early 50s) Saturday morning who was RUNNING on the treadmill ( I jog) and he was there before me, left after me, and looked more in shape than I am. (I'm in decent shape.) He also got to see me fall off the treadmill. CRINGE. It was rather funny actually. I was getting tired about halfway through and I was trying to relax so I closed my eyes for a couple seconds and fell off the treadmill. I jumped right back on and kept going. He definitely noticed but nothing broke his concentration or speed. I want to BE HIM when I am in my 50s...or now for that matter...:):):)
We ate breakfast in the hotel and it was really nice. :) We grabbed some Starbucks (located IN the hotel) and we were on our way. We headed out to Underground and walked around until we saw the "Half Price Ticket Sale shop". We just happened to glance at the posters and saw the RIVERDANCE was playing that weekend. RIVERDANCE!!!!!! OH. MY. GOODNESS!!! I have been wanting to see that show FOREVER!! (So had Amy). We were going to go to Stone Mountain for the afternoon and early evening but we quickly shoved those plans aside for RIVERDANCE. We did get tickets and we were STOKED but I had brought NOTHING appropriate for an evening trip to the theater. So, we spent the rest of the afternoon shopping for a dress. We were trying to stay close and not go too far out of the city. We took the Marta to the Lenox mall. That was a JOKE!! Even their half priced on sale stuff was WAY WAY WAAAAY out of my league. I was tired, grumpy, and in LOTS of pain from not having nursed in 24 hours. Not a great combo...ask Amy. :) We headed back to Underground and went across the street to some of the other shops. I did noticed that we appeared to be in the minority but it wasn't till later that Amy pointed out that we were the ONLY white people on that street and in the shops. We NEVER felt in danger. We were hit on twice. :):):) I was so focused on the dress thing that I didn't notice how out of place we must have appeared. I would do it again. No big thing to me. (not to Amy either.) I FINALLY found a dress and shoes, and bracelets. We hurried back to the hotel to get ready. I was SO EXHAUSTED that I HOPED that I would even enjoy the show. THAT wasn't a problem!! I had never been to the FOX before. I would have spent money just to sit in that theater all night and stare at it. It was PHENOMENAL!!
It is made to look like a castle decorated in Egyptian Old World Style decor! ( I LOOOOOOVE Old World Style decor!) The ceiling is a sky with twinkling stars that looks like the turrets are fading into it. Awesome! I tried to take a pic but was immediately told that I wasn't allowed. Bummer. I wanted y'all to see it....You'll just have to imagine it if you've never been there.
Anyway, the show was the BEST that I've EVER seen. Seeing shows is ALWAYS hard for me because it makes me miss performing. I hope that when my kiddos are older that I can get into a bit of community theater! :) We'll see.
After the show we survived a harrowing ride through town back to our hotel. I was FREAKED OUT! It appeared that two cars were having some sort of a small race while weaving in and out of the rest of us. Grrrrr! I did well on the road and freaked out on the lobby. (That's true to form for me. I'm super great in a crisis and tend to fall apart afterwards!) We talked for a while as we gazed out our window at the lights of the city. It was really nice to catch up. I DO have pics but I cannot post them tonight. Not enough time sorry. Hopefully tomorrow, or really really soon. :)
We ate brunch at the Sun Dial (at the top of our hotel). It's a revolving restaurant. It's really nice. Brunch was outstanding. We decided we definitely needed to make this an annual event. :)
We left for home around 1:00pm. :) Very very nice time. :)

The next 3 1/2 days were a BLUR and I was very very tired.

THOMAS' BIRTHDAY!!
Thursday morning at about 8:30 am we left for Pigeon Forge, TN. We arrived there in pretty good time for what we had to work with. Judah has been sick and he's wanted to drink A LOT of water. So we had to keep stopping for him to pee but we did make it. :) We checked in around 1:00pm after stopping for lunch at Burger King. We let Thomas open his presents in the hotel room. He got a police uniform and a real 24" guitar from my parents. From us he got a snorkel and goggles and a toy FBI gun set. :) Judah also got a police uniform and the pool toy and FBI set. Gideon got the pool toys and FBI set and a small motorcycle. :) For those who think that's weird...my parents have always sent either extra gifts or extra money. I thought it was not very good because they would feel entitled to presents on someone else's birthday but actually the time Judah shared his birthday with someone he gave him 2 of his presents so the other boy would have some too. I guess it's been a good thing after all. :)
They played police for awhile. I have some GREAT pics of that but you'll have to wait a couple of days for those too. :)
Then we all went down to the pool and hot tub for awhile. We had a great time!! We can back to the room, took showers and went to Denny's for dinner. We all ordered kids desserts to celebrate Thomas' special day and then we rode a few rides at one of the Go cart parks. Thomas LOVED his fifth birthday!! He was the one who requested this trip. Yesterday we got up and I exercised. We got a late start so we just ate a brunch at a Buffet, rode around for awhile to let the kids nap, and then did a few things. (I CANNOT believe how much things COST nowadays! I'm getting old y'all!!) Michael and Judah and Thomas toured the police museum while Gid and I hung out and then went to a gas station to get water for all of us. We went back to the Go Kart place and had a great time. It was short though because of the INSANE prices!! After all that stimulation (which GID LOOOOOVED by the way! You should have seen that little guy riding in the big Go KArts with me and Michael, full bore, around the track!! We have another ride king in the family!!! We now out number Michael 4 to 1!!) We went to our new hotel (changed due to price and better service at the second) used the fun outdoor pools and then went inside to shower. Nobody was very hungry so we let the (older) boys play on the balcony in their uniforms. It was SOOOO funny and cute. Wait till you see the pics. (They were doing "Surveillance".) Gid fell asleep about 8:00pm and Thomas and I went out to get pizza. We got lost and when we got back Judah was already asleep. We tred to wake him to NO avail. Thomas and I ate the pizza. Michael ordered at steak dinner from Denny's and Gid and Judah slept. :) Judah did wake up hungry at 4:30am so I got him a piece of pizza. :):):)
We got up this morning around 7:00am and Michael wanted to head down to breakfast to beat the rush. We did but I hadn't exercised yet so I couldn't eat. :) I made a waffle and took it back to the room for later. Actually I made 5 waffles. (2 for me and one for each of the kids- I ended up with most of 1 when it was all said and done. hehe) We went back up. The boys watched TV, Michael slept, I exercised, and Gideon played around. :) We left around 11:30am. The trip was long but uneventful. None of the boys wanted to come home. I explained the concept of non-Endless money several times today. :)
We got home around 4:00pm (LOTS of bathroom stops again) and we let the boys play outside for a couple of hours AFTER they helped me clean out the van.
We had a very nice time. I wish I had gotten more sleep. (I was up during the night both nights. The first night Judah threw up all over the bed at about 1:30am and the second "night" I had to get him the pizza.) Speaking of sleep...I really need to go get some. Hope that everyone is having a GREAT weekend! Blessings!- Angela :)