Day 3 Hattiesburg to Canton, GA

We made our way up through Mississippi on a very green route-beautiful but strange for us, coming from the desert. On our way we crossed over the Chunky River-which we loved. The name proved great hours of fun for our family-I know, easily amused...

We also stopped off at an country store where we browsed antiques and bought boiled peanuts (YUM!) WE zipped through Alabama, with a nod to Ricky Bobby as we passed Talladega Raceway-Shaken'Bake!

Towards the afternoon, we meandered on the outskirts of Atlanta (thanks Ms. Garmin) and arrived in Canton in the early evening. Canton is about 45 miles north of Atlanta proper. I liken it to Maricopa and Phoenix, except a WHOLE Lot Greener....Aubreigh had been monitoring our progress by phone up to this point, so we checked into our hotel and went and picked her up so she could join us for dinner at a local restaurant for. ..what else? Mexican food (her choice obviously).

A humorous AZ dweller anecdote here: the restaurant was crowded with a wait time of 30 min. or so. We asked if the patio was full and the hostess said, "No, if you want to eat out there?" She sounded surprised, but we made our way out to the patio and enjoyed glorious weather (and had the patio to ourselves). It was about 80 degrees with little or no humidity, but comments from passers by clued us in to why we were alone out there---it was way too hot to be outside! Please......

Day 2 San Antonio to Hattiesburg

We woke up and got to sample breakfast at our hotel. For a continental breakfast it wasn't bad-biscuits and gravy and these Texas-shaped waffles....

Okay, so that's enough of the food pictures--I promised myself I wouldn't take pictures of food, but these were unique, so please forgive my foray into foodphotoland.





We stopped off at a local H.E.B. (grocery store) to pick up some of Doug's favorite spices that are manufactured and we can get only here-Uncle Chris' Steak Seasoning. We then were off on our next leg of the journey.




At this point I have to admit my secret crush on the Garmin lady. Doug's friend and co-worker Joel let him borrow his GPS to help us make the trip easier. The lady likes a direct route, but is also not afraid of meandering roadways (be still my heart!) We took a lesser known path to get from our little outskirt town to the main highway and saw some beautiful scenery.





Almost to Houston, we made a stop at a Buc*ees. Now folks, I gotta tell you about this place so that you can experience it if you're ever traveling through Texas. They have a virtual hotel of restrooms with personal hand sanitizer machines outside each door. I mean, this bathroom is nicer than my living room. Even Doug admitted to wanting to take off his hat and stay awhile and that's sayin' something!


Bond boys take note: there is a.......du,dada,dah!....jerky deli! A whole counter dedicated to dried and or smoked meats. Ya gotcher pepperoni sticks, your links, your nuggets and of course 20 different styles and flavors of jerky sold by the quarter pound (even venison and buffalo!) AND they hand out samples! I spent 20 minutes there alone...shameful...I know....but after our grand tour and the purchase of a jerky sampler, 5 hour energy drink and a bag of Beaver Nuggets(yummy cinnamon concoctions-think cap'n crunch) we were again on our way. Okay, so now you're vindicated in your thoughts that I'm a superfreak, but all I have to say to that is:

We continued on down the road and hit Louisiana soon. I have always been a little tender towards the swampy southland since that road trip my mom and I took when I was 16. We truly saw America and in that portion of the trip I saw old men sitting on their porches with corncob pipes or a banjo...so cool. This time, however, we pretty much stayed to the interstate, but still saw some cool bayou and got to travel over endless miles of bridge/highway.

We pulled into New Orleans in the afternoon on the 4th of July. Of course we headed straight for the French Quarter and had beignets at Cafe Du Monde.

They were gearing up for 4th fireworks and were pretty crowded, but we were still able to see a few quaint spots. I would have loved to take a cemetary tour (most amazing cemetaries I've ever seen), but it was getting late, so we headed back to the road.

That night, we were able to watch fireworks over Lake Pontchartain.

When It all Goes South......

We just got back from a trip to Atlanta to visit Aubreigh and had a fabulous time! Here's a day-by-day chronicle of our adventure. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Day 1 Travel to San Antonio

We left at midnight to get an early start on our trip. The girls slept a good portion of the day and watched some videos. Afton also tracked our progress on her map. When we saw this, we knew we had to stop and get ourselves some

of that.....

We pulled into San Antonio around 4:00 and had just enough time to tour the Alamo

We also had a chance to walk the riverwalk. It was beautiful!

We wrapped up the evening with the purchase of fireworks (yeah!) and dinner at Maverick-which was a referral-a very good one I might add-from our salesgirl at the fireworks stand. The faire was southern and the chicken fried steak was a s big as my plate! and the fried okra? mmmmm...mmmmm!

Little Orphan Jorja

Jorja recently appeared in our school's first play-Annie Jr. She had a role as an extra orphan. She's the one in pigtails....

Great graduation!

Our little Jorja graduated from kindergarten this week-with honors! She was asked to represent her class and give a short speech about what kindergarten meant to her. We are very proud of her!

Watch out for the rolling snowball!

We made our annual trip up to Flagstaff to play in the snow and visit the reindeer. This time Aubreigh got to come along.

Spelling Bee

Afton won her class spelling bee and went on as representative to the school spelling bee! We are very proud of her!

Afton is eight!

Our beautiful little Afton turned eight and was baptised this last Saturday. We are proud of her example and are grateful for her spirit in our home.

Halloween 2009

Fairy Good Times

For her special 8th birthday, Afton chose to have a "fairy" birthday party. She invited some of her pixie pals and we had a magical time!

We manufactured our own vials of pixie dust and every one was christened with their own new fairy moniker using the magical fairy wand...:*

We finished off with tiny fairy cupcakes and pixie punch. Everyone had a magical time!

Doing Disney in the Fall

Chicken what...?

OH- our Jorja....Always something new! She has got quite the imagination and personality. She comes up with stuff--well, that we don't know where she comes up with it from. How's that for an awkward sentence? Lately, she has been in naughty mode and has received quite a few swats or spankings (depending on who gives them). The first time my husband reached back and swatted her leg-- because she was hanging upside down in the backseat while we were driving down the highway and she had been asked several times to sit in her booster and put on her seat belt-- she cried out, "Great! Now I have a chicken leg!!" I'm laughing as I write this- as I also did while driving during this incident. My husband is much better at keeping a straight face during Jorja's episodes, so he asks her "What do you mean, chicken leg?" To which she reponded in a weepy, matter of fact way, "Well, just look at it. What do you think?" Which almost awarded her ANOTHER chicken leg, but Doug restrained himself.

We can only decipher that she means it's tingly and rubbery like a chicken?

So, of course there have been many chicken body part sightings throughout this last two weeks- BUT the crowning glory came last night, as it inevitably would, after Doug found her painting the wall with an unknown substance and I heard, "Great! Now I have a chicken butt!!"