Gone a-visiting

Wes and I spent last week in Atlanta, GA, visiting his family and my parents. We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at his aunt and uncle’s house in the recently incorporated Sandy Springs and Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning at my parents’ house in Acworth. After we got there Monday, we spent the afternoon chatting, sharing pictures from our first year in Chicago, and drinking way too much wine at dinner. On Tuesday, consequently, we slept in until 11am. I went to Curves for Women, where Wes’s mother works, and did a workout while she bounced along next to me. The woman must burn 1 million calories working there all week! That afternoon, Wes went with everyone else to see “parts of Atlanta,” the highlight of which was a giant Kentucky Fried Chicken statue in Buckhead, if that tells you anything. I stayed at the house to work on a unit I was developing as part of a job interview set for this week. On Wednesday, I went shopping with my mom while Wes and his father and brother went to the Kennesaw Mountain civil war battlefield. We all met back at the house that night for dinner with Wes’s aunt, uncle, cousin, parents, and brother, my parents, and a childhood friend and her husband. We had excellent burgers and hot dogs, courtesy of Wes’s father.

We spent Wednesday night at my parents’ house and got up a little early to go to Six Flags Over Georgia. The weather wasn’t too warm, and the park wasn’t too crowded, which made for a very pleasant day. We waited an hour at most for a ride, and it was usually worth it. We are decidedly roller coaster people – as opposed to “amusement park” people – and this park didn’t let us down. We headed home around 7pm, after nine hours of thrill rides, to have brats and beans and watch the NBA Finals Game 3. My brother called that night to tell us that my sister-in-law was being induced and would likely deliver on Friday. I got up early Friday morning to finish working on my unit. Wes slept in, and my mom made waffles (mmmmmm). Once everyone was done working, sleeping, and eating, respectively, all four of us went to the park. Wes and my dad played catch and basketball, and my mom and I played (or tried to play) tennis. We spent about an hour and a half at the pool, which was just enough to be sun kissed without getting sunburned. We returned home to a phone call from my brother, announcing the birth of his second child, also a son. He is now the father of two boys under the age of 15 months! My parents, Wes, and I had “welding sauce” chicken, potato salade, and carrot cake (which my mom and Wes LOVE) for dinner and watched a movie and some TV before hitting the hay.

Wes and I flew out around 10:30am Saturday, so we got to visit with my parents during our hour trip to the airport. We returned home to hotter weather than what we’d left – 96 degrees at 3:30pm. I picked up Lucy from the kennel while Wes found bits of food left in the apartment for lunch. We extended our vacation a little longer by attending a live taking of NPR’s Prairie Home Companion at the Ravinia Festival. Garrison Keillor was great, as were all the guests, but I was so sleepy, and it was so warm in the park. I had to get up early Sunday for work, so I didn’t finally get a good night’s sleep until last night. I went to bed at 9:30pm and didn’t get up until 7:30am! I had to go back to work to get some rest!

Our thanks to Wes’s aunt, uncle, and cousin for keeping us, his parents for fitting us into their busyness, his brother for coming down from Philadelphia to visit while we were there, my friend and her husband for attending a very large and loud family dinner so we could catch up, and my parents’ for all the driving, the roller coaster riding, and the wonderful memories from our visit. We love you!