congealing our family

the list of things i'm grateful this year would certainly include the fact that i don't have to lug a baby in a baby carrier around everywhere. also pretty grateful that hersch is potty trained. people always tell you that you'll miss the times when your kids are small, and i will, but there's plenty of stuff i won't miss. like clunky baby carriers, having to have diapers and wipers in every room of the house and in my car at all times, plotting your own demise when you forget the stroller and not doing certain activities because a baby wouldn't do well with them. we are already a family of quite a few accommodations but this most recent trip to waycross for thanksgiving was as "seat of our pants" as we've ever experienced. it was exhilarating! 48 hours and two hotel rooms later, we have experienced the beginning of family nirvana and it tastes a lot like ruby tuesday. mostly because we ate there twice on thanksgiving. 

before we left, athena blythe accompanied me to hersch's thanksgiving lunch at his school. hersch's teachers did it right because we had a huge platter of chik fil a nuggets and homemade macaroni and cheese with the baked cheese on top. i ate more macaroni and cheese than anyone else there. i won! 

we left for waycross on wednesday afternoon and spent thanksgiving morning exploring laura s. walker state park. 

we did the nature hike and it was perfectly not hard. there was still complaining but sometimes a little complaining is good so that the wild animals are scared away. you don't worry about your kids getting lost when you can still hear whining from miles away. i think whining may be the sound that travels the farthest in the shortest amount of time.

after the park, for lunch we ate at ruby tuesday. then we saw wreck it ralph 2: ralph breaks the internet the kids loved it. everyone watched the WHOLE THING and no one had to be taken out to the hallway to be entertained. thomas was able to check football updates because there were so few people in the theater and i took a bit of a nap. win win win. 

after the movie we headed to thomas's mom's house for dinner. then we headed back to ruby tuesday because there were zero desserts and we could not end this fun day on that note. i took no pictures because i was living in the moment! actually, it always bugs a bit when people say you can't enjoy as much if you are always taking pictures. there is some truth to that, but my mom brain is mush and i need photographic evidence of certain things otherwise that memory is irretrievable.

friday morning we headed to the Okefenokee swamp park, or the "land of the trembling earth" because the swamp ground is so unstable. thankfully, because no real babies were on this trip, this was the most stable i've felt while traveling in a long time! but, i also have a crazy digestive system so i could still be contributing to the trembling earth. that was a gas joke ladies and gentleman. that is what you came here for. 

 scarlett and herschel posing with local celebrity pogo the possum, star of the pogo comic strip that ran daily from 1948-75. 

 real live swamp gators. there were 5 in this particular area. since we were all getting along so well, i didn't feel the least bit tempted to throw anyone in. 

we did the swamp train. no one fell out. i pulled a doug beck and attempted to read all the informational placards.

this is the actual preserved carcass of a giant alligator named old roy that lived to be about 90.  he had to be placed in captivity because he used to follow the fisherman and attack their boats and steal their fish. fun times. he was 12 feet 10 inches long and weighed 650 pounds. 

at this point, people were starting to get less excited about the swamp.

the final activity was the touch and hold wild animal presentation. i'm pretty sure the presenter was on the autism spectrum so my mother heart was bursting with pride for him. reagan did a bang up job watching the wild animals being presented and then politely covered his ears and eyes when the snakes were brought out. 

accommodation adaptation visibility! WE ARE AUTISM! 

i just made up that autism cheer. 

my baby monsters with a baby alligator

after the swamp we drove back to atlanta in the pouring rain. 

the next day i made pies to make up for our lack of thanksgiving desserts. pies are not my forte but they turned out okay. they were even better the next day, which i find to be true of most things. congealing is a gross sounding word but a delicious result. kind of like raising a family. sometimes even better after a good amount of time has passed.