Bu-bye Athens

After our quick visit with Aunt Kimberly, Kennedy and Mommy drove back down to Athens to pick up Daddy and Madison.
They were all packed up and ready.
Aunt Kristi was already at work for the day so we quickly gathered our things and got back on the road for South Carolina.

Sassafras had to say Bu-bye to Kristi's neighbor's bulldog first.

Bu-bye Uga.
Bu-bye Athens.
*
Mommy spent that afternoon repacking all our bags in an attempt to keep them all under weight. Man we accumulated a ton of stuff between Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia.
Whew- it felt like we were away from home months.
It was almost one full month.
September 29th we boarded our plane in Charlotte and flew home.
After that experience, Daddy decided he will never fly with us again.
And the girls were actually pretty good...

Aunt Kimberly and McLean

As I said in the last post, Mommy and Kennedy arrived at Aunt Kimberly's new house around 9:30pm.

Mommy was anxious to see Aunt Kimberly and Ramsay's new house.

Miss McLean had other plans.

She must have been so excited to see Aunt Meagan she just couldn't sleep.

Just like our girls, she begged to be in her Mommy and Daddy's bed.

Mommy and Aunt Kimberly snuggled with McLean for a little while and sang lullabies.

Just when Mommy thought McLean was ready to go to sleep, she cried for Aunt Kimberly again.

Mommy visited with Uncle Ramsay for a little while in their awesome Georgia room (of course I forgot to take pictures!)

Then he went to bed for the night, freeing up Aunt Kimberly for Mommy.

We walked around checking out the rest of the house.

Mommy was IN love!

Our coffee mugs never emptied.

After wandering the house telling stories, reminiscing, and gawking over the fabulously funkiness (ok that was just Mommy) we settled into a cute little sitting area and stayed up until after 3am!

When we realized the time we quickly headed off to bed.

Not long after McLean woke up ready to start her day.

By 6:30am we were all up for the day.

It was at that point Kennedy met Sierra's best friend, Millie-or Mimi her nickname.

Kennedy didn't know what to think of all Mimi's sniffing and loving

Soon the girls lost interest in Millie and moved onto books

then toys in the play room.

Hi McLean

When Mommy and Aunt Kimberly lived together Kimberly had this wooden coffee table.

She picked it up in college- I think when someone else was moving and needed to get rid of it.

The plain wood coffee table had 3 beveled glass panels.

Well, until Millie and Sierra- who loved each other until they were in the same room together- had a 'disagreement' and slammed each other into the table, breaking one of the panels.

Kimberly was just out of grad school, Mommy was in undergrad- we had no money and it wasn't a huge priority. We left the panel empty for a long time and laughed every time someone came in and tried to drop something on the table only to watch it fall to the ground.

Aunt Kimberly had the great idea to replace the panels with thin plywood so the other glass didn't get broken.

After a few weeks Aunt Kimberly had another brilliant idea- let's paint the table!

You have to understand, we used to paint everything. The joke was- don't stand still too long in our apartment- you might get painted!

Aunt Kimberly picked the colors and design and we went to work.

It thrills my heart over 6 years later she still has it and continues to find the perfect place to use it!

How cool is this fun playroom?!

And how fun is the little Adirondack chair Kennedy found of McLeans!

Both girls took turns in the chair.

After a little more playing, we decided it was time to get dressed and head to one of Mommy's favorite shopping places, Kimberly's store Eclectic Elegance.

This is the fabulous sitting area where Mommy and Aunt Kimberly spent most of the night before. Aren't the rug and table marvelous?!

Here is the store front.

**side note: if you fall in love after this post (the way I did when she opened years ago) go quickly because Eclectic Elegance is moving to a smaller location very soon **
This was only Mommy's third trip to EE.

Mommy and Kimberly have such similar taste, most of the time Kimberly just describes things over the phone and Mommy makes her decisions that way!

When we got to the store for our quick shopping trip (EE is closed Mondays, Aunt Kimberly opened the doors just for us that morning!) the girls immediately found things to keep them busy.

McLean stayed at the store for the first year of her life all day long.

She is in daycare now, but she knows where all the good stuff can be found!
Our little cleaner found the super fun painted broom and made herself useful.

Look at this fun old coke table- and the cool magnetic koozies!

I totally {heart} all things Natural Life.

My love fueled by Aunt Kimberly and all the amazing 'happies' she sends to spoil me.

How fun is this table?

Mommy filled the car with happies from Eclectic Elegance and stored lots of ideas for future purchases.

I just love this store!

No matter how much (or little) time we have together- it's never enough.

I miss Aunt Kimberly so much.

not too shabby for 2 hours of sleep, huh?

We Let the Dawgs Out

We also decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and see some of the painted bulldogs.
They are all over Athens including inside some buildings.
We knew we couldn't see them all- but we wanted to see as many as we could in the most concentrated areas.
You can check them all out on their website.
Here is Dawg House at the Athens Welcome Center

This is where we stopped to pick up a map to help us in our hunt.

Next we found Georgia Dawgs

Kennedy wanted to pat most of the Dawgs

including Dawg Fan

We tried to get into the Classic Center to see the two Dawgs there with no luck.

Down on Broad Street we saw Georganium

Kennedy loved on him

The girls we so silly

Aunt Kristi was happy to be with them as they explored the bulldogs for the first time

Since we were making a mad dash effort to see as many as we could in a short amount of time, Aunt Kristi scooped up the girls and sped off to the next Dawg while Mommy pushed the empty stroller.

Next was Dawgwood Bark

we got some fun shots here

the lighting really shows off why we call Kennedy 'Spike'

it was a blast

Kennedy just wanted to lay down and hug each Dawg

so sweet

We strolled back to the car, strapped in and drove to Five Points

Where we found Vincent Van Go Dawg in front of Earth Fare

He was amazing

Flower Power in front of Jittery Joe's- Mommy's favorite local coffee shop
See his cool coffee mug flowers?

Kennedy got a special ride to

Scarlet in front of Fire Station #3

Madison was throwing a fit and staying in the stroller

But Aunt Kristi REALLY wanted a picture with her

So she scooped up crabby pants and her sister

We were cracking up as my sweet babies slowly melted down

We stopped by Marble Slab for some ice cream to go.

Not before letting the girls have a few bites of their pink ice cream with rainbow sprinkles.

On the way back to the car we saw our last Dawg

Dawg Days in Five Points: Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow - who got one last hug

By now our day was gone.

It was dinner time.

Matthew was let grumpy

The girls were MORE grumpy and everyone was hungry.

We sent the guys to pick up calzones at the pizza place down from Aunt Kristi's house.

It took much longer than we anticipated.

We sadly decided-after a bit of arguing- not to go to Cornelia to see Aunt Kimberly and McLean.

Then after calling and leaving a message for her, we re-thought our decision.

Kennedy and Mommy quickly jumped in the car - Kennedy was almost asleep anyway and already in her pjs - and started our 45 minute drive north.

Daddy and Madison stayed behind at Aunt Kristi's.

When Mommy arrived, we put Kennedy in a pack-n-play in the guest room to sleep.

Mommy got a quick tour of their fabulous new house and Aunt Kimberly started pouring...

Funny how times have changed.

When we lived together in Athens, if we started pouring at 9:30 or 10:00 pm it would be wine some other form of alcohol. This night- it was a full pot of coffee.

Not exactly the way we planned our visit...

more on that next