Vacation...all I ever wanted...

Well a lot has been going on as you may have suspected from the lack of posts since July...

I've been to Austria (courtesy of NC Theatre's production of The Sound of Music), New York (for real with NC Theatre donors this time), Richmond, Charlottesville and Atlantic Beach.

I've been on a Broadway stage, celebrated April & Jim's wedded bliss, celebrated my own 10 years of wedded bliss, floated down the James River and avoided sunburn at all costs at the beach.

I'll do my best to post lots of witty commentary on all of it as soon as I can. In the meantime...enjoy one of my all time FAVORITE sightings at the beach...

That's right, two men donning banana hammocks FLYING A KITE. It doesn't get much better than this folks.

Campmeeting 2009

What a difference a year makes! V is now a champ at traveling (although I must admit that the portable DVD player we finally broke down and bought helped a lot)...

As usual, campmeeting revolved around the same 4 things (in no particular order):

1. How to stay cool 2. What to eat 3. Who to play with, and
4. Church

For V, the answers were:
1. How to stay cool: the creek and popsicles

Ready to swim!

Braving the slide

Enjoying a fudgesicle

2. What to eat: biscuits and figs

Special "Ginny-size" biscuits and cheese grits made by Queenie every morning

Mississippi figs hand-picked by Devon Guy!

3. Who to play with: the Hale children
There is a thing known as a "campground crush"...everyone has one at some point in their years growing up at campmeeting. I won't reveal any from circa 1989-1995 here, but I will let you know that V developed what may be the youngest campground crush ever at age 2 1/2. She fell head over heels for Roe Hale, her 7th cousin.

Roe is 7 years old, has 2 younger siblings and talks a little like an English butler (I am quoting his mom here). V called him "that tall boy" "my best buddy" "my great guy" and only sometimes, "Roe". We spent most of every day tracking him down, discussing whether or not he was awake or asleep and when she could see him next. She loved him in a way I wasn't expecting, but couldn't help taking advantage of like, "V, time to go to church. Roe will be there so come on!" or "V, time to take a nap, Roe is taking a nap now, too."

She also loved hanging out with Roe's 4-year-old brother Abram. Although he was mostly too busy being a superhero or playing with his 1st cousin and partner in crime, Guy Braden, to really pay attention to her.

She also made plenty of time for baby Sophie...the newest addition to the Hale family. She tickled her, hugged her and kissed her as often as possible. I can't blame her, Sophie is beyond cute.

4. Church:Well, there was plenty of playing in sawdust and trying to escape the pew to get to the playground, but then again, there was this one sweet service that I actually got to hear the sermon.

Her best quote was after the service when I asked her why she fell asleep and she replied, "the sermon made my eyes close, Mama." Amen, sister. Amen.

Church, by the way, is held twice a day at campmeeting, in an open air tabernacle with sawdust floors. (It is United Methodist- so no comments about snake handling, and no, it is not a cult despite what T thinks.) On Sundays, we sit with the whole extended family, this year represented by Aunt Dale (left) and Aunt Jennie (right).

It is lots of fun catching up with cousins (this is Bonnie, my 3rd cousin)

AND getting to meet my cousin's children and watching them play.

This is Alec, my 3rd cousin Heather's son...

And so, the campmeeting tradition continues on...despite the heat. :)

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Tres was out of town for the weekend (Vegetarian photographer shoots bass fishing tournament in Vermont. Ironic story live at 11.) so V and I were on our own for fun this weekend!

After an exciting Saturday that included doing laundry while also playing V's favorite game "baby" (it involves pretending to nap, pretending to cry and, sometimes, pretending to drink from a dirty sippy cup held as a bottle) we decided to liven things up on Sunday with a trip to Pullen Park. Pullen Park is also known as "the park with the slide that Grandma takes me to" which is not to be confused with "the park with the slide where the kids are" in my mother's neighborhood.

We brought along a couple of pbnjs, crackers, and V's new buddy "Hello Kitty" which was purchased specifically as a bribe to let me get through my Target shopping list.

It was tons of fun...until we tried to play in the hot sun and V realized everything was one thousand degrees. We tried a slide...she cried at the top and I had to go up the stairs to rescue her. We tried the swings...she cried and said her booty was burning. So we tried the wooden playground.

Where we quickly realized the climbing bars were metal and thus...too hot to play on. Oh well, at least there is the train and carousel, right? NOPE...not before 1 on Sundays. Just remember those delicioso pbnjs, V!!!

We went home and regrouped for naptime and then headed to Marbles to see some NC Theatre Conservatory students sing a few numbers from our upcoming production of The Sound of Music. V was smiling and pointing at the end and as I'm saying "yes, those kids are great, right Virginia?" she says "I wanna go play with the food!" I think she was mad that the kids were blocking her way to the play kitchen the whole time. So much for exposing your kid to the arts.

No matter how many times we go to Marbles I am always amazed at the different things V decides to do. While she is usually attracted to the "chocolate babies" (I just don't know how to correct/address this yet!) this time she latched onto a baby pig and carried it everywhere with her. Here she is as an ambulance driver...using the pig as a booster seat.

She was also a pig-toting firewoman (pig not pictured, but close by, I assure you).

She did take a moment to try to call Daddy. Seriously.


I finally got her out of there with the lure of chocolate ice cream. And wound up carrying her 6 blocks to Crema downtown. It was a little too good- she actually ate every bite when I can usually count on scarfing down the leftovers. I blame the crazy "spoons" they give you which V found fascinating.


It was a very fun weekend...so fun that I went to bed before 9:30 p.m. both nights from sheer exhaustion.