Hit the ground running

Well, I haven't posted since before our spring break trip, but I will try to make up for it now. Full of hope, I packed everything I could think of for camping in April, including cold weather sleeping bags, long underwear, mac and cheese, and then we didn't end up camping. Oh well, maybe next time. The weather was great for the visiting days and less good for the travel days, which worked out nicely for us. Our first stop was in Atlanta (Sandy Springs and Decatur) to see relatives. We met our new cousin/niece Cecily and she is beautiful. She is also giving her mother more work than her older brother did, so my poor sister in law is trying to get used to having to take care of two kids: one a two and a half year old angel-toddler and the other one a persnicketty baby. It was fun holding a four week old again, and I again thought that it was a shame Jason really didn't want another child, or I would have a bad case of baby lust. After breakfast on Sunday, I mentioned that Brianna and I would go hiking at Kennesaw and my PhD- in- Religious- Studies-ordained-minister- step-brother pricked up his ears and offered to skip church to come with. I am such a bad influence! To my credit, I did offer to wait while he went to church (drawing the line at going to church, myself). However, Darryl had a prior engagement later, so off to Kennesaw we went with angel-toddler and back packs. Brianna impressed me by hiking the whole way up (a mile) to the top. Normally a stop-and-pick-the-flowers-hiker, she suddendly became very goal-directed and charged up the hill. On the way down, Brianna and Zeke scrambled on abundant boulders, and had a jolly time. At the end of the hike, Brianna was very negative, saying that she would never do that again, that it had been too hard, and not fun. This negativity is so much like Jason's, but I countered it with remembrances of particular fun things and the assurance that I was proud of her. It is interesting how mood can so color an experience. When we talked of the happy parts, it became a fun thing to do again. The next day we spent 12 long hours in the car and Brianna was so good. Finally we got to see Jo, Tim and Abby for the first time in almost a year. We went to Coopers Rock to hike and had gorgeous weather. We spent a day with Jo's parents and explored their beautiful yard, picking daffodils and violas. We walked downtown another day and saw cute stores and beautiful old homes. We played in their back yard, collected rocks, and even got to go to Voyagers which had recently re-opened for some yummy falafels, hummus and gyros. It was great seeing how smart Abby is, to watch her enjoy playing and being interested in everything everyone else was doing. Too soon, we had to turn around and come back. We stopped at the New River Gorge on the way back for a nice hike. Also, we found a place in Virginia called Wolf Creek that had an indian re-enactment village. However, no actors that day, so we just explored the huts and the creek. Brianna took nice nap in the car allowing me to get as far as Hickory, North Carolina for the night. I had planned to see my favorite part of the Blue Ridge Parkway the next day, but it was closed due to a massive landslide, so we found Linnville Caverns instead. Brianna had never been in a cave and was excited to go. She was silent during the short tour, but seemed to enjoy seeing the rare cave spider and the hibernating bats. We also got to touch the walls (which I had never been allowed to do in any other cave) and see this really deep, sterile water chamber (spooky). As we were exiting, Brianna admitted that this experience was too scary for her and she didn't want to do it again. So again with the reassurances about how proud I was and how interesting to see bats, spiders and total darkness. Afterwards, I bought an indian headdress and drum set which appeased her mightily. One more night in Atlanta and we were finally on our way home. Those last driving miles and hours were the longest, but overall a good trip.
And then in the mail the next day, an audit from the IRS for the 2006 tax year. Drat!
At least my ebay sales went well, and I ended up buying DDR Universe2 for my XBox which I have enjoyed greatly, much to the detriment of my knee cartilage.