Moving Back to Georgia - "Our Job"

As the four of five of you who read this blog probably already know, Amy, Darryl and Amelia have moved back to Atlanta from Baton Rouge.  When Amy moved off to attend college in 1993, it was her dad who did all the heavy lifting and moving.  In the 21 years since that first move, things have improved greatly.  Now our sole "responsibility" when they move is to keep Amelia.  On moving day we picked Amelia up from Amy in Mobile (half-way) and kept her the following week.

We had been promising her a camping trip to the beach for a while and had our fingers crossed that the weather would be good and that the gulf would be calm enough that she could enjoy swimming without our worrying about waves knocking her down.  Crossed fingers must have worked.  We had some great weather and the water was perfect.  For four days St. George Island State Park  provided us with a great week together.  Every single day we went down to the beach and stayed in the water for most of the hours spent there.  I rented movies from Red Box to watch in the evening.  We were all happy campers.

Amelia met some little girls from Tallahassee at the beach and they enjoyed swimming and playing together.  One special thing about Amelia is that she is always looking for an opportunity to make a new friend.  I wish that I could be as outgoing as she is.

One night her mom called and the first thing out of Amelia's mouth was "Have you heard about my back?"  She was a little pink on her cheeks and back after the second day and I put some aloe gel on it.  Her question made it sound like I had allowed her to get a bad sunburn and hadn't even used sun screen.  Thankfully, Amy is used to some exaggeration.  

Bubba and I bought her a book of mermaid stories while we were in Savannah so every night I read her at least one story from that book.  Then she would say her prayers and sing "Jesus Loves Me".  She was so sweet one night.  She had thanked God for her parents and us and closed the prayer.  Then she remembered that she forgot Joe and Judy and John so she had to pray again thanking God for them.

We came home from the beach on Friday with a ton of dirty clothes and towels and left Saturday morning carrying her back to her mom and dad.  We have decided that we don't want to travel in that direction again on the weekend.  The traffic was terrible going both ways.  

Amy and Darryl were settled into their new apartment and we enjoyed a weekend visit with them.  We were able to have lunch with our favorite cousin, Vicky, which was very nice since we had not seen her in person since Amy and Darryl moved to Baton Rouge two years ago.

I'm calling Bubba a "shirker" because I spent more time in the water than he did.

The water was so nice.  Paw-Paw had to get in.

This was taken on the third day.  Amelia is still ready for the water.  By this time we had bought more sun screen and added a visor and sunglasses.

Amelia loves to feed the birds.  She thinks they prefer Cheetos.  She throws the food closer and closer and holds her hand out like she wants a bird to land on it, but when they get too close she runs.

Amelia finds new friends on the beach.

A chocolate treat after a day at the beach and an outside shower is appreciated.

Amelia enlisted us to be in her "Buttercup Troop".  She is writing the rules in her journal.  She loves making rules and explaining them to everyone.

She is all tucked in for the night in her Dora sleeping bag.

Paw-Paw brings her hot chocolate every morning with two, or sometimes three, marshmallows.

Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself why I started a blog.  It was never supposed to be a travel log, or pictures of scenery or animals, or reviews of campgrounds.  It's my way of saving memories that are special to me.  I've already learned how quickly I forget things that I thought I never would and I want to always remember these special times that I've had with Bubba and our family.  I've already had the first two years printed into a hardback book and next year I will do that again.  I think it will probably be one of my most valued possessions.