Since getting back from vacation (4 days near the beach in North Carolina) and spending the last week moving and packing, I feel like my work ethic has slid into a coma and though I'm trying to coax it back to life, it's reluctant. I've only finished two books since the beginning of the month, even though I should be rounding on four this weekend. I haven't been writing for my thesis, though I had a really good talk with a classmate about it and feel like it's not insurmountable and I've been doing even less statistical work.
I'm going to save the new pictures of our place for the next entry, after we have everything fully unpacked and looking nice. Right now we've about about 85% of our stuff unpacked and organized but the rest is just strewn around the rooms it will eventually belong in.
I meant to post vacation pictures just after I got back from North Carolina but my sister had the majority of the good ones and I wanted to wait until I had those.
So without further ado, my vacation:
Sarah flew down from Nebraska on Wednesday and we spent the evening driving up to North Carolina. We spent the night at my uncle's Army friend's house (he's a good, safe guy, no worries) and then headed up for the last 2.5 hour portion of the trip before 8am on Thursday. After stopping to get a picture with tobacco plants (we've never seen a tobacco field before), we got to our cousin's house around 10:30 and were greeted with lots of hugs and kisses and screams. :)
My cousins are 4 and a half and 2 and a half and my aunt is about 7 years older than I am so it's really easy to hang out and visit and not feel like I'm stuck with relatives. My uncle's in the military. He's currently stationed on a boat in the Mediterranean for a longer-than-average deployment. He left in March and will be back... as far as I know... around February. Oh, and my older cousin (a year younger than me) recently moved out to North Carolina to live with them for a bit, so we got to see her too).
On Thursday we went out for lunch and then walked around the town they live in. It's cute and old (300 years last year!). After our afternoon out we came back home, napped, and then played at a playground near their house. They live in a cute development area that a golf course runs through. It's quite nice.
On Friday we got up and left for the beach around 9am. We were about an hour from the beach and the kids choose to ride in our car so that we could spend extra time together. :) Towards the end of the trip I was grateful that Sarah was riding with me so she could entertain while I focused on driving. (Kids get annoying.) After the beach we stopped for pizza and then headed home for naps and showers. That evening the kids got a babysitter and the adults headed out to see the new Harry Potter movie. (Woohoo!)
On Saturday we headed back to downtown and perused the Farmer's Market, gathering supplies for lunch. After salads for lunch and snacks for dessert we headed back out to the beach, this time not having quite as much fun in the sun because the waves and undercurrent were much stronger. We stopped by Chick-Fil-A for a short supper and then headed home for the evening.
Sunday was more laid back than the other days. We had planned to leave Sunday afternoon to make it home before dark that night but didn't get off to as quick of a start as I'd hoped. We left our cousin's around 3pm and made it home around 10:45 which wasn't toooo bad but was later than I'd expected. We spent the pre-3 hours hanging out, lounging around and resting up from a weekend that had been so much fun.
I LOVED my cousins so hard this visit. The last two times I'd visited they'd been a little too little and a little too rowdy for me to fully enjoy them but this time was different. Not even 20 minutes after we'd arrived and I'd sat down, my younger cousin climbed up in my lap and spent the next while singing me nonsense songs. And every morning after I'd gotten out of bed but before the day had started, the older cousin would cuddle in my lap, asking me to pretend he was a baby. This involved me rocking him, feeding him, and commenting on how adorable he was. :)
Since their dad's away right now I think they're a little more sentimental than normal. He's deployed before but they were younger then and probably didn't understand (or notice) the big difference in their lives. Now that they're more aware, it's easier to see how they're affected. Each of them has a blanket that has a bit of their daddy's love in it and they'd each offer their blankets to me randomly, telling me that I could have some of their dad's love. :)
And who can forget about the silly things kids say?! Adi, my younger cousin, could never seem to say my name when someone asked who I was but after Sarah told her I was a princess (something Adi's kind of into right now) my name became Princess. I have to say, it wasn't a horrible nickname. :) Towards the end of the weekend, Julian, the older cousin, started calling me Princess Jessica.
Julian and his family have a Jeep Wrangler Limited and they often drive without the windows or doors on. When we were getting something out of my Honda Accord Julian asked me if I ever took my doors off. It caught me a bit off guard but reminded me how cute kids are at this age.
Vacations should never end. :)
(P.S. It was really good to see Melinda and Tori too. They reminded me how much people can love me, something I sometimes forget living all the way out here in Georgia.)
