Abi and Tata flew in to celebrate Memorial Day weekend with us. They had a great time, playing with Mia and Ben, reading, playing baseball and watching movies (Gnomeo and Juliet and Tangled). We went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 (well, technically mommy and Ben missed most of it because it was hard to sit quiet and still) and we enjoyed some BBQs too. One of the things that Tata missed seeing the last few times he was here was the Vietnam Wall (previous trips coincided with political rallies that we wanted to avoid and the refurbishment of the wall itself). If you've ever been in D.C. on Memorial Day weekend, you would be familiar with the Rolling Thunder. The Rolling Thunder is an organized group of motorcycle riders, mostly veterans, who roll in for the weekend's events. If you've ever spent any time with Ben, you would know that he's obsessed with any type of vehicle. So put two and two together and walla... MOTO CYCLESSSSS!!!!! Toddler excitement was spewing from the boy (and girl). Mommy even noticed that Abi and Tata were yelling with delight when they saw the cycles rumbling down Constitution Avenue. It's pretty thrilling to see ten cycles but seeing tens of thousands of them is more than awesome. A pit stop to pose by Kansas to honor Grandpa Perry and his service in the Pacific during WWII. Thank goodness Tata is so smart! He bought the kids delicious slushies to help keep them cool and quiet. Mia and Ben were so sad to drop off their Abi and Tata that once we got home from the airport, we had a much needed sprinkler run. This made everyone feel better and we look forward to our next visit with them! We'll see you in Arizona in October for Brad's 20 year reunion!
The house was awfully empty, the floors were beginning to get dirty and having had a dog/dogs for the last 14 years, we simply didn't know how to continue on without one. Brad and I agreed that we'd wait at least a year before we even considered another dog. But, you can't really anticipate how you're going to feel, what you're going to do and how things might change. Just out of curiosity, Brad looked online at potential pups... just to see what was out there. This led to a series of phone calls and eventually a trip out to meet some of them. I was very hesitant but Brad was insistent on making the 3 hour drive out to Western Maryland with or without me to check them out. We all know that no one can just go and look at puppies so the kids and I went along with to help him pick one out. There were more great danes that one could ever imagine at this place. Sweet, lovable pups just about everywhere you stepped.
Our first inclination was to select one of the two super mellow girls. But then there was this one girl who immediately came up to us and had her snout up in our faces. Then she spun around and after a few minutes, she was on the table drinking the owner's coffee. Hmmm... she had just the personality to deal with a 2 yr. old, a 4 yr. old and the crazy Browns. Against our better judgement, we selected the mischief maker, named her Savannah, made the deal, put her in the cargo area of the car and within a block of driving off, she leaped into the front seat nearly missing both children with her HUGE paws! Meet Savannah- not a replacement for Ulla but an awfully good distraction!
We had a very somber Easter this year because we had to say goodbye to our beloved Ulla. Ulla was an amazing dog, friend and companion. She was wonderfully gentle with the kids. We were heartbroken to have to put her down but she was failing in health and having difficulty breathing. We are grateful that we had one last chance to hug and hold her after our trip to Savannah and that she held on long enough for us to say goodbye. She will always be remembered as a goofy, gigantic, yet beautiful animal and we miss her tremendously.
The Easter bunny still came to the house to surprise the kids with some treats. We took Mia and Ben to Cameron and Emie's house for a special afternoon of Easter egg hunting. They had a good time and it was helpful to have something for us to do to take our minds off of our sadness.
We had secretly hoped to go somewhere warm, fun, new and within driving distance for spring break. Mommy got in touch with our good friend, Sallie Kate, who is living in Savannah, Georgia to see if she was doing anything during our spring break week. No she wasn't-- so it was destination Savannah from there on. We eagerly jumped in our car one Saturday and planned to"take it easy" with our driving. Maybe go about 4-5 hours then spend the night somewhere in North Carolina. Well, we should have known that something wasn't right when it took us over 4 hrs. to get to Fredericksburg, VA (normally it takes 1 1/2 hrs.). At times the roads were so clogged that we sat on I-95 for 45 minutes at a time, NOT moving. North Carolina looked like the result of WWIII as tornadoes had annihilated much of the trailers and billboards throughout the state. There were numerous power outages causing all of the small towns to clog up the interstate. We drove until about 10:30pm and then started to seriously look for a hotel. Mommy with her innovative new iphone, thought she'd be smart and book a hotel online. She did and we were SO excited to drive up the the Super 8 around 1:30 am only to find that there were no vacancies. This was becoming pretty discouraging. Mommy tried to work backwards, calling absolutely every hotel from Savannah to NC on I-95. Same story, no room at the inn. She had no choice but to call Sallie Kate in the middle of the night and tell her that we were coming sooner than later and that we'd be there around 5am. She was more than excited! We made several coffee stops and Ben at times would scream, "No Mommy!" in his sleep as he realized that he couldn't turn over in his car seat. Finally around 5 am, we wearily saw the bridge leading us into Savannah. We made our way into the quiet, haunted city, Spanish moss dripping from the trees, and Sallie Kate was waiting and ready to help us crash. Ben put up a good fight but we finally convinced him to take a nap. Three hours later, we were ready to hit the town. After breakfast, we had a quick skype session with her husband, Matt, who is currently serving in Iraq. Mia and Ben loved playing with Sklyar and her toys! Once everyone was dressed, we marched like zombies out of her beautiful parlor house on Jones St. and headed to one of Savannah's most beautiful parks with Fireflies in hand (ice tea vodka and lemonade). Fact: Savannah permits public drinking. :) Hanging at the park was SO much fun but at some point, we had to head back for some naps. The next day, we were much better rested so we headed to Tybee Island (about 20 min. away). we spent the day at the beach and Ben had a great time flying his kite. On the way home we stopped at the famous crab shack and posed with alligators, saw all kinds of tropical birds and ate like pigs! Sallie Kate drove us all downtown to check out the sites. We toured an old ship and enjoyed the famous Wet Willies frozen drinks. Mia and Ben got frozen lemonades and we had a delicious lunch. Sallie Kate, Mommy, Skylar and Ben ventured out when the little kids wouldn't nap. So we went for coffee and Sallie Kate gave Mommy the local tour of the town. A feather flies by this church at the beginning of Forrest Gump. This is where the park bench was when Forrest tells his story. That night we had a BBQ and dyed Easter Eggs and made Easter treats. One day we drove to Hilton Head, SC. We were impressed with how beautiful the beach and town were. It reminded us of a beach town you'd see in CA. This is when we found out that Ben gets carsick. Luckily he waited until we got out of the car before he got ill. Once we determined that it was just carsickness, we relaxed and had some major fun. By now, the kids were really good at making sand castles and that's pretty much all they did. The beach tired us all out so we went back home to rest. We had big plans for the evening: dinner at Paula Dean's restaurant and a horse and buggy ride around the town. Skylar had a blast hanging in her water hole. Kids are ready for a night on the town. Mia eating her Southern pancake. Brad's chicken pot pie- holy cow! Hanging on the square until our buggy ride. The tiny house in the middle sold for over 1 million dollars. The house on the right from a Sears catalogue house. The windows were installed upside down. Haunted hearse tour. Apparently Savannah has a ton of para-normal activity because it was built over graveyards. It's known as the most haunted city. Our last night was well spent. We had such a great time with Skylar and Sallie Kate. Since we had driven all the way down to GA, we decided to swing through Atlanta on the way back to visit Ben and Amanda. We didn't take too many pictures there but the kids sure had fun playing tackle in their front yard. We spend just one night with Ben and Amanda in their new house. Then it was time to head home. Our trip back was still exhausting but not quite as long. It rained almost the entire way back and just when it started pouring around Charlottesville, VA, Ben got carsick. This time inside the car. So there we were on the side of the road in the rain. Once we got cleaned up, we pushed on through to make it home around 10:30pm. We certainly had a fantastic trip and spent some quality family time together.
