Traveling Girls

This week Mara Kate and I have been traveling girls! I found out on Monday morning that my dear friend Victoria's grandmother had passed away. She lived up in Bristol, TN where I used to live so after much thought I decided it was worth it for me to make the drive up to see her, her family and to be there for the funeral services.

It was a pretty fast trip for us, but I really am glad I made the drive to be there. Victoria lives in Michigan and I don't get to see her very often (due to the many miles that separate us) so the fact that she was in Bristol, which is much closer to Rome than she normally is, helped me decide it was a good time to go.

So, Mara Kate and I headed out Tuesday afternoon and went to Knoxville. We stayed there Tuesday night with Kane's parents and then we headed to Bristol Wednesday mid-morning. The visitation wasn't until after lunch, so we stopped in at my favorite local Mexican restaurant for a quick lunch. The name of the place has changed, but as far as I could tell, the food is the same, so I was glad about that!

After lunch we went over to the church for visitation and saw lots of old familiar faces. I lived in Bristol and attended this church pre-marriage, pre-Kane and pre-Georgia living, so it was sort of like a reunion of sorts. I got to spend some good time as well chatting and sitting with another dear friend, Jordana. She recently had twins so it was fun to be able to hold both of them off and on throughout the afternoon. There was actually a nursery so Mara Kate got to play with kids and was actually sad when I came to pick her back up, but that made it easier for me during the time there. I was only able to stay in Bristol for the day, so after the funeral and burial service we headed over to the home of Victoria's uncle where family and friends were gathering for a meal. We did some visiting before having to say our goodbyes. I was glad to be there and sad to leave so quickly, but I had planned on sleeping in Knoxville again Wednesday night and needed to get back before it got too late.

Before leaving we did manage to snap one picture of the "girls" who were there----we sort of all grew up together.

Jordana, me, Victoria and Amanda
Jordana's twins, Mara Kate and Annelise are also pictured.
We are missing Jordana's 3 older boys and Victoria's son as well.

It was really nice to see some of my old girlfriends.

After getting back to Knoxville Wednesday night we hung out Thursday until mid-afternoon when we headed back to Rome. I did some shopping and also had lunch with Kane's mom which was fun. Mara Kate and I headed back to Rome Thursday afternoon and got home at the exact same time as Kane. Perfect timing as when I pulled into the driveway he had just pulled in before me and hadn't even gotten out of his car yet.

Then, on Friday I had plans to go see the new Twilight movie---New Moon with my friend Katie in Atlanta. We had bought advance tickets and had already arranged for our husbands to watch the kids. So, I headed out once again Friday afternoon to go meet up with Katie at Atlantic Station. We had planned on getting coffee before the movie, but nixed that idea after realizing that it would not be a good idea to drink coffee right before seeing a movie over 2 hours long! So, instead we realized we could change our tickets from 5pm to 4pm and got to watch it an entire hour earlier! That worked out really well as it made for an earlier night for me driving back home afterward. Some might think I am crazy to drive that far just to see a movie, but Katie and I saw the first one when it came out last year together and decided we'd try to see all four together. It was a great movie, but of course didn't include as much detail as the book. I really enjoyed the story of these books and although there is a lot of hype around this story---I'd just say, don't judge it unless you've actually read the books as they are just a good story to get wrapped up in. A very fun read for sure!

Here's a picture of Mara Kate and Kane that I took right as I was dropping her off at Shorter. She was going to hang out with Kane for a bit at his work then they spent the afternoon together grocery shopping and playing together. A good time for some Daddy-Daughter time! They had a great time and SO DID I!!