So I'm just going to press ahead and blog here. Still keeping my family's privacy as private as I can without making it boring.
Sometimes I've had the thought that I should just bag the whole "privacy" thing and just keep going as I always have been, but there are some major creeps out there, creeps! And even though I don't know if anyone has stolen my pictures or misused anything, there's always a chance they have - or could. And the internet is just going to be filled with more and more creeps every day doing creepier and creepier things until we all just throw our hands up in the air and say FINE! If you guys can't play nice than NO ONE can play! And the internet will abruptly come to an end.
So where was I? Oh yes, K's parents came to visit us earlier this month. Photo proof below!
Our BIG adventure while they were here was hiking Stone Mountain. It's a great place and I'm sure we'll keep going again and again. We've only seen the one waterfall but apparently there are like 5 or 6 other ones, so we'll definitely need to make another trip soon.
But on this particular day we were off to a slow start - E had her one year checkup and about forty shots to go with it (I know I've had a one year old before but this appointment totally blindsided me, so many shots! She handled it like a champ, though). After the appointment we went home, got our stuff together and left. I knew there was a chance of rain that afternoon, but figured we had left early enough to beat it. Plus they always predict rain but it only ever comes once in a while. Anyway, so we've driven a little over an hour and I notice dark clouds gathering right as we drive through the entrance to Stone Mountain Sate Park... I was getting so worried that we drove an hour just to turn around and drive back home, which would have been awful seeing as how we had two small squirmy kids with us. So I was hoping against hope and we pulled into the parking lot and BAM. The heavens opened and gave us everything they had. It was POURING.
K's mom, laughing at me mercilessly... probably.
Just kidding.
You can't really tell from the pics just how hard it was raining, but let me try to explain it to you:
Imagine you're sitting in your backyard waiting to do the ALS ice bucket challenge while your sixteen cousins are up on the deck above you, each with a ten gallon bucket of water (but no ice) and they're all going to take turns pouring their buckets of water on you, rush to the kitchen, refill and keep this going for a good 25 minutes.
No, for real.
Luckily J fell asleep so we only had one ornery kid to contain.
So its pouring as hard as I've ever seen it with giant lightening bolts to boot, and there's this guy standing under the awning by the bathrooms looking at his motorcycle 50 ft away. So I think, hey, I should go ask if he needs anything. Everyone else seemed to agree - but now I think they were just setting me up. I drove over and rolled down my window and yelled as loud as I could "DO YOU NEED ANY HELP?" And the guy looked at me like a crazy person, probably because he couldn't hear me over the rain and probably because he was a native and naturally wouldn't be freaked by this apocalyptic rainstorm and K and his parents laughed and laughed like, what did I think I was going to do? So I rolled up my window and wiped the water off the window controls and we decided to just drive back home.
But then K saved the day when he suggested we pull into the little country store we'd passed on the way in to get some treats and drinks. My driving was making K's mom carsick so she needed some ginger ale. Apparently I had collaborated years earlier with the NCDOT to decide just how windy the roads needed to be (winkface).
The rain stopped right before we pulled in! But the skies still looked a bit threatening so we decided to hang around and see what happened. We watched the clouds from the cutest little front porch lined with old wooden rockers, eating peachios and sipping whatever Ginger-flavored tonic was in that bottle (it had a BITE!)
We really did take an excessive amount of pictures on that front porch. But guys, it was cute. Plus, memories. I'd have never remembered that trip if we took even one less photo!
Finally: The Mountain
K's mom was holding E while K, J and I went out exploring over all the rocks, and she was crying and crying and we thought she was so worried about us, but the moment she hit the ground she ran straight to the water and wanted to splash around in it. She just wanted to explore, too! She was just a bit obsessed and would shriek and wail when we would hold her hand to keep her from walking deeper and deeper into the pool.
We found a salamander and a crawdad in the pool, and J really wanted to hold the salamander. He thought it was so cool. Then K had the brilliant idea to hold them close together and see what happened - well, the crawdad pinched the salamander right around the middle and wouldn't let go until K shook him off. Luckily the salamander seemed unharmed and scurried away.
Gosh, that place is so pretty. I actually just read a couple different articles about all the waterfalls that are in North Carolina, and I really, really want to go see all of them! Waterfalls are so gorgeous.
After we had been down at the base for a little while, the clouds parted and the sun came out and it got really hot and really humid - really fast. Climbing back up those umpteen flights of stairs was nothing short of miserable... we were all sweating pretty profusely. K's mom even had to put her hair up! Which she never, ever does - which is why I included a picture. We were all making a big fuss about how different she looked and she was getting all embarrassed and I just felt like that needed to continue into the present.
I don't really get what was so embarrassing though, she looked twenty years younger! Not that she doesn't already look 20 years younger than her actual age all the time anyway. Some people's genes, eh?
It was a real good time, and at the end of their stay K asked each of his parents their favorite parts of their trip and they both said Stone Mountain! So what started out as a giant soaking disaster actually turned into one of the funnest day trips. It was great and we're so excited for the next time they come back - there's so much more to explore!
And if you're a local and haven't been to Stone Mountain yet, you can come with us next time - we need to get back and find those other waterfalls!
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