We finally squeezed in a little "mini" vacation this year. We didn't want to plan something too extravagant with high expectations this year since Boone is still so young and then end up with a repeat of last year's Chevy Chase vacation in Colorado. {if you want to read about it, click on the link at left to get to July 2008 posts and scroll down ~ there are 5 separate posts} Don't get me wrong, we still managed to have a good time last year. But with Fenn being sick with both an ear infection (that we thought would be much better after being on meds for a couple of days) and another viral infection on top of that (which we didn't find out about until we got back to Tennessee), it wasn't quite the vacation we had hoped for.We decided to pay a visit to White Horse Ranch in Rincon, GA (aka Todd and Angie's home and horse farm). We knew there would be tons of stuff to keep Fenn busy there. Plus, we thought it would be great to take them up on their offer to keep the boys so we could have a night away to ourselves. It would be the first time for us to leave them and go somewhere together. Although we did leave Fenn with Angie for two nights when Boone was born. But that was out of necessity and this time it was by choice {or maybe this time was also out of necessity!}. We're both firm believers that you have to leave them occasionally and have some time to yourselves. Anyway, we ended up getting a room on Hilton Head Island for two nights. We stayed one night by ourselves and then Todd, Angie, and Seth brought the boys over on Sunday so we could all get some time on the beach before heading home on Monday morning.
We headed out on Thursday morning, of course leaving later than we had hoped. We wanted to be on the road by around 9:00 a.m., but it ended up being 10:00 a.m. Why does it take so long to pack when you have babies? I think one reason is that there are so many things you can't pack until the morning of. And then you have the babies wanting attention and pulling things out of bags while you're trying to get them packed. We thought we had it down pat with Fenn, but having a second baby really throws a curve ball in there and makes it much more difficult.
The trip went well. That's partly because we broke down and bought a portable DVD player to help keep Fenn entertained. I don't know how he knew, but as soon as I unzipped the case and the screen was revealed, he immediately said, "Einsteins!" He somehow knew he was going to get to watch TV. We had estimated about 8 hours for the trip, but it ended up taking us about 9 hours to get there, so we didn't arrive until a little after 7:00 p.m. That is normally when we start getting the boys down for the night and we still had to feed them. Needless to say, they were up way past their bedtime that night. But I suppose it's okay to relax that a little when you're on vacation. We had to give them some time to wind down and stretch their legs after being in the car for so long. Fenn loved meeting the dogs, Sarge and Deuce.
On Friday morning, Fenn and Boone got to meet the horses. It didn't take long at all for Fenn to warm up to them. Almost immediately, he was calling for them to come to the fence and making horse noises. He even got to feed some apples to them. He was so cute calling them by name! He is definitely an animal person... loves all things with fur! It's too soon to tell with Boone, but I would imagine he'll be an animal lover, too.
After naptime, we headed down to Darien, GA to meet Dan's Aunt Susan and Aunt Sonja for a late lunch.
Susan had met Fenn once before, but neither had met Boone yet. They showered the boys with hugs and kisses while Dan and I ate a delicious lunch of fresh fried shrimp ~ straight from the docks just a few blocks away and right to the restaurant! Yummy!
We visited for a while and then it was time to head back to the ranch. On the way back, we made a quick stop to check out the shrimp boats. Boone was tired and almost asleep, so we didn't get him out of his carseat. But we did snap a couple of photos. What a beautiful backdrop for photos! I wish we'd had more time for a photo session here.
When we got back to the ranch, Fenn was in for a big surprise. He got to drive the backhoe with his Uncle Todd!
He had already seen it that morning and had even climbed up inside to check it out. But we didn't know he was going to get to drive it. He wasn't scared at all when Todd cranked it up. Although he did smile some, he mostly had a serious look on his face as he was watching all the different scoops and arms moving. He was definitely taking it all in.
Todd tried out everything and let Fenn help pull the levers and knobs to control the different functions. And they drove it around the yard, turning around and stopping in different places to "work". When it was time to get off, he said "Again! Again!" He loved it. Thanks, Uncle Todd, for making such a great memory with Fenn. Next year, Boone will get his turn. We didn't let him ride this year because he's still so small.
After the excitement of driving the backhoe, it was time to feed the boys and get them to bed. Once we got them down for the night, the adults enjoyed a great low country boil dinner and then roasted marshmallows outside over the fire. My nephew, Jesse, and his girlfriend, Olivia, joined us for the evening. I'm sad that I didn't get any photos that night and therefore, didn't get any photos of the two of them with the boys. I thought I was going to see Jesse the next afternoon, but he didn't get back until after Dan and I had left for Hilton Head.
That's it for Part 1 of our trip. More to come later. In the meantime, you can look over in the right-hand column of the blog under "More Photos of Fenn and Boone" and click on the link titled "Summer Vacation - September 2009" to see lots of photos from our vacation.
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