First things first, Nancy has been found. It turns out that lightning hit close to her house, blowing the internet and phone, and she lost her cell phone. She could have called from someone else's house, but nowadays, who has phone numbers memorized? We decided we couldn't pass judgment because we don't know our own parents' numbers. Anyway, welcome back to the land of the living, Nancy!
Gabriel's only cousin turned one last week, and we want to wish Aiden a very happy birthday! If his grandparents ever decide to send us a current photo, we will post it here so you can all see how cute he is.
We had a great mini-family reunion last weekend at Camp Lejeune with us Georgians, Jack, his gf Jen, Laura, and the Wolfgangs, along with a few friends who live in the area who stopped by. You can see all of the photos here. We had three lodges and a cabana (room on the beach), and Mom and Dad bought out Sam's Club's entire inventory of food, so we had everything we needed right there on the beach. We did spend most of the weekend there, but one night we went down to Myrtle Beach to a really cool place called Broadway at the Beach. It is a huge complex of shops, restaurants, and attractions like an aquarium (which we visited), a magic castle, and a major mini golf course, complete with 30-foot fire-breathing dragon with glowing eyes and huge wings:
We need to mention one funny thing that happened on the way there. We had to stop at a police seatbelt checkpoint. Every car on the highway was being stopped, checked for seatbelts, drivers' licenses, and license plates. When we asked if this was a normal thing, the cop laughed and said, "We do things different up here in the north." We had to laugh at him seeing us as Southerners. Here is a photo of the checkpoint:
We had such a great time on the trip that it was difficult to find the motivation to come home. It also didn't help that they were going crabbing that day at Topsail Island and we were missing the fun. On the way back, we stopped at South of the Border, which is a place that has a giant sombrero marking its location along the highway and a million stupid signs advertising its existence. We had to use the restroom, but that's as far as we got. It was so run-down, and there were no signs indicating what was there or where to find anything, and the one place we went into looked pretty nasty, so we turned tail and drove to Arby's and Taco Bell (both). If we'd looked at the web site first, that would have helped, but as it was, we were a little weirded out by the place. I guess we just didn't get it. We did stop for a brief photo op before we left, though:
Gabriel was great the whole trip back, including a good nap:
When we were getting close to Atlanta, Gabriel started getting antsy, so we gave him the phone. We heard a voice on the phone, so P grabbed it and asked who it was. He had called 88.5, the college station, and after explaining how he had been called, we felt compelled to make a request. P pulled The Red Elvises out of the air and he played it right away, announcing on the air that it had been requested by a two-year-old. This was really interesting for a couple of reasons. First, we happened to be close enough to the city to turn on the radio (it had been off the entire trip) and actually hear the request. Second, that station plays every kind of music, from Radio Madras (Indian music), to Japanese pop, to bluegrass, to kids' music, so we had no idea what kind they were playing at the time. It turns out that the music we requested was exactly what they were playing. We were so amazed.
Gabriel saw his first movie in a theatre today - Curious George. We sat in the very front so he could stretch his legs when he needed to, and he did fantastic. We stayed for the entire thing, and the movie was one of the best animated movies I've ever seen. I laughed out loud many times. It was so neat that the ship was named the "H.A. Rey," after the author of the C.G. books.
After the movie, we sped to the dentist, where they redid one of the fillings from a couple weeks ago. Once again, the gas was verrrrrry enjoyable. I didn't want to get out of the chair. Hopefully, this one will take.
When we got home, Chip wouldn't take a nap but Mommy couldn't stay awake - a combination of the sleep disorder and after-effects of the gas, I suppose - so when I dozed off, Gabriel decided to get creative:
As I write, we are watching The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. It is very strange, but it's hilarious. We are constantly laughing out loud. There are a lot of subtle and visual jokes. The special effects are not special - they didn't even try to make anything seem realistic, and that's part of what's so funny about this movie. We give it a 53 on our scale of 64 for the comedy genre, and a 50 overall. Worth the watch.
Enjoy the post. We're out.
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