Day Six

I thought I would mix it up for the kids and give them biscuit and gravy with their eggs for breakfast.  Layla wasn’t a fan, but at least they all tried it.  It would have been nice if Drury had switched up the breakfast menu a little, but beggars can’t be choosers.

We went over to the family hotel and I realized part of my family and I have very different ideas on how to vacation.  How was it 11:30AM and relatives were talking about having to go back to their rooms, getting showered and dressed for the day?  11:30AM are you serious?!  Vacation time is precious you have to maximize every minute.  It wasn’t a cruise where you could lie in bed and watch the endless water pass you by and there’s no land for miles in any direction.

We had a family meeting and a few things occurred to me.  I gave another shout out to God for the awesome family He gave me.  To have been blessed with a God fearing mother who was reared in a God fearing home as her mother was.  And I saw my uncles in a different light and they rocked my world.  It’s nice to have wise elders in the family.  When my mom informed me that the hosts of the family reunion did not have a church for us to attend, I was taken aback.   

Our family is Christian, how could they not have a church for us to attend.  Then it hit me, some of our family members are believers but not all and the ones hosting weren’t believers.  I thanked God that I was raised with believing aunts and uncles, though I realize not everyone in my immediate family are believers themselves but it wasn’t because they weren’t raised in the church.

After the family meeting, more waiting was had, but it wouldn’t be a reunion if waiting wasn’t top of the agenda. 

My cousin kept asking, “How long do I have to take a shower?”

No one would answer her.

I turned to her and said, “Go take a shower and get dressed as quickly as possible.”

Off she went, heeding my advice.

Finally everyone was ready and we piled into the cars.  The girls abandoned me to be with their cousin Kayla and I think equally as important to watch the TV screen in Auntie Mona’s SUV.

We were off to meet up with a relative from the other side of our family who worked for the Secret Service and worked out of the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum.  I had crossed coming to the Presidential library off my list because I figured my first Presidential library experience should be to Regan’s since, I remembered him being President and his library is what an hour or hour and a half away from our house.  We pulled up and it was beautiful, I busted out with the girls’ double stroller and off we went.

 The Carter Presidential Center from the outside

 Right inside the door

Aunt Brenda and an unhappy baby in the Oval Office

 An exact replica of President Carter's Oval Office

 The original six choices for Vice President

 TTT inside the Oval Office.  This is as close as they need to be.  I don't need my girls being interns or my son being President.

The museum was informative.  I learned quite a bit about President Carter and loved his making mention of his unwanted retirement.  Yeah, that happens in elected positions.  I thought his wife was courageous for having another baby when the youngest son was a teen.  But overall I was disappointed.  I think I had high expectations.  I wanted “Pow!”, “Boom!”, “Bang!”, and what I got was a museum filled with stuff about a person’s life and his presidency.  It was like other museums I had been to and will go to.  I heard  presidential and I equated with that with being blown away, and I wasn’t so much.

After leaving the library, we were off to a super late lunch/early dinner.  My cousin took us to a Spanish style restaurant, but the air conditioner wasn’t blowing powerful enough and the only option was eating outside and yeah, that wasn’t happening.  We got back in our cars and off we went.  As we traveled through Buckhead (a ritzy part of Atlanta), I saw a Maggiano’s, then I saw Mort turn.  Crap!  For the first time ever, I vowed not to eat places I eat at home and here we were turning into a restaurant that was like 20 steps behind my job.  I’ve frequented Maggiano’s, an Italian restaurant, enough over the years I could have given the waitress pointers on what makes a good Maggiano’s waitress, could she was failing miserably. 

Mort decided to take all the kids and be in charge of them.  So there he sat with all ten kids and not one loud peep was heard from that table.  Layla sat with me at the adult table.  It was so odd to order for one.  It was odd to cut her chicken and not have any one else’s to cut.  I had to think when was the last time I had a meal like this.  I realized it had to be when Jory was an only child like five years ago.  That was trippy.  It felt odd and weird to concentrate on only one child eating and having time to eat my own food, which I didn’t eat because I was filled up on bread, water, and soda by the time the food came out.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and back to the pool.  This time we went to the pool at Uncle Tom's hotel because our hotel pool was closed.  His pool was nice.  It was outdoors and we had it to ourselves.  Rowan and Jory both temporarily lost their minds, so they got to experience the joy of watching the baby and their cousins swim. 

We closed the pool, then we went to Mona’s room, where Mijo and Tigger were packing to go back to Uncle Mort’s.  What an electronic world do my nephews live in.  Mijo and Tigger were getting plugs for their phones, DSs, Wii, it was endless.  They had a bag that was just for cords.  They had to leave behind their mom’s I-Pad, but that was okay because Uncle Mort had one. 

I went back to our room and asked Jory if he wanted to go back to Uncle Mort’s.  He surprised me by saying he wanted to go.  He grabbed his Air Force One plane and Presidential limo.  (Shout out to my love Julie for telling/teaching me when Jory was ready to move to the electronic age, he would ask for a DS, I-Pad, Wii, etc.)   At the Presidential Library, he bought an Air Force One set.  He grabbed his stuff and clothes and ran out the door to get into the car before Uncle Mort left, he was in such a hurry he forgot his toothbrush.  I thought about running back inside the hotel to get it, but I knew Uncle Mort would handle it.  Jory has come back from visits with Uncle Mort in different clothes, jackets, shoes because they weren’t the right clothes for whatever they were up to.

Off they went and for another night, I was boyless.  I tried to convince Mona that Kayla wanted to have a sleepover in their room with the Irish twins.  But she refused, she was looking forward to not sharing a bed with Kayla for the night.  I totally understood that so we parted ways at my door.  The girls and I went inside and we played a cool math game with cards that their Cubbie teacher Miss Elisa emailed me about.  We played until my eyes got heavy, then it was lights out with the Disney Channel playing in the background for those who weren’t sleepy just yet.

Another full day in Atlanta over.