To Grandmother's House We Go! - vacation week 2

After digging up buckets of Piedmont clay for a week, I decided that rather and continuing for a second week, I would head further south to the family homestead and visit my parents, play with my nephew, and meet my new little niece! (Yes, Marley, this post will include pictures of the little ones.)

I drove 13 hours from Montpelier to my parents' house on a Saturday night. Alone. After doing five straight days of manual labor in the sun and heat. I do not recommend. I had to stop and get some CVS brand Icy-Hot to help my aching shoulders and upper back make it all the way. I highly recommend this if you are driving a long distance. Amazingly, after ridding myself of some achy muscles, I was pretty jazzed up by the time I made it there. I hadn't expected that. I hit up a few college towns on the way down - Charlottesville, VA (home of UVA); Knoxville, TN (home of UT-Knoxville); Tuscaloosa, AL (home of Bama); and Starkville, MS (home of MS State). I actually detoured through the UT campus because I had been thinking of applying there for grad school. Unfortunately, I wasn't as impressed with the campus as I had imagined I would be. The old campus part was very pretty, but other than that it seemed rather sterile and a little too "puke inside of a pumpkin orange." And not just the flags! The campus actually had that feel to it. Weird.

Sunday afternoon and all day Tuesday were spent playing with the little ones. Monday and Wednesday were spent with my mom and I running errands. We got to eat at McAlister's Deli while running our Wednesday errands. My car had to go into the shop on Thursday before I drove back to have my dimmer switch replaced. I hit the road back at 6 am on Friday and made it back at 10 pm. CVS brand Icy-Hot and coffee were my friends. Seriously. The last Saturday and Sunday of my vacation were spent finishing my move into my new apartment. Monday was back to work, and I've been a busy bee ever since!

To round out the journey, I leave you with pictures from the trip to see Little Man and Little Lady:

Little Man, right after waking up from a nap.

Papaw was trying to pose Little Man and Little Lady for a picture together.

Little Man was hamming it up for the camera

Little Lady looking intently at something.

Little Man and his mischievous look.

Little Lady napping on her auntie after a bottle.

Little Man swinging.

Rare moment that Auntie just happened to have the camera up for.

Little Man with his rocking bull.

Auntie and Little Man going outside to play.