Wild Animals

Well, I hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day. We did, Adam only had to work half a day! Or should I say, 'got to work half a day'...it's complicated...he's the boss so nobody was making him go in, but he knew no one else would be in (holiday) so he went to get a head start for the week. Now the rest of this week might not be so stressful because he got to go in for half a day yesterday. So, it was a nice holiday! We had to broil our burgers inside for lack of time for setting up the grill but other than that...it was nice. Oh who am I kidding? I bought the fatty hamburger, ground chuck, 40% fat or something so the burgers were delicious...probably would have even been delicious straight out of the microwave...Charty did not want anything to do with a hamburger but she did play with a bun and some ketchup. What distinguished tastebuds we're cultivating...

Noni & Popi had so much fun last week in their new mobile mansion that they decided to repeat and have another trip down to FDR State Park in Pine Mountain. Did you know there are beautiful mountains right in the middle of Georgia? Yep. Friday they came down to Columbus and Charlotte was so excited when we pulled in from our walk around the park and there was Jakob in her backyard and out the door come Noni & Popi. She didn't nap until 6:30 Friday but that's okay because her daddy didn't get home from work till 9pm.

Popi went and bought Charty a pool and it was fun until she realized she was lonely and maybe Eloise could join her. Well, okay, because Eloise is always hot and panting and needed some cooling off but that wasn't good enough, she wanted Moses in on the action. Eloise is too mild-mannered to jump out of the pool (right, I know) Moses is not. Moses says, no, I'd rather not and out he hops. Oh, Charlotte looks at me and grunts and points at Moses. Out of the pool she goes, round and round chasing the poor fellow. When he stops, she bends down and wraps her arms around him. Well, he knows what's coming so he squirms away. She'd grunt and whine and look at me and sign "HELP" (right hand makes a fist, left hand comes under and 'helps' right hand up). Poor Moses, he needs a vacation. Charty also has a habit of whenever she gets a treat (pop-ice, cookie, cheeto) she shows it to Moses until he tries to take a bite then she snatches it away and he has hurt feelings.





Well, the next day was Saturday and I was so excited because I figured we'd go to Callaway Gardens and see the butterflies and all the flowers and play on the "beach" and watch the Masters Waterski & Wakeboard Championship. First, we pulled into Noni & Popi's campsite. They had just gotten back from Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain and what fun they had. They had buffalo and cows and camels cramming their way into their jeep trying to get a bite of alfalfa purchased beforehand. Oh what an adventure. Sounded like fun, Adam says, let's go there! So we load up in my car with the promise that Popi will rent a nasty, dented, van from the outfitters so my car won't get dinted and nasty. There was a 2 hour wait for nasty dented vans. We go out with all the other hundreds of families into the 2:00 middle of the day, middle of Georgia heat (probably very similar to the Sahara). We're not really seeing any wild beasts. Most of them are snoozing in the shade, full from their large breakfast no doubt.


Hmmm...We finally see a camel and he came right up to my car (fantastic?) and we all got to shove alfalfa into his mouth and Charlotte could not believe her luck! A camel RIGHT UP to her window!



A few more animals obliged. We got to feed a zebra and a mustang, some real big cows? or steers? Charlotte didn't care for them and their big, ugly noses so much. My car made it through with only one muddy nose rub. I could have gone to see butterflies...

After that we went and had some delicious steaks at the campsite with a nice friendly my-marinade-is-better-than-yours father/son-in-law competition, some wine (to help that competition go down) and some cheesecake (I made). Charlotte was kind of like a wrecking ball in that camper, did not want to settle down. Bounced from one end to the other to the other until her daddy put in a Baby Einstein DVD. Then she went for a walk with Popi and into her carseat and she crashed right out.

While Adam was at work yesterday Charty and I went to make some returns. At Bestbuy there was this awful music blarring, I look at Charlotte to make a 'this is yuck' face and there she is, breaking it down, feelin' the beat.

Oh, I have discussed this with Charlotte's Ant Amber. I have become too dependent on Charty's car dvd. Worried I am. She sits and looks at that thing and zones completely out and won't look out the window or anything so I have said, enough. We don't turn it on anymore for short trips around town. We play music, thanks to Amber she has a nice collection of playhouse disney and ABBA that we, I mean she, really likes. Except that one, hip-hop kiddie rap song that we had playing a couple days ago with the windows all rolled down and right outside the window is a large group of high school homies and I looked over, head bopping, singing along (for Charlotte's benefit) and could have died as I drove away and realized what they saw and heard...

After supper last night we ran to Home Depot because Adam's work is NEVER done - at home or at the office (love you Adam) and Charlotte found a little USA flag and paraded it around the store. It was so sweet. A nice ending to a nice Memorial Day.