Lake Keowee

We arrived Tuesday to spend time with my family at Lake Keowee. It's always good to catch up with my sister and nieces who we typically only see a couple of times during the year. Anna and Paige are always excited to see Channing and Riley for some bunkroom fun. Dad even picked up MORE crazy lights for their room and soon they were synching them to an app on their phones. 

We did all the usual things: boating, tubing, swimming, paddle boarding, reading, watching movies, playing Uno, eating lots of good food, fishing, hanging out, etc. 

One day we went over to hear about a non-profit rehab center that uses horses with its clients. Wild Hearts is about 20 minutes away and Dad has a contact over there that volunteers. We enjoyed hearing about all the great work they do as well as taking a tour. Of course, the horse friends were also a bonus. 

The girls also inquired one night why we don't do Girls Week anymore. To be honest, the reason it stopped was kinda painful for me as well as not my choice and it was nice to hear it was missed. They went on and on about their tie dye t-shirts and the fun activities we did. These were always things I planned and spent time gathering because I liked making these memories with them. To know they were special to them really made my day. So, we all decided to make up for Girls Week and have a Girls Day instead.  

We got out on the water early that morning to do all the tubing activity. And then after lunch we grabbed the materials needed to do tie-dye clothing, shaving cream fun and water balloon olympics. We also made it down to Pelicans for some frozen ice and then after some REALLY LOUD music in the car, we made it back home to do our tie-dye creations. The girls also went crazy with the shaving cream. Sidebar-I chose this as a toddler enrichment activity years ago. It's still one of their favorites and now they have totally teen-afied it. Goobers. 

On Friday, we did some low-key things, but ended the day with a bang. Aaron made a low country boil with crab instead of crawfish (delicious) and we had the water balloon Olympics with the whole fam. Some how we managed to sneak a water balloon fight in there too. 

While spending time with family is good, it's also sometimes difficult. I have been on a journey to learn about myself and how I can be healthy in environments where brokenness has caused and is causing collateral damage. More and more, I am thankful for the tools I have learned through our journey with Anna so I can apply them myself. A lot of times, I will post fun pictures and it makes it look like we had this perfect week when in reality it's far from perfect and sometimes very painful. I want to be honest about this. This side of heaven things are messy, but I'm thankful my hope is not in things of this world. 

On the mend

It took Paige a few days to start recovering from her cold. We were supposed to leave for my parent's lake house on Sunday, but that didn't happen. I took Anna half way instead and my mom met me to take the rest of the way. In the meantime, Paige and I hung out on Monday while Patrick was at work. She was on a strict medicine routine and I pumped her full of all the things that might make her feel better-tea, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, etc. 

I knew Paige was pretty bummed about missing the first couple of days of the lake. I didn't really think she was well enough to go on Monday and was hopeful for Tuesday, so I decided to make the day special for her. Our first stop was Target where she where we picked up a new Lego set. I might have had some influence over the taco truck she picked out. Ha! Then we headed to Michaels to grab a rock painting kit. Loaded down with our goodies we headed home. Paige was so glad to be able to construct the whole Lego kit all by herself and happily spent a couple of hours doing that. 

Then we grabbed some Tropical Smoothie Cafe for lunch, her fave, and did some rock painting. I liked that she chose a glow in the dark one and it was lots of fun. Patrick came home for dinner and she was starting to perk up so we all headed down to our friend's pool for a little swim. It ended up being a really sweet day and I enjoyed our time together. 

Anna had fun with the cousins while she waited for us. They spent an hour and a half at Hobby Lobby. Ha! She also went with Grampy and Channing to the rotary garden to help out. Their reward on the way home was a peach milkshake and chicken minis. 

While Paige was not 100% by Tuesday, she was feeling much better and we thought it was ok for us to finally make the trek. She's been pretty good since although still has a lingering cough. Fortunately, I did not have to break out the high octane medicine and have just been able to stay on Mucinex. I sure am hoping that's the last cold she has to deal with for a little while! 

Sick...again

If I could count how many times I have used the head to hand emoji the last few days, it would probably be in the hundreds. We spent the weekend doing laundry and getting stuff together for our trip to the lake this week. I was also prepping for time in VA right after that. Things were all coming together until Paige started to report that she was feeling a little off and then that her eye was goopy and then she started coughing and then her throat hurt. Well, it all kinda went downhill and by Sunday, I was trying to figure out what to do with her. Fortunately, our peds group has a downtown office that takes appointments on the weekends. So, we headed there this morning. 

Part of me wondered if we hadn't quite killed off the last bunch of germs since there was a snafu with the antibiotics. Maybe this was a superbug that came back? The symptoms are the same. The doctor (if you are counting that would be 4 in the last week and a half), said she thought it was most likely another cold that had started. Her lungs sounded clear and her ear looked like it was healing. The course of action is some OTC drugs to help get this thing under control and then another prescription if it starts going south. 

Meanwhile, we had to postpone our trip to the lake. Paige wasn't feeling great and I don't want to spread stuff. The girls were most definitely bummed, but I offered to see if somebody would meet me halfway and pick up Anna for some cousin time. My mom agreed and I made the hour drive there and back to drop her off. Patrick has to work tomorrow so we'll see how Paige is at the end of her time and then make a decision about going. 

Poor Paigey. She's been sick for almost a month with three different colds. I know she's so tired of being unwell! And she's missing time at the lake with family. I realize that our immune systems are getting back to normal, but this is a little ridiculous and feels a bit like dealing with an infant or kindergartener going to school for the first time. Here's hoping she's good for school. 

Hamilton!

We were so excited when Patrick surprised us with Hamilton tickets at the beginning of the summer. Thursday was finally the day to go and see it in Charleston. Since the show was at 7:30PM, we decided to stay overnight and make a little trip of it. 

Before we left, the girls were so helpful prepping our house for our Associate Pastor and his family. They are moving and needed a place to stay while their house was packed up. Since we weren't going to be here, it was the perfect fit. So, we got all the beds ready, set out some sweet flowers/notes/gifts and made sure they had what they needed. I think the whole process was a little overwhelming for this sweet family so we were glad to help in such a practical way. 

Once we were all packed up, we headed off to Charles Towne Landing, a state park that Patrick missed with us the first time. The girls and I had been there once with Emily and her crew, but we got rained on so we didn't get to see everything. It was so fun to walk around, see the old shipping vessel and visit their small zoo. We practically had the place to ourselves and enjoyed some huge ice cream sandwiches. 

This turkey was hilarious! It was showing off and puffing it's feathers up to which Patrick started smack talking it, thinking he was the bigger guy. Well, the turkey made a loud call and ended up startling Patrick, making us girls laugh mercilessly. We teased Patrick so much after that!

Next up was a quick shopping trip to the outlet mall to find some back to school items. We were pretty efficient and found some cute things. Know what I was happy about? Not having to meet some crazy dress code! My girls picked out items that are what we consider appropriate and conservative, but would not have met the dress code for one reason or another. I was so glad to know they could wear these items and it wasn't hard. Yay!

We then went to CODFather for an early dinner. They serve fish and chips, British style. We even got this really yummy curry dipping sauce for our chips which they add to some homemade pies. So good. By that time, we could check into our hotel room and it was pretty awesome. Lots of space, but the best part was that it was only 600 feet away from the event space for Hamilton. What?! We walked to the show. 

Hamilton was everything we expected and more! It was so good to see it in person. I caught several things I hadn't seen before from the TV version. The music was amazing. The talent and dancing...well it was awesome. I also liked the smaller venue and we had great seats. Not only that, but Ashley's parents were there too! It was a late night, but well worth it and everybody was worn out. 

The next day, we grabbed some breakfast at the hotel and then packed up for the beach. One of my Amazon Prime purchases was a beach tent that we will also use for track and field. It worked great and provided much needed shade. The girls loved boogie boarding and wave jumping. Paige and I built a sandcastle, we dug in the sand, ate snacks and enjoyed a few hours there. The beach is not our favorite so it was just enough time to check the box and then head out. 

We finished out trip with lunch at Ye Old Fashioned Ice Cream and Sandwich Shoppe. The cones were huge! On the way out we tried to find Theodosia Burr Alston's grave site, but it turns out that there are two Alston Cemetaries, so we had a little detour to the wrong spot which made us laugh. It was a great and quick trip where we made lots of memories and enjoyed another wonderful show.