Thursday, April 08, 2010

Happy Easter

No, this is not a note to wish you all a Happy Easter (though I really hope you had one!). It's to tell you about my happy Easter weekend. We left Thursday to visit Andi's family in Mississippi. We flew down to Jackson and got there right before dinner time. Andi's aunt, Carr, and her two boys, Mason and Barrett met us at the airport along with Andi's grandmother, Grammy. We all went out to Japanese for dinner and then played with the boys before helping with bathtime and bedtime. Then we stayed up a bit chatting.
The next day, we met up with Carr's confirmand (a girl she's mentoring as she goes through Confirmation) and had some coffee at a local shop called Cups. Then it was pedicure time!! We had a blast taking over this nail shop and getting our nails did! Then we stopped for lunch at a Panera-esque place before heading by Walmart to buy some bubble supplies (including 2 bubble guns for Andi and I!!!) for the boys for Easter. Then we headed back to the house and Grammy headed to her home. Then Andi and I took over "mommy duty" (picking up the boys, dropping off prescriptions for Barrett and picking up dinner and the prescriptions) while Carr was super-productive at the house, getting it ready for having family over on Sunday.
Saturday, we got all fancied up and went to Vicksburg for Andi's cousin's graduation luncheon at an ante-bellum home called Anchuca. It was such a pretty house and I got some great pictures. Afterwards, we dropped Carr off at Grammy's to take a catnap and Andi and I drove around Vicksburg. We saw the bridge across the Mississippi river and crossed into Louisiana for a hot minute. Afterwards, Carr left and we spent some time with Andi's Grammy and Grampy and one of her uncles (and Grampy's mean Chihuahua, Beegee). Then Grammy took us out to eat for catfish at a place called Rowdy's. It was delicious! We had a relaxing evening, reading some of their Bible trivia book, which was very interesting. Andi woke up early the next day to go to sunrise service with her Grampy while Grammy and I were rank heathens and slept in. But not for too long, we went to a pancake breakfast at their church before Sunday school. Grampy taught their Sunday school class and Andi and I got to sit in and join the discussion. It was good times and I got some great shots of Grampy teaching (he was loving it!). At church, we sang some good ol' hymns which I was loving. Then we headed back to the house to change and get things ready to head to Carr's. Grampy tried to get me to give Beegee his meds while he held, but seeing as how he's protective of Grampy, I didn't think that was a good idea. We headed to pick up Grampy's brother Nunkey and headed over to Carr's. At Carr's, we had lunch with Carr's husband James' family (sister, mother, father and stepmother and their families). Then we played with the kids in their inflatable bouncer and the bubbles. The boys had a ball and were wiped out. Barrett fell asleep not 2 seconds after his bath. The next day, our last day, we packed up everything and then James drove us all to meet Carr for lunch before Carr drove us around to a few local shops to look around. Then we headed to the airport, only to find out that the plane that was supposed to leave from Atlanta to pick us up in Jackson and go back to Atlanta for our connecting flight, ended up having mechanical problems and we needed to be re-routed. Our final itinerary sent us to Dallas/Ft. Worth, then to Greensboro/PTI, they couldn't get us directly into RDU (holidays, you know). In our layover at DFWwe saw a famous actor coming out of the restroom (he probably thought we were a little creepy, but still, awesome!!). It was the guy who played Mahoney on "Prison Break." We were picked up by our friend Jennifer and got home around 1 am Tuesday morning (which made for an interesting first day back).
All in all, I had a terrific time and it felt like a real vacation. I had some great experiences. Thank you to everyone who made it possible, by either driving us to or from the airport, switching days off, watching the house and Ducky for us, and especially for hosting us and treating us well and showing us (well, me. Andi'd been there before) around Vicksburg and Jackson. Thank you!!!