Weekend of The Fourth

Jarrett and I went back and forth and back and forth about whether to hold our annual Margarita Bomb Party this year, and had decided that if we were going to do it, we were going to do it this past Saturday. For various reasons, we finally decided against it. The decision was half bummer and half brilliant. I just do not think we could have pulled it off easily. And, besides, it is fitting that we take this year off, as we did the year I was pregnant with Elsa as well. Do not fear -- we will be back at it next summer, I am fairly certain.

Since we did not have the party, we decided to join Kate and Tim up at their house in the North Carolina mountains, and Jarrett's brother, Stephen, drove up from High Point and joined us as well. His birthday was Friday (as was Merckx's -- he turned seven this year and got his ice cream before we hit the road that morning!), the evening we all arrived, and I had baked another chocolate layer cake at home to assemble there in NC for a little celebration.

I honestly cannot say it was the most enjoyable weekend from my perspective. Don't get me wrong -- it was absolutely fabulous to get up into those mountains again. It got pretty warm during the day, but the nights cooled off splendidly, to the point that a sweater was even desired. The kids (and the dogs!) had fun running around, exploring the koi pond (Elsa was fascinated), splashing in the kiddie pool, drawing with sidewalk chalk, fingerpainting, and bouncing in James's bouncy castle. But Elsa just had the most difficult time getting to sleep for both naps and at night. And this meant that Mommy, after having to be a mommy still all day, had to miss much of the adult time, lying next to her upstairs, pretending to be asleep myself, until she would finally fall asleep. At night, this usually meant sometime after 10:00 p.m.! We, I guess, made the mistake of not bringing her Pack-n-Play. I thought, hey, she is getting her big girl bed soon anyway, and she has been camping several times, let's just take a sleeping bag and let her sleep on an air mattress. Well, she quite enjoyed getting up and out of bed and opening the door (even when we locked her in -- she quickly figured that out), calling for us. The set of stairs at the house makes me a little nervous because they are a rather steep set of slippery wooden steps. Kate and Tim have a gate installed at the bottom, and then we put a compression gate at the top. But I just had a bit of a problem trusting that the top gate would hold completely, so I did not like her continuing to come out and stand next to it, possibly leaning on it as well. So, needless to say, it was not the most restful of weekends.

We enjoyed great food together, though, time around a fire outside (once I was actually able to come downstairs), a fabulous afternoon thunderstorm/rain shower from the big, wrap-around porch, and just good time with friends and family. And we got up to Grayson Highlands to do a little hiking and have a picnic lunch on Sunday, which was really nice. We even saw two of the wild ponies -- a mama and its baby -- along the trail, which were a sight for the kids. We told them of the possibility of seeing them, and Elsa would not stop talking about the ponies... until she actually saw them. Then she was not so sure what to think. And then she started talking about them all over again. :) It was nice to get her back after her first hike there when she was only eight weeks old. And I guess Baby Helms Number Two even beats that by making her first visit in utero.

I am lucky enough to get to go back up to the house the weekend after this next one for a girls' weekend. That means four nights to enjoy all of the above (plus, I am sure, more) sans child, with three of my bestest girl friends. I love my daughter so, SO much, but that does not mean I am looking any less forward to this little escape!