Around an Empty House in July

Besides an journey out west, and a visit to Atlanta, a week of FC camp, and a visit to the Great Wolf Lodge, what else can we fit into this month.   We had the annual AHG Christmas in July event held at the Weldon pavilion this year, with fewer girls due to a last minute weather change in the day, but still a lot of fun.   Jeremiah's ice cream has become out go-to place, and it is amazing...The sugar cookie with cake batter, cookie butter, and vanilla ice cream mixed with some cookie crumbles is the best, but Ruby likes the just plain strawberry (NOT the passion fruit...Yuck!).   Aunt Melissa taught Ruby a new fun way to sew her cards she sends to people.   We have a lot of visitors (house full of ladies) getting ready for the Great Wolf Lodge (NOT near atlanta, but closer to Columbus I would later realize).   There are some random notes from summer camp that Sam was pretty proud of, and a fun visit from Eli and Stella for a few nights.

Ruby began her Vitiligo treatment, and she is doing great.   We all are trying to help her stay positive, and talk about her becoming the Hulk with her green light treatments.   She is learning to enjoy the frequent times with mom, and getting a dunkin donut after each visit.   She was also the grand champion of "Ticket to Ride" one night, as I was really trying to beat her, but as I added up my score at the end I came up just 10 points short.   I wish we could have a video of her hands pumping in the air and cheers of delight when I added my last points and was still short.   

I included by pictures from Facebook memorys of the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile I have now seen twice, once in 2011, and then earlier this year in 2023.   I thought I had lost that first picture, and could not find it in the blogs because I probably did not use key words such as Oscar Mayer Weinermobile.   Now I have used those words twice, so any random future search of our blog for weiner should pull up these moments.  

And a few pictures this month of a fun summer Sam has had working with Granddaddy.  That job fit Sam well, as he wanted something to earn some money and get out of the house a bit this summer.   Granddad was able to help accommodate the Honduras trip, and outwest trip, and really just all Sam's last summer activities.   Sam came home every day telling me about paint orders, crazy people needing this or that, how much inventory the birmingham store did, the people that don't seem to get any work done, and that grandaddy basically knows the answer to any question ever asked at the store.   It was the perfect job, even is his smother wanted him to just snuggle with her each day throughout this last summer.   He beat me out of the house most mornings, but seemed to always expect me to make the coffee.   Only one morning can I remember him accidentally sleeping in...haha, he jumped up quickly and still beat me to work.   

There are a lot of other pictures below, but those stories are easy to tell, just come find me and I will tell you about spidergirls flying thru the hallway, Barbie movies, or Grandaddy being a tree...if there are others, maybe I will remember, as for now I am tired of writing.   

Ending the Summer in Atlanta - Day 3...World of Coke Museum

The gameplan for this last day in Atlanta was to go back to Six Flags for a full day with the roller coasters, but Davis was seriously out of commission.   He was in pain, and could not even move his neck to the side at all.   So we made a change of plans to visit the World of Coke Museum, which ended up being much less stressful on the body.   The hotel lobby had a crazy line for the buffet breakfast this next morning, and while in that line, crazily we ran into Josh Pender and his wife (yeah, Magan knows her name, but I don't, and I don't really care to ask right now).   They were in town for a home school convention, and were also at the game the night before.  It was good catching up with them.   Josh even took our family picture with the hotel buffet bfast that probably few families stop to get.   

Our last visit to the World of Coke museum was almost exactly 13 years prior, and I pulled many of those pictures from the blog written way back then.   On our way in, Davis was wearing a Taco Bell T-shirt, and since that is a Coke competitor, they said, we can't let you go in like that, so they gave him the coke shirt he is wearing in all the pictures below.  I think I speak for all of in that 13 years is a pretty good frequency to visit this museum.   We had a good time, but not much has changed.   

We waiting in a long line to see the Coke vault, with thoughts that we would see inside a vault, or see something special regarding the recipe, but when we got to the end, they opened the curtain, and it was just a big metal vault.   Everything else in the museum was alright, learning some history is fun...but waiting in line to see the vault...that was about the dumbest thing here.   The polar bear was fun, and he grabbed the hat off of Sam and put it on himself...and while the kids are getting bigger, Magan said Ruby looked up at her not exactly sure when she asked "Was that really a polar bear?"   Good job coke, the bear has some magic, and it made this old dad happy to watch.   

There was a 4D theater with a movie that was nice, but left us all with a slight headache, and then the testing room.   It is always the highlight here, or the random stops in EPCOT.   I don't think Beverly was the worst this time, as the kids all told me about a new BBQ sauce flavored soda that was nasty.   I did not get the name, but drank way too much soda here making me very sick later on the way home.   Sam does not like soda, so he tried the two different flavors of poweraid available, and maybe one sweet tea.  

In the store, we looked around at so much coke merchandise, it is crazy.  All that, and they still have ZERO museum book which is my souvenir everywhere.   Anabelle was looking all over and I was sad that I had not gotten her anything special at the Braves game, and they all know not to ask for much, good kids that know how expensive these trips were.   I walked up to her and she had a polar bear keychain, and a larger stuffed polar bear...I asked if she found something she liked...and she looked up at me with those beautiful brown eyes and cutest curly hair and said "I don't know which one I want to get".   I quickly replied "I think I would get both".   That smile!   My sweet sweet Belle, it was worth it for that smile.   My little girl is almost 14, but it was the smile of my little girly with curlies, that just wanted dad to get her a stuffed animal.   She cracked me up when we got home, as she had given her little bear a name...Pepsi.   

One final stop (besides the stomach issue dad stops) at Cracker Barrel for a final family meal, then we headed home.   Nothing else special on this final drive back to our house, until we arrived at the driveway, and saw this hawk just sitting on my van like it was home.   He sat there with no intent to move until the garage door went up, and he finally decided to fly off.   So what did this mean?   I reached out to the first response from Google, which happened to be the California Psychics web presence for the following meaning of this sighting...

"When you have a hawk sighting, it’s a sign from the spirit realm that you are ready to take on a larger, more powerful expansion and vision of your world. The hawk symbolizes a need to start looking forward, envisioning your path ahead, and perhaps even preparing for a greater role in life. You could end up leading a group or church, becoming a parent or just finding a wider audience for your talents, gifts, and ideas. A hawk sighting is a direct message from the angels and the Great Spirit that the time has come to spread your wings, to fly higher, and to expand your vision."   So there you go, it's time to spread my wings and fly!