Archive for June, 2008

“We went to Kentucky…

…and all you got was this lousy tee shirt blog entry!”

Well, Madi (at least that’s how she’s spelling her name this week– she has recently been making noises about M-A-D-D-I. *sigh*) and I just got back from a Sweet 16 Road Trip/Girl Trip to the great state of Kentucky! A strange choice for a sweet 16, you may say, but hey, we’re not like those shallow Hollywood parents who lavish their offspring with giant expensive extravaganza parties and customized Range Rovers.

Much to Madi’s chagrin, I’m sure.

(I kid, I kid, that’s really not her style even if it were remotely in the realm of possibility, which it’s totally not. Hello? If anybody’s getting a fabulous trip to Europe or expensive jewelry around here I’m thinking THAT WOULD BE ME!!! Come on, who was in labor for a million hours and bore it all with the stoic grace of a rugged pioneer woman? Oh wait. Yeah. Never mind. Nobody’s going to Europe.)

At any rate, we did want to mark this auspicious occasion with something a little special, and Madi wasn’t interested in a big ol’ soiree, so I came up with the idea of one of my patented Runaway Mom Trips… BUT (and here’s the clever twist)–with the person that made me a mom in the first place! Brilliant, no? A lovely, memory making gift for my beloved daughter AND I get to go stay at a bed and breakfast for a couple of days– total score!

We examined our options and came up with the following criteria: we wanted to keep the driving time down to maybe three hours or so, we wanted it to be relatively agenda and schedule free, but have enough interesting possibilities around that we could do stuff if we wanted. Also we needed to have access to some good places to eat, because without that, who are we kidding, what’s the point? So we narrowed it down to a jaunt up to the Bluegrass State with a lot of antiquing and back-road wandering factored in. In true Taff Women fashion it was very last-minute and loosely-planned, but I did get online and come up with reservations at two B & B inns, one that we have stayed at before and one new one. We decided to leave Thursday morning, antique our way up to Springfield, check into a great inn we’ve visited once before, then on Friday (her birthday) we’d drive over to Harrodsburg, hang out and walk around the historic Shaker Village for a while and maybe have dinner there, then drive to Versailles and check into another little place to spend the night, then hit some more antique places the next day, maybe explore the Bardstown area and eventually make our way back home sometime Saturday. So that’s what we did.

More to follow.

Here’s a teaser:  There was a new baby at the first place we stayed– it was born about 48 hours before we got there and it looked a little something like….

THIS!!!!!

It might be an alien life form, we’re not exactly sure.

My sweet camper

Bring back any memories? 

Hard beds, dusty floors, grandaddy longlegs, unnaturally perky counselors, 3 minute showers, camp food, sweatbox nights and too-early mornings? Ahhhh….

Of course there’s also swimming in the lake, crazy competitions, new best friends, singing “Get your elbows off the table”, making cool crafts, feeling independent, noticing boys, giggling uncontrollably and that deep sleep that comes from being plumb wore out.

The cowboy hat’s not hers, but the two wolves she is holding in her hands are gifts from me– she has discovered a new computer game called WolfQuest and she is obsessed with all things wolf-y. She also has her ‘blanket’ tucked safely into her pillowcase.

Sometimes just knowing that my growing, gangly, funny, quietly self-assured, big-hearted Charlotte will survive two weeks away from us beautifully, but still sleeps with her blanket at night is enough to make my mother’s heart ache from the sheer sweetness of it all.

I’m so glad my 40 year old body was able to produce one more kid. I wouldn’t have missed Charlotte for the world.

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