Girls Trip

For my mom's 60th birthday, my sisters and I planned a girls weekend away at Lake Oconee. We planned it for the weekend before Thanksgiving. Leah was able to come up to spend the weekend with us and it was so nice. We met Saturday morning at Becca's house. Leah and I hadn't actually been to her house before so we piled in their pick-up truck, four deep, and she took us on a tour of their property. They live out in the country and it was so pretty out in the woods. 

After checking everything out at Becca's we headed to Madison. We lived in Madison in the 80's so a lot has changed since then. It was so fun though to be able to tour it as tourist and people who knew their way around. This plaque below is for the restaurant that used to be in that building. We ate there so many times when we lived there because there were not really many other restaurants around.

How gorgeous is this courthouse?? It is on the corner of the square downtown. The blue sky behind it was gorgeous too that day. It was cold but so pretty and sunny.

After spending time downtown we drove around to all the places we wanted to see outside of town. This was the house we lived in. It has been refaced and has an addition to the left. That picket fence wasn't there when we lived there but the memories all still live on there. I skinned my knee falling off my bike in front of this house a couple of days before third grade started...I was wearing my jellies and tried to stop my bike with my feet on the ground instead of the breaks...going down hill. We drove our four-wheeler around the backyard so many times I wouldn't be surprised if there was still a path in a circle out back. Leah taught me how to dribble a basketball on that driveway when she was four...I was five. My dad and I were playing baseball in the front yard and he told me to "keep my eye on the ball"...the ball hit me in the eye...done! That top left window was mine.

This was the first baptist church we went to. It seems so much smaller than when we were little. We got Life Savers from a man named Bobby Hawk at Christmas time at those front doors and saw a live reenactment of the crucifixion on Easter morning out in the field to the right. My mom taught aerobics classes in the building behind here and we ran around with all the other kids on the sidewalk while that was happening. One year the Easter Bunny gave us new Bibles and my parents told us not to write in them. That very day, my Sunday school teacher highlighted a verse in my new bible for me and I didn't know what to do!

This was my preschool...it was called Play School. Surprisingly, I have several memories from there too but they are more spotty and might be more stories told than memories. I do have memories of what it looked like inside though. I remember singing Wheels on the Bus and our teacher had set up all of the chairs in a line to pretend we were on the bus. I remember playing house with my friend Davin. I remember running in that field behind there with Becky and going home from school with her a lot.

After our walk down memory lane we headed to the house we had rented. We went back out to Walmart to buy some food and a movie to watch. We watched Bad Moms on Saturday night. It was funny but a little vulgar. It was nice to just sit and watch a movie together though.

Sunday morning we slept in and then got ready. Tommy's family always has their Thanksgiving the Sunday before Thanksgiving and this year they wanted to have a baby shower for Becca and Tommy as well. So the four of us headed to lunch...it was about an hour away. After the shower we headed back towards the lake and stopped at an Antique Mall to look around. We didn't find anything but we enjoyed our stroll through it all.

I had to snap a picture of Becca looking so cute against this beautiful brick wall.

The sun was setting as we were leaving. A few miles down the road, Leah and I saw this row of train engines that were all different colors and the sun was setting just perfectly behind them. We got my mom to pull over so we could take some pictures and check them out. Unfortunately we only had our phones to take pictures with and they just couldn't capture the beauty we were seeing with our eyes.

Sunday night we ran by Walmart again for another movie, The Choice. Of course, we cried through it and I realized I had never actually read that book. Then we found Madea's Christmas (Tyler Perry) at the house and watched it too. It was funny!

The next morning my mom had to get up early to head back to work. The three of us got ready slowly  and took a few last pictures of the lake that we hadn't capture before. After our quick pictures we headed back to Becca's house.

But first we stopped at Farmview, a restaurant/butcher/grocery store, for breakfast. The breakfast was amazing and we got this huge cinnamon roll to share because it looked so good. We each only ate a bite or so and Becca took the rest back to Tommy. It was delicious though and I am trying to figure out a way to get there again for another one!

How cute is this place? I wish my house looked like this barn turned restaurant!!

We got back to Becca's house and then Leah and I both hit the road to head home. We had a very nice and relaxing weekend. I don't know the last time the four of us were together...alone...but I am so glad we got to make those memories to celebrate my mom's birthday!