Georgia

Last week my beautiful and whip-smart Gramma Frances passed away. We'd been expecting this for a few months as she'd been in poor health but we were all happy to see her go peacefully, in her sleep. Luckily, we were able to take the whole family out to Georgia for a few days for the funeral and to see the family.

The boys did fairly good on the plane. Benji wasn't such a fan but we tried our best to keep him entertained.

We spent quite a bit of time hanging out the yard at Bertie's house, just playing with cousins. I cannot tell you how many weekends and days in the summer I spent playing at this house. So many memories -- it was incredibly wonderful to see my kids becoming fascinated by the same things I played with over and over again.

Benji with Aunt Tracie and Paige. 

My Uncle Karl.

 Peter and Paige playing with sticks and picking flowers.

 Benji had a good time just following Peter & Paige around wherever they went.

The four generation photo:

Tracie & Paige, Aunt Bertie, My Mom, Me, Benji & Peter.

The day after the funeral we made the trek to the gorgeous Amicalola Falls which is only a few miles from my Gramma and Aunt Bertie's house. That place is just gorgeous I tell ya.

This is the view from the top of the falls. Just gorgeous. 

I sooooo miss this much green in our current brown desert home.

 Peter and Travis decided to hike the Falls down and I drove down with Bertie, Benji & my Mom. It was such a perfect day!

The view of the Falls from the bottom -- can you spot them just in the top center?

Travis' leaf mask

Back at the bottom we met some Park Rangers who had a few snakes (we kindly told them we didn't want to see them, thank you) and this lovely Horned Owl named Zeus. 

Peter and Benji both were super intrigued by this guy.

We had a wonderful time and feel so blessed to have been able to go out - even if it was a short trip. I so miss that beautiful area. I kept telling Travis we need to move back to all that green, although he kindly reminded me it was only May and in a few months the humidity would surely kill us both.