AKT trip: NC

As an almost perfect celebration to the closing of my semester long adventure in part-time teaching, my bff Kate, our Rusty, and I flew down to North Carolina to visit our other bff and her two baby boys for the weekend. #aktpluskids playdate (kind of).

Kate and I carpooled most of the way to the airport and after thirty thousand renditions of my "Mumma Loves You" song to keep Rusty happy in the car (hah), we arrived to the airport in time to meander to our terminal and grab a bite to eat and a nice, tall glass of celebration before boarding our plane for the quick hour and change flight south.  

It was Rusty's first airplane ride and he performed like a champ (read:  he fell asleep within minutes of take off), while I sat in silence staring at his little peaceful face.  It was clear this trip was already going to be the soul-cup refill that I needed.  best girlfriends, sweet baby cheeks, and spirits, desserts, &chatting...um, yes please.

Karpy picked us up at the airport and we all made enough of a scene of hugs and squealing that everyone within in a 30 yard vicinity recognized that we were best friends being reunited (maybe sisters because sometimes that's what people assume too).  #airportPDA  We headed back to the Hubbard house already in full-on catch up talk mode while also loving up on Andrew who grew so much since last April (!!)  Upon arrival 'home,' we spent the rest of the weekend snuggling up to sweet baby James - our groups newest addition! - and sharing child caring tasks, snacking, laughing, and talking, and talking, and talking on every imaginable topic and then some...because that's what best girlfriends do, okay!?

It's always so refreshing and incredible to me that no matter how long it's been between seeing each other (and it's been over seven months this time!) we step right back into stride like it's been no time at all.  We just pick right up and suddenly the months seem like they've collapsed and we're just right back in the groove again.  If you do not have friends like this, I strongly encourage you to go out and find some immediately.

A while back, I read this blog post about close friends who live far away and this mini-trip was the perfect reflection of that sentiment.  Just getting to spend time with each other as we wiped noses and cooked regular food for meals and snuggled up on the couch with blankets and a snoring puppy squeezed in close.  Just going through our regular motions, but together.

We have been lucky to meet up together with all the kids at the halfway points where we sight see and corral children and spend enormous chunks of time at the hotel pool.  But this trip, in particular, to one of our homes where we just hung out and made no plans and just lived together again - if only for a weekend - was exactly the dose of girlfriends that I think we all needed to refuel our momma cups.

After two cozy days, including one where the southern sun shone down on us and we took a long walk around the neighborhood, we reluctantly got packed up to head back up north until our next AKT plus kids playdate (tentatively June!) and made our way back to the airport where we hugged out our goodbyes.  Rust had another good flight (read: slept again!) and we made our way back to our other babies but lighter somehow.  You know Gretchen Rubin (author of The Happiness Project)  says "The most reliable predictor of not being lonely is the amount of contact with women." and my time spent with my best friends (and/or sisters!) is always verifiable proof of that.

Kate & Karpy, 

thank you.

always, always, always, forever

for being my friend. 

love, tab

And to my babies, 

you have been blessed in a thousand ways that your momma has best friends that are so kind and generous and patient and understanding to her.  Kate and Karp have inspired your momma to be a better mom and buoyed her up when she's been nervous or stressed.  And they are raising their own kids, some of your best friends in the whole world, with love and grace and kindness.  These friends of ours who share their hearts and homes and snacks.  Who laugh with us and cry with us and stretch out their hands to help when we don't even realize we needed the help.  

Honestly, darlings, we could not be more lucky to have these people as our friends through life. 

love you forever and ever, 

(even when you get bigger than me!)

Mum.

the importance of girlfriends

We made our annual road trip this past weekend to celebrate #aktpluskids with my two best friends and all of our kids in tow.  Currently, that equals three moms and six kids but will be bumped up to eight kids before the end of the year.  We are playing Zone Defense in a big way and we are definitely 'those people' when we call ahead to restaurants to give warning that we are on our way, and when we are getting noise complaints at 8:30pm on a Saturday night for the pillow sack races that were happening in the hotel room.

But since we don't all live in the same house (like we did back in our senior year of college), nor do we live in the same neighborhood (like we did in all the other years in college), nor are we even in the same state (two in PA and an hour apart and one in NC!!) - it's important to us to do this - to make the effort to bring all of us together for a big, wonderful, whiny, messy, hilarious weekend at least once a year.



Meeting halfway for us, means heading out to Richmond,Virginia: a four hour drive from the north for the Studers and Fiores and a hike up from the south of about the same distance for the Hubbards.  With kids ranging from six years old down to 18months, it's a trek to say the least - but pulling in at nearly the same time and getting that wave of relief that we were with 'our people' was awesome.

Doing our #aktpluskids trip means quite a different thing than getting together with my two best girlfriends like the good old days.  Long gone (like long, long long gone) are the days of staying up late and giggling over drinks and then sleeping in and enjoying a long brunch at some hip little hole in the wall diner.  Like, long gone.

Our trips now mean mostly sharing.  Sharing snacks, and water bottles, and photo stream albums, and seats and laps, and toys, and diapers, and group texts, and stories from our lives in these short little bursts riddled with interruptions of things like, 'honey, don't put that in your mouth,' or 'where does it hurt?'

Our trips mean meals together, which is symbolic and important in and of itself.  Even if the meals are breakfast at the hotel pool, or mostly corralling kids back to the table at restaurants that tease small children with their seemingly inconsequential attributes like a staircase or nearness to a parking lot.

Meals where food gets divided, shared, spilled, and well, some is eaten and some is packed up in takeout containers for when any of the kids are inevitably hungry in the five minutes within the table.  Meals that start out as an order-in pizza party in the hotel room and sweetly morph into a surprise birthday party for my son with cupcakes and hidden presents that give him a grin that leaves a lump in my throat.

Our trips mean packing up and heading out to brave exciting and interesting tourist spots that are mostly selected by how much energy it can expel from our six wild things.  We got to visit the Romp 'n Roll indoor play space, Sweet Frog ice cream shop, the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, Maymont Park, our hotel pool, and Three Lakes Park & Nature playground.  A little rainy and chilly weather was no match for our kids as they marched, skipped, climbed, explored, jumped, and raced their ways around.

 It means counting to six.  A lot.

  

It's most definitely a different kind of girlfriends weekend than we used to have, both filled with more joy and love but also more challenges and detours.  And we each now live in our own little version of motherhood; drowning sometimes in the worries and pride and questions and doubt that comes with our own unique kids.  And it would be incredibly easier to decide that we live too far away, and we have too much busy happening, and new babies to grow, and our own lives to try to juggle.

But we also know that life is too short and too fast and too messy, and sometimes you blink and impossibly eleven years have passed since you all slept under the same roof and sipped on glasses of boxed wine while watching Sex and the City episodes.  These two women are my very best friends; they know the writing on the walls of my inner soul and not only that, but when it was written and in what font and color, and why it was written in the first place.  The relief of being with my girlfriends always outweighs the challenge it takes to come together in this season of life.

And I hope with all my hopes, that we will always believe that as the seasons continue to change for each of us.  Because life IS too short and too fast and too messy and someday we'll blink and my kids will be creating wedding guestlists and I won't even have to ask to include my best friends because, of course, they will already be listed, not for my benefit; but because their influence and support and stories have been important and valuable to my kids.

akt fo lyfe.
love you so much.

Splash Lagoon Visit

Since both Brandon and his Dad harvested bucks in archery season last year, when it came time for the first day of rifle they decided to make the most of the day by planning a steelhead fishing trip in Erie, PA instead.  Gigi, the kids, and I got wrangled up in the plans somehow and we turned the whole thing into an excuse to visit Splash Lagoon.  HAH.

We made the trip to northern PA early Sunday morning and the two guys headed straight for the stream with our cousin Kevin to get their lines wet.  They had a great day of fishing, albeit really cold, and got in some memorable father/son time too.

While the guys were busy with their 'reindeer games' (as we call their outdoor adventures), Gigi, the kids and I stopped for a quick breakfast and indoor playground jaunt at McDonalds (woohoo) and then got checked into the hotel quickly before scampering over to Splash Lagoon. 

 We got hotel rooms at the Comfort Inn which actually adjoins to the water park, which was really nice considering we didn't need to worry about finding parking and also with the three kids and all their supplies - it was easy to let the kids lead the way in the walkways connecting the building and park.  I think walking through the long hallways was actually Violet's favorite part of the trip!  She thought it was so funny and she was such a big girl! 

 

After a long afternoon swimming and sliding, we took the kids back to the hotel room for a little while to rest, eat snacks, and jump on the beds until the boys got back from fishing.  So after we got the fishing scoop and the kids back into swimsuits - we headed back over to Splash Lagoon for awhile with the whole group!

Since it was Gemma's first time sliding on any of the 'big kid' slides, she became the slide cheerleader, congratulating our group for going down any big slides.  She and Grey were both brave and even tried some of the dark slides (and liked them!)

Gigi even went down a 'big kid' slide at the coaxing and persuasion of Grey and Gem.  To which Gigi said upon sliding:  "This is what I'd do for these grandbabies!  Waterslides at fifty plus years old!" Such lucky kids!

Then finally, it was back to our room for showers, pizza ordered-in, and falling to sleep with Disney movies playing on tv.  We were all pooped (no one more than first trimester pregnant momma! hah)

The next morning, we said goodbye to Gigi and Pappy who were headed back to home early while just our family spent another morning at Splash Lagoon to make full use of our hotel/park passes that we had through our booking.  The kids were pretty pooped from the day before (and a little cranky), but we got in some swimming, sliding, and a stop in the arcade one last time before packing up around lunchtime.

We try to plan our departures around kid sleepy times of the day, but we weren't quick enough on the draw for Miss Violet!  After a day and a half of Splash Lagoon fun, she was snoozing in her car seat before we even got out of the parking lot, so she spent lunch (at Smokey Bones, yum!) fast asleep.  The other two hung on for about an hour into the three hour drive before falling asleep too.

By the time we got home, Marco and the note from Santa was awaiting us and we dove right into the madness of the Christmas season - so it was a perfect little getaway before the end of the year!