HOWDY From The Road

Well, we made it over the pond. I need a few bottles of wine to discuss the horrible nightmare that it was. The beginning was the airport security trying to destroy Big Bird. Yes the one that is so important she will not sleep without it. Wonderful DH convinced them to let him go back thru security and he checked the Big Birds (Jamie now has one because Maddie thinks he should too) into baggage. We got quite lucky because if the whole situation had occurred 15 minutes later the bird would have been gone - they stopped letting people go back thru and it got really crazy. I can only compare the carnage in the airport parking lot to a Turkish bazaar with everyone milling around. Me with two suitcases, a pram and a toddler in tow with dh and 3 suitcases and a toddler - she kept going between the two of us.

Enough about that it was too depressing. But we made it and on the baggage carousel at BWI, just before our luggage... came a small plastic bag wrapped with bright yellow packing tape - and two Big Birds inside. The relief and smile on Maddie's face echoed all of our relief at the end of a long trip.

We apent a week in Virginia Beach, VA - near enough for me to be near my last American hometown of Richmond (I lived there when I finished my last degree and met dh). I was hoping that some of my friends could make it 90 miles to visit us but it was not meant to be. However we hung out at the beach, swam in the ocean, and I got to watch Maddie's confidence in the water blossom. It so reminded me of the beach holidays we had when I was little and I loved that she loved it so much. Mister Jamie enjoyed the water but we kept him off the beach. English fair skinned baby and hot American sun do NOT mix well. Just ask my fair skinned English hubby about that!

Now we're in Nashville, Tennessee. I've just found the internet for the first time in a week and so I feel like I'm near civilisation again. It was harder than I thought being cut off! But I think we needed to unplug some. Today we arrived and couldn't check in for a few hours so we hit a local mall to let a very very stir crazy Maddie run around some. Also in the same area was Angel Hair Yarn Company which was really good and they were very friendly. I only did a 5 minute tour because everyone was waiting in the car. But I wanted to see what they had and my mum and I are going back tomorrow or the next day. Whilst in VA Beach I visited Ewe Knits and they were lovely even though I was distracted by a certain someone yelling and running around and trying to put all the yarns into a basket. She was good and didn't try to pull any of it apart! But the sorter that she is... she sort of sorted it HER way and mommy had to put it all back. Ah well...

So that's my update from the road so far. If I'm feeling nerdy I might take some piccies at the yarn store. Otherwise you'll get picces of my kiddies and some dolphins we saw on a dolphin watch.

Talk to y'all soon (said of course in the heaviest drawl...)