Christmas Recap #2 {Georgia}

I will give you fair warning--this post is very wordy with not very many pictures! But I wanted to record all of this for memory's sake. This leg of our trip definitely had some highs and lows....

{not the best pic ever...but you can see those top two teeth! and I love how the color of Shelby's eyes is so clear!}

After our fun weekend in Birmingham with Derek's fam, we packed up the car and headed to my parents' house in GA on the morning of Monday the 19th. It was only about a two and a half drive, and it seemed like such a piece of cake in comparison to the rest of the drives on our trip! We got to my parents' house with plenty of time to feed Shelby her lunch and get her down for a nap at a decent time. While Shelby napped, I went to run some errands with my mom including a stop at Kohl's so I could buy a black shirt for Derek. We found out while we were in Birmingham that a close family friend had passed away, and of course we didn't realize when we packed for our trip that we would need clothes appropriate for a funeral. Our neighbors that lived behind us growing up had two kids a little bit older than my sister & me. I was very good friends with Yoke when we were younger, and I can remember feeling so cool in high school when her older brother drove us to high school my freshman year. My mom & their mom became very good friends over the years, and our dads rode motorcycles together. Linda (their mom) hosted a bridal shower AND baby shower for me. All of that to say, we were very close with this family and devastated to hear the news that their dad had passed away. But I was so thankful that Derek, Shelby, and I were all able to be at the service to honor his memory.

We were only in GA for 2.5 days, but we did manage to squeeze in lots of fun! I got to have a little girls night with two of my dearest friends from high school, and my mom kept Shelby one evening while Derek & I double-dated with two of our best friends. Our abs were literally sore that night from laughing so hard. The other highlight of our time in GA was doing Christmas with my family! We always have so much fun together, but Shelby definitely brings a whole new level of fun into the mix!

Shelby is sitting on her new picnic table from Grammy & Grampy..she looks so grown up sitting at the table playing with her toys!!

Another low point of this trip was Shelby getting sick. Traveling + teething + getting sick = one miserable baby. Shelby seemed just fine on our drive to GA Monday morning, but that night is when it hit. I had left to meet my friends at Starbucks that evening, and my mom was going to put Shelby to bed for the night. She went to bed just fine but then woke up about an hour later screaming inconsolably. {It was such a terrible feeling when Derek called me--he called wanting to know where I packed Shelby's tylenol--to know that my baby was in pain and that I wasn't there for her.} I can't even remember the last time Shelby hadn't slept through the night, so for her to not only wake up but wake up screaming...I knew it was bad, and I raced home to her. She has had a little cold or two before, but nothing like this. It was very rough on her and me! She woke up screaming again the second night we were there, but thankfully the third night--which was the night before our long drive to St. Louis--was more restful for everyone. But I must admit, we were all nervous about making the long drive {Derek, Shelby, and I were caravaning to St. Louis with my mom, dad, and sister} with a sick baby, but we made it there just fine thanks to all of their help! And because Shelby is such a good sharer, all six of us ending up getting sick by the end of our trip! ;)