The Cumming Country Fair, 2013

Many of you know that "we" have taken Nicholas to the Cumming Country Fair every year since he was two.  Well, except for last year, because we made our annual trip in August (instead of October) in order to make it to Peter's wedding!

That makes 11 times in his 13 years!  Yup.  He's a teenager and still wants to go to the fair...maybe now more than ever.

And this time we roped Uncle Mark into going with us...like a couple of times before.

We went on a Friday night after school, just before supper, while it was still light.

And since we started out "tame," we did the bumper cars first...all of us.

G'ma becomes maniacal on that ride.  Watch out everybody!

Actually, Astrid had already made a stab at her prerequisite sharp-shooting skills.

Don't ever double-cross a woman like her with a gun in hand!  HA!

That's one serious sharp-shooter.

She and Nicholas also had their first twirl on the twirl-a-whirl, but more on that later....

It was time to eat our turkey-leg supper...one of our favorite memories.

This year Nicholas ate an entire leg all by himself!  Yup.  He's a teenager!

Then one of our favorite rides...a calming one for after supper...the skylift.

This was my first day/event to use my new Canon PowerShot camera.

I was like the proverbial kid in the candy store.

Besides, it's the longest ride of the fair at almost 15 minutes.

It gives you a slow, lazy overview of the fair, to see if there's anything new this year!

Also, at the end of the skylift ride, you're a hop, skip and a jump away from the Indian Village.

It's the calm, cool and collected thing you want to do after you eat.

Which we did.

The shows are the same each year, so we didn't stay...

just long enough for the photo-op of this Cherokee cleaning out his gun before his next shoot-out.
(Don't mess with Astrid!!!)

Walking back to the fair from the Indian Village, we saw the one ride that was new for us.

Astrid and Nicholas had already tried it earlier but wanted to have another go at it.

But while Mark and I watched (and A & N stood in line waiting!), someone else didn't "make" it,

and the cleaning crew had to come out.

Since that took forever...A & N stopped waiting....

...and decided to go back on the twirl-a-whirl.

Let's just say Astrid really knows how to "manipulate" it!

Then we ate their homemade strawberry ice cream like we do every year...and that was it!

Nicholas has already decided that NEXT year he'll take his friend with him.

There's always next year to look forward to...when maybe he'll dare take some other rides.

He's nearing that fearless age.....

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Since this is the last post on our time with the kids, here are a few more images of in-between times in Atlanta (in-between time in Savannah with Bob and Peggy and our time at the cabin in the North Georgia mountains, last post):

 Astrid wanted you to see how much of the 2000-pc. puzzle we finished while at the cabin

Amy rolled it up to finish at home.

One of the first things I did after arriving was look at the photobook I had made of Nicholas.

Once he turned 13 in July, I got the idea to make a book for Amy of his pre-teen years.

All 110 pages, 1,000 images...Shutterfly's limit (which you can puruse on my left sidebar).

And did I mention I also bought an iPad4, waiting for me?

Amy helped me get with the program.

You really CAN teach an old dog new tricks...and I LOVE it.

(BTW, selling my heavy bazooka lens was enough to pay for the new camera AND the iPad4...

a win-win situation, I hope, for my sciatic problems!)

 Surely I've told you before that Amy is a gourmet cook and we're the lucky guinea pigs.

Since Astrid took these images, I threw in her delightful manhole cover...

with no possibble connection whatsoever!

Here's Oscar, a real lover-boy (while CC hides who-knows-where).

And speaking of lover-boys, here are Bob and Marc meeting us the day we flew back home.

It's always good to catch up on friends....

Speaking of which, next up will be our time with Bob and Peggy in Savannah!

Till then, BOO, in honor of All Hallow's Eve tomorrow.

 This is the full moon from the cabin on October 18th...hand-held with my new camera,

and tweaked with some PicMonkey art.  :)

2012 in Atlanta with the Kids

As a P.S. to the Michigan trip, because it makes a good segue, here's what my post is today at Vision and Verb:  Dance Like No One is watching!

Thanks to Michelle, the official wedding photographer, for these close-ups!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

That was Saturday night at Pumpkin Creek.  HA!  On Sunday, we flew from Michigan to Georgia to spend the rest of our vacation in the Atlanta area.  We had 5 days with friends Bob and Peggy south of the city (next post), while Dennis and Amy worked and Nicholas was in school, but the rest of the time, before and after, we were with "the kids."

So on that first Sunday, NICHOLAS.  Can you believe he's now 12 years old (7th grade)!  Here's the segue from those Dancing Queens above:

"C'mon, G'ma," he said.  Let's dance!"  And we did, 2 different times.  

Dance Like No one is Watching, indeed!

And while Amy was preparing supper that first night, we were all over each other!

Pure Tom-Foolery.  Pure Love.

We ♥ each other.  We ♥ YOU.

This is our Atlanta family:  son Mark, daughter Amy, SIL Dennis,

g'son Nicholas, Oscar the White and CC the Chocolate Chip.

And Astrid, too, of course!

In fact, half of all the photos you see in this post are taken by her!

Nicholas off to school, in the neighborhood pool, putting puzzles together

(yup, we brought with us two 150-pc Jan van Haasteren puzzles),

watching movies....

...while the rest of us kids played our on-going battle of Spades.

Mark and me against Amy and Dennis, every year.

(click any collage to enlarge)

After our week with Bob and Peggy (next post), we came back for the Labor Day holiday weekend, with Saturday football in the wings for all.  Nicholas made Astrid promise her she'd wake him bright and early to get ready for all the games.  He had a plan:

Here's the scoop:  Uof Michigan is for moi! 

USC (Southern California) is for Dennis.

GA (UofGeorgia) is for Mark.

After all the school signs were made (Oregon included for Nicholas?!?!),

banner flags were also made and strung up.

This was serious stuff.

And if that wasn't serious enough, Nicholas dressed up as a USC Trojan.

I stood my ground, of course, hailing Michigan as the Valiant Heroes.

The next day, Sunday, we had planned to Shoot the Hooch for Labor Day weekend fun,
but because thunderstorms were predicted, we decided to go bowling instead.
That's when we all remembered how much we enjoy doing that as a family!
It was Astrid's first time to bowl in 21 years.  She LOVED it!

In between, Amy cooked and I cooked.

No one ever went hungry!

And once everything calmed down again for the week, Astrid and I went off to meet friends:

Bob and Marc, forever friends, sharing ups and downs.

And Glenna, my first ex after my divorce from Bill...meeting Astrid for the first time.

Next we hope we can meet her wife from England...who's in the same boat as Astrid,

not able to move to the States till America allows marriage equality.

Guess how we're voting come November?!

The day we flew back (late) to Amsterdam, there were cleaners at the house, so Astrid and I went to the movies (if Amy weren't sick, ready to travel for work the next week, she would have joined us):

They don't have theaters like this in the Netherlands, so Astrid took lots of pictures

before we saw the delightful "Hope Springs" with Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones.

She even took pictures of me at the drive-thru ATM!  

We're not in Holland, you realize.

Now, see that Thank-You stand above?

Next time I'll be more careful with what I say.  HA.
But this is the first time Astrid took a video that I uploaded...
from the little point-n-shoot camera we took for this entire American trip.
Just to say we did it!

Shortly after the movie it was time to say Good-Bye to The Kids...until next year!  As Mark drove us to the airport, we passed through Atlanta's Mid- and Downtown areas:

 Pay attention!

Next week I plan to finish our American trip with the 5 days we spent at Bob and Peggy's...
who visited us here in the Netherlands last year.  Remember? 
One fun thing we did with them was walk around Downtown Atlanta midst those skyscrapers!

In the meantime, don't forget the Dancing Queens at Vision and Verb, today!