Playing with our Georgia family…..

 ….and celebrating Emily’s first day as an Associate Professor at Rutgers University!

Every year we look forward to spending Labor Day weekend with Emily, Sean, Soren, and Sebastian.  For several years when our grandsons were little, we camped close to their home at Stone Mountain.  But ever since 2018 we have driven north into the mountains of Georgia stayed in the same cabin at Unicoi State Park.  

This is a magnificent destination vacation spot for us, and it is now our family Labor Day celebration tradition.  We get to play together all day, every day!

The first thing we always do is go tubing on the Chattahoochee River.  You can be assured that with a river named Chattahoochee that it’s going to be peaceful, fun, and, at times, exciting.  And that you’re going to end up off your tube and in the river!

After almost three hours of tubing we were off to explore the quaint and strange German-look-alike town of Helen.  Even though we have been here several years, we always discover new fun shops and attractions.

We saved the best in Helen for last…..Betty’s!

 

It’s hard to explain why Betty’s is the best, but this little grocery store is just the best.  You have to spend some time browsing among the isles to understand.   

A few years ago we bought a wine cup at Betty’s and whenever I bring Dan his wine in this cup, we both smile as we fondly remember Betty’s and our days at Unicoi with Emily, Sean, and our grandsons.

September 1st was Emily’s first official day on her new job as an Associate Professor at Rutgers University.  But she wasn’t at Rutgers. She was vacationing with us.  So dear husband Sean made a proud and loving toast congratulating his wonderful wife on her well deserved new job.

And we all toasted her with Champagne and sparkling grape juice.

We spent an afternoon watching Soren and Sebastian getting refresher training courses on compound bow and rifle shooting.  Both boys were rapt listeners, very safety conscious, and adept at hitting their targets!

Then we headed out to play on the lake….

Every evening we walked around on the path around the lake to get ice cream bars.  It’s part of our Unicoi tradition.

On the way back home we just had to stop at the Cabbage Patch Babyland General Hospital. Last year Sebastian adopted his second Cabbage Patch baby.

This year Emily said that Sebastian wanted to get Christmas outfits for his girls.  Dan and I weren’t sure who was having more fun shopping for the outfits—Sebastian or Emily.

We got out picture taken in front of the Cabbage Patch Baby Birthing Tree.  Not every grandparent (or I guess great grandparents of two Cabbage Patch babies) has a selfie like this!

It was very special for us to get to wave goodbye to Emily as she headed to the airport for her first day as an Associate Professor at Rutgers University.  It reminded us of waving goodbye to our children 40 years ago on their first day of school.

We are very proud of her.  She has worked so hard and accomplished so much in the last 20+ years.  She deserves this.  She has earned it, and is totally qualified!

All too soon our time with our dear family was over, and we had to say goodbye to Emily, Sean, Soren, and Sebastian.  But we have so many sweet memories of playing, laughing, and talking together this past week. 

We will hold these memories in our hearts forever.