Away we go

For the first time EVER the Ferrara family of four headed for a week-long vacation alone. We went to Winchester, TN, about 4 hours from Louisville to Tims Ford Lake. A friend of ours kindly offered her family's cabin for us to use and enjoy as a small getaway to celebrate the coming of summer. What better way to justify the need for sunscreen than by sitting at the edge of a beautiful lake surrounded by trees, water and the sounds of your children laughing? I had just wrapped up a pretty brutal week, kidding myself into thinking I could freelance and mother two children at once. The respite was a welcomed one, to say the least. The drive down took a bit as we headed back into the good ol' Central Time Zone (without us realizing it until we got there and our cell phones and GPS notified us). The kids did their best, and their best is pretty good when taking into account that said children are three years and 7 months of age. Once we got there, it was like every bone in my body gave a collective sigh of relief.

I kept a journal of the entire vacation but I won't bore you with that. Quick summary: We slept. We ate. We swam. We went to the grocery store (a ridiculous amount of times). We swam. We ate. We slept. Rinse and repeat. We did make it out to Chattanooga, TN to visit the Incline Railway and Rock City at Lookout Mountain. We found it sadly amusing that at the gates of Rock City, among the geological wonders in the far reaches of nature, you can also observe the urban homo sapien sipping lattes at its native Starbucks. You'll see all of these wonders represented in the pictures below. Even the Starbucks. Truly a site to see.

Now we're back and Annie has started her first week of Ballet Camp. She looks very cute in her leotard and about 2 years older with her hair back. I'll get some pictures at the recital on Friday. Stay tuned for cuteness in spandex. Then it's on to two weeks of regular old day camp at the JCC and then back to ballet for one more week. That's it for scheduled programming for Annie this summer. We head to Connecticut at the beginning of August to visit both sides of our family and we can't wait. Vacations alone are nice, but I think Annie was craving some kid time by the end of our trip, so a visit with the cousins will be a great way to round out the summer fun.