The Summer of Genevieve

Every season is the season of G.  

She's demanding like that.

I have been doing my best trying to keep my lady entertained this week and last week after vacation.

It's best for everyone if she remains busy.

Mostly for me.

After months of pleading and whining, I finally downloaded ABCmouse for her.

Those damn commercials are on constantly.

She was so thrilled and said, "Thank you, Mommy for paying for ABCmouse!"

Uh, I didn't, kiddo.

It was a free month trial.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

I'm kidding.

She does love it, and it is fun and educational.  

I am seriously limiting her time on it.

I've been nutty about technology with her.  I just know how addicted everyone is to their iThings (including me), so I've been avoiding the whole technology thing with G.

I love that she talks to us in restaurants.

She colors, asks how to spell everyone's names and plays tic-tac-toe.

On a piece of a paper.  

So I'm in no rush to change that.

Plus I don't like to share my phone.

I figured I still have years before I have to worry about her texting questionable photos of herself.

Until I found this on my phone before yoga started the other evening:

I almost walked out of the studio.

Chortling and wetting one's pants are not appreciated in yoga.

Have you ever?

I should have known when I heard G and T giggling when I was soaking in ma tub.

Yes, I soak in ma tub on a nightly basis.

Now her father helped her with this selfie, but how good is it?

So good.

We have been swimming with pals.  

I love li'l girl tummies.

Margo and Rosie are sisters and they are so good with G.

Genevieve went to Elena's 5th birthday party with her dance pals.  

It was really hard for G to remember that it wasn't her birthday.

See?

That mermaid cake was fabulous.

Yes, I hovered around waiting for my chunk.

I'm shameless.

G had her dentist appointment and received a perfect report.

I have to practically arm wrestle her and put her in a headlock to brush her teeth, but I guess my technique has been effective.

This week she is attending a musical theatre camp.

She goes for 2 hours for 3 consecutive days and then she has a short "performance."

I will post pictures from the performance.

Yesterday I was able to go to yoga during her acting stint.

Holler.

She reported that they "worked on a number from Annie."

What?

Ironically we watched Annie for the first time on Netflix on Monday.

I watched Annie so much as a young child that my parents were worried that something was wrong with me mentally.

Like I was going to be a serial killer or something.

She liked it and I sang along like a fool.

Her questions were challenging to answer at times.

"Why does Wooster want to kill Annie?"

"Why is Miss Hannigan dwinking her baf water?"

"Why does Annie sing about her bottom?" (bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow...)

"Why does Punjab have a man bun?"

That 1981 classic has some mature content.

She didn't ask that last question.  I just was saddened that hipsters have sullied a lovely cultural tradition.  

So we've been keeping busy.

We leave for Florida for a week with my side of the family.

Trinity isn't going.

He has a job, you see.

Sister and her family are meeting us there.  Brother Robby, Meghan, and Li'l Robby are meeting us there too.

Now don't go thinking I'm driving 12 hours with just my kid.

We are riding to Florida in 1 hour increments with my parents.

That's right, approximately one hour stints of travel between stops at rest stops and Starbucks.

I may die.

That's how Jane and Bob roll.

With their black tea addictions and overactive urethras.

I plan on sitting in the backseat pretending that I'm a teenage mother who is completely financially dependent upon her parents.

Bob, I'll take a soy chai tea latte for me and a cake pop for my child.

Wish me luck!   

Richmond Visit

On our journey home from Williamsburg we stopped in Richmond for a little bit.

We stopped at The Quirk Hotel and Gallery on Broad Street.  I wanted to stay the night, but Trinity was ready to go home.  I could only play my birthday card for so long:)  

Speaking of my birthday, T and I planned a trip for later this summer to San Francisco for 6 nights! 

He is taking me to see Hamilton in San Fran, coordinated with Court.  She will be our tour guide for part of our trip and we are seeing the play with her too!  Court is fancy and scored 6 Hamilton tickets with her impressive ticket acquisition skills.  I could not be more excited!

Now back to this trip.

The Quirk Hotel is just amazing and like totally pink.  It's a smaller version of The Grand Budapest Hotel, a great Wes Anderson movie.  

The hotel is connected to its own small art gallery.  G blended in with the pink walls.  We bought some goodies in the gift shop.

I made my peeps pose on this glorious pink couch.  Trinity is a sport!

We then went to Charm School Social Club for ice cream down the street.

It had a retro school house vibe, which was adorable.  

Genevieve had cereal flavored ice cream, T had cookies and cream, and I had Thai tea.  It was amazing.

I want this door.

I enjoyed this chocolate bar alone on my porch with a glass of Riesling.  It was fabulous.  Candied roses in dark chocolate?

Don't mind if I do!

Treat yo'self!

Lastly, Trinity and G have been high jacking my phone lately and taking selfies.  I found this one seconds before my yoga class started the other night, which did not make for a very zen like beginning of class:)  

Colonial Williamsburg

We drove from The Greenbrier to our final destination of Williamsburg, VA.  We stayed at the Marriott Vacation Club at Ford's Colony, and it was a perfect set up for us.  Genevieve was excited to meet up with Abby, Papi, and Aunt Shirley.

Our first night we just walked around the resort and socialized.

The whole crew was up early on June 13th to roll over to see history in action at Colonial Williamsburg.

It was my birthday.

This was definitely a memorable one.  It's right up there in my list of memorable birthdays, the most notable one being my stint as a beer wench in a beer tent at Bonnaroo in 2009.

I was stupid and did not bring a stroller.

There was A LOT of walking.

G hung with Shirl quite a bit.  

It was 98 degrees outside, so there was that.

It was damn hot.

Most of the buildings were air conditioned and Abby was highly concerned with hydrating G.  

We spent the day exploring and we even went on a carriage ride.  

G lasted from about 9:30-2:30, which was shocking and amazing at the same time.  She told anyone that we encountered that it was her mommy's birthday.

We went back to the room, showered and napped for a couple of hours.

I picked a great local seafood place called Fat Tuna for my birthday dinner.  

G had her first hushpuppies.  

I hate those.

She was down with the fried dough and kept saying she was eating doggies.  

She announced to our waitress and pretty much everyone in the restaurant that it was my birthday.

The waitress brought me cake and key lime pie and G about had a stroke.  

There was lots of singing and stuffing of faces.  

The next morning we drove to Jamestown and did the driving tour.  

We learned how to blow glass.  Did I mention it was hot?

We dined on the campus of William and Mary and these two shared a milkshake.  

On our final day we hung around the resort to play at the splash pad and pool.  G was dunzo with all of the history.  

We got dolled up for our final dinner out at Food for Thought.  

Abby entertained with phone games.  

These two redcoats played some music for us.  

We wrapped up our final night with snuggles in G's new swimsuit from Abby and Papi.  

She went for a night swim in her new suit.

We had a great time on our little 4 night adventure with our family.  

Family Vacation: The Greenbrier

We enjoyed a family vacation with Trinity's parents and Aunt Shirley to Williamsburg, VA. Since we had to travel right through White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, I convinced Trinity to spend one night at The Greenbrier.

He took me there when G was about 6 months old and was in no hurry to return.  He thinks it's too expensive and stuffy.

I adore it, so we compromised with one night in honor of my 38th birthday.  

I literally skipped through the front doors and Genevieve was quick to say "ooh la la, this place is fancy."

She settled in by ordering room service and referring to herself as Eloise.

Not really.

I have to unplug the phone immediately whenever we stay in a hotel because she spends a lot of time jabbering away on the telephone.  

We suited up and headed to the pool after a stop by the gorgeous wallpaper.  

When T and I stayed there last time there was snow on the ground, so we didn't get to see the full beauty of the grounds.  The pool had an infinity edge that looked out over the golf course and the scenery was just gorgeous.  

The day was sunny and perfect and Genevieve was in heaven. 

I was too with a peach colada.  It was the best drink of my life.

Like crazy good.

When we checked in we each got a glass of champagne.  T didn't want his so I had 2 glasses and then my peach colada.  I had not eaten much for lunch so I was really happy by the pool.

G made friends quickly.

She dog paddled over to a little girl her age and announced, "I'm Genevieve from Indiana."  The little girl responded, "I'm Paisley from West Virginia!"

What a hoot.

I could have stayed by that pool forever.

I had to start negotiations with my lady love early to leave.

She requires a lot of lead time in order to avoid a total meltdown. 

Trinity captured some snaps of my negotiation skills, which are no match for my strong-willed child.  

"Ice cream?

I can have ice cream after dinner?

I will exit this pool without causing a scene and even with a smile on my face."

She prefers shoulder transportation.  

We quickly cleaned up and walked down to Draper's for dinner.

Again, the wallpaper could not be ignored.  

Our dinner was delicious and G was impressed with the size of her ice cream.  

They were showing Moana in the theatre, so we went to see that.  She has seen that movie at least 10 times, but she wanted to watch it again.  Our waitress was kind enough to scoop her ice cream into a cup to take to the show.  

After the movie we heard beautiful music coming from the lobby.

Genevieve was smitten with the beautiful singer who was performing for guests.

She had an amazing voice and was giving a concert.  

About 2 minutes after I took this picture she turned around and informed me that she was going to fall asleep right there if I didn't take her to bed.  

She fell asleep on the elevator ride.

We slept in and toured the resort in the morning.  

G wrote letters.  

We enjoyed breakfast in the main dining room and I had the famous peaches.  

Once I explained that all of the bathrooms were different, we had to stop in each one.

I was thrilled when we saw Frank.

Frank is the ambassador of the resort.  He has worked at the hotel for 59 years.  That's 1958 for all you number crunchers.  He started as a janitor and  met many presidents and famous people in his career. 

His job now is to talk to guests.

He was adorable and so engaging. 

He kissed G on the top of her head and was so sweet.  

He told her he was on the clock and could not join her to swim at the indoor pool after she invited him to join us.  

We spent the morning splashing in the indoor pool.  

We left around lunchtime after exploring the hotel grounds.  

G spied lots of things with her Curious George telescope.  

It was a great first stop on our trip!