I was doing a little blog organization this week, sketching out the posts I want to share before the end of the year, and it turns out there are 20. (And these are, in my mind, just the must-dos – gift guides, year-end round-ups, major events I want to capture in the same calendar year, etc.) This is not great news, as I average 5-8 posts per month and November and December are busier than usual months, but I’m looking forward to all of them and I am determined!
So – let’s kick things off with a recap of our late summer/early fall visits to Atlanta, specifically the neighborhoods of Decatur and Virginia-Highland! We parked in Atlanta on both ends of our vacation to Florida’s 30A – it was the perfect midway stopping point to break up an epic road trip. On the way down, we stayed in Decatur, a small-ish city outside Atlanta proper, and on the way back up we stayed in Virginia-Highland, a neighborhood near midtown Atlanta.
These were very brief stays – just one night in Decatur and two nights in Virginia-Highland – but they were both an absolute delight! As I wrote about here, we were hoping to go deep instead of wide on these visits. In the past, we’ve found ourselves criss-crossing cities to check off “must visits.” Instead, we wanted to pick a neighborhood, park ourselves there for the day, and leisurely walk from a breakfast spot to a park to an activity to lunch and back to our Airbnb. And that’s exactly what we did! (This was especially helpful after a long car ride for little kids who were eager to stretch their legs.)
I’m happy to share a little peek into our adventures in case it might be helpful for a future trip of your own!
First: Decatur! We left the Triangle on the Friday of Labor Day weekend, and opted to stay with my sister and her family near Charlotte that night to help break up the drive. From Charlotte, it was about a 4.5 hour drive to Decatur; we left early enough to arrive in time for lunch at the Brick Store Pub on the Square. It was a gorgeous day and we were able to eat outside at their cafe tables (they also have a beer garden with more outdoor seating in back!). We didn’t sample any of the beer, but the sandwiches were delicious. Their menu is American with a European twist: I had a chicken salad melt with havarti and marinated tomatoes and John had the turkey sandwich with smoked gouda and peppadews. Yum.
After lunch we drove about five minutes outside of town to pick up our timed tickets for the Fernbank Museum. We were trying to limit our time inside at this point, so we opted to mostly explore the grounds with our crew.
The museum has 75 acres, including walking trails, a canopy walk, and nature playgrounds. It was nice (and again, a beautiful day!) but we are absolutely spoiled by our local Museum of Life and Science and Fernbank fell a little short for us given the ticket price. My favorite part might have been spotting the most ridiculously beautiful home through the woods on one of the walking trails, ha! To be fair it was magical:
We spent about two hours at the museum, and then hopped back in the car to check in at our Airbnb (about a five-minute drive away). As always, John did a phenomenal job scouting our stay – this Airbnb was one of our favorites we’ve ever stayed in! Everything was sparkling clean, there was music playing when we arrived and chocolates to greet us, a cute porch swing, and comfy beds. The only slight drawback was that the driveway was very intimidating – it was long and seemed to rise almost straight into the air, without much room to turn around at the top. But we managed!
After feeding Annie, exploring the house, and freshening up, we drove back into the Square, Decatur’s town center. We chose this Airbnb because it was close enough to walk to the Square, but in the end we opted to drive to dinner because our crew hadn’t napped that day and we felt like a 20-minute walk there and back would be pushing our luck (plus, we’d be in the dark). But if you stay in this Airbnb, you could totally walk! It would be a bit hilly, but would take you through an adorable neighborhood and there are sidewalks on the main road. I snapped a few photos out the car window, thoroughly embarrassing John per usual.
For dinner, we ended up at Leon’s Full Service. We were hoping to eat at No. 246 (an Italian spot next door to Leon’s!) but they didn’t have any availability until 10. At Leon’s, a former gas station, we were seated right away on their outdoor patio. Our food was good, but the menu was a little exotic for even our adventurous eaters. After dinner, we walked across the Square for ice cream at Jeni’s (delicious, as always!). We ate it on the green space in the middle of the Square, which was so neat.
The next morning we picked up bagels from B-Side Bagels for a quick breakfast, again eating them on the Square. Yummy, though we’d try something else if we returned. After that, we hopped back in the car and got on the road to Florida!
You all were so generous to share SO many great Decatur restaurant suggestions, and we wished we had more time to explore them! On our short list for next time: No. 246, Chai Pani, Victory Sandwich, The White Bull, Iberian Pig, and Sweet Melissa’s. They’re all grouped right around the Square and they all looked good.
Up next: probably the first gift guide, then our stay in Watercolor, Florida!
As I work away on the third post in the blogging series, I thought I’d pop in with a quicker share: the 2021 volume of June in June! This yearly video fell at a doozy of a time for our family: I was eight months pregnant, and John had just ruptured his Achilles’ tendon and was on crutches. Needless to say, we were not doing many of the activities that usually populate these videos: hikes, trips, swimming in creeks, neighborhood walks, camping, tennis, and more. In fact, my face doesn’t make a single appearance in this video, and that does make me a little bit sad.
But you know what does appear? June’s smile, because she is sunshine. My parents, because they stayed with us for six weeks to help out. My hands, twice, and my voice and my laugh, because I was committed to getting behind the camera and keeping this tradition alive, even in the midst of upheaval. And our home, a soft and warm place to land, even if we did get a little stir crazy at times.
Each of these videos, no matter the year, is a snapshot of our life and our little one in that season. This one just happens to be particularly unusual :) I hope you enjoy a peek, friends!
After a pregnancy-and-injury-and-newborn phase where we didn’t get out and about as much as we would have liked, our whole family is excited for fall! In a twist on our usual fun list, I asked June and Shep what they’d like to make time for this season yesterday after school. They are now actually old enough to remember things from last fall, and it was fun to hear their priorities. I combined their answers with John’s and mine, and printed out this list for our fridge. Here’s to a beautiful season ahead, and happy first day of fall, friends!
— Enjoy our annual mountain trip (Black Mountain this year!) — Make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins — Biscuits, hot dogs, and the ferris wheel at the State Fair — Play at the Museum of Life & Science — Walk to our neighborhood food truck festival — Go on a Halloween neighborhood scavenger hunt using this sweet printable — Celebrate Thanksgiving — Make pumpkin pie with June (it’s in her baking book and she’s been asking for MONTHS) — Pick pumpkins at the patch and go on the tractor — Decorate our front porch and house — Hike somewhere with beautiful leaves — Add candy googly eyes to things during the month — Make a chocolate chip Dutch baby (I’ve never made one before, but they look fun!) — Pack a picnic and eat lunch outside — Camp with friends — Make apple cider scones for our teachers — Host the pumpkins and soup party (maybe modified? we shall see!) — Pick apples — Have a sidewalk bakery — Dress our mantel for fall (I bought these vase fillers to make a garland!) — Roast s’mores in our fire pit — Dress up and trick-or-treat as a family
I’d love to hear what you’re looking forward to this fall! I didn’t even add any savory foods I’m looking forward to making/eating to this list, but there are many :)
Happy Labor Day, friends! To mark summer’s unofficial end, I thought I’d record a few things I want to remember from this season, inspired by one of my favorite bloggers. It would be easy to just remember the bigger events (ahem, someone’s birth! someone’s injury!) or to focus on what this summer didn’t include (a trip to the Maine, for the first time ever), so I like the idea of capturing the little pleasures and particulars to look back on. Here’s some of what we’ll remember from summer 2021…
Listening: Leading up to Annie’s birth, I started to crave the worship of strong female voices. (A different kind of pregnancy craving, ha!) I put together this playlist, mostly of Mission House and FAITHFUL songs, and it’s what we ended up listening to in the delivery room. It’s been a calming and strengthening companion after her birth, too.
Eating: All the Meal Train meals, thank you Jesus and friends! Highlights included this casserole (thank you, Libby!) and a picnic meal with this chicken salad, this potato salad, fruit salad, and Garden Salsa Sun Chips (thank you, Ginna!). I hadn’t eaten Sun Chips in years and it turns out they are SO GOOD.
Visiting: We opted out of a neighborhood pool membership last year with all the COVID uncertainty, so it was a delight to get back to it this summer! Even with John’s injury and my very-pregnant self and then a newborn, we made it to the pool several times a week and the kids LOVED it. Our favorite time to go was after dinner – there was something about the cooler temps, the emptier pool, and the proximity to bedtime that made our visits a bit magical.
Wearing: My nap dress was worn 2-3 times a week, I kid you not. The perfect late-pregnancy, post-partum, easy-breezy outfit. I’m glad it was permanently memorialized in Annie’s newborn photos because it was definitely the outfit of the moment.
I was also influenced into a pair of fauxm (faux, foam, haha) Birks for all those pool trips. Two thumbs up.
Enjoying: The company of my parents. Though I wouldn’t necessarily have chosen to have them stay with us for several weeks leading up to and including Annie’s birth, we are so grateful to have had their help and their companionship. Living far apart makes our time together precious, and I did my best to soak it up.
Learning: With all our time at the pool, June’s swimming improved leaps and bounds! She completely ditched her floatie, gained so much confidence in swimming underwater, and even bought these dive rings with her own money :) Lessons with a neighborhood college student were the highlight of her weeks.
Attending: Physical therapy appointments! John’s been going twice a week since he graduated from crutches, right around when Annie was born. His at-home exercises were as much a part of our evening routine as a plate of juicy peach slices.
Watching: Parental leave was the perfect opportunity to indulge in the Tokyo Olympics full force and we certainly did. July also brought the return of Ted Lasso – season two has been SO GOOD so far! (Rom-communism, anyone?!)
Reading: With our other two children, the last feeding before bed was accompanied by total darkness and rustling the sheets under pain of death so as not to disturb their settling. For whatever reason, Annie is tolerant of even a bedside lamp being on as she falls back asleep, and so I’ve been able to sneak in a few pages of reading each night (a HUGE gift to this mama, as my nightly bedtime reading routine is one of the hardest things to give up in seasons with a tiny baby). The first book I read after she was born was The Self-Driven Child, and aside from LOVING it, it was perfect for the moment: engrossing, but not so interesting that I was tempted to stay up for hours :)
What will you remember from summer 2021? I’d love to hear!
