Monday was Chandler's 9th Birthday. It felt like we had been celebrating all weekend already, but we tried to make the actual day feel special. We were due to checkout of our hotel, but before we did, I took the kids for a celebratory dip in the hotel's roof pool... it has an indoor and outdoor, and on this particular morning, the outdoor was actually warmer than the indoor (but the wind outside was another ...very cold... story)
After check out, we drove to the Blue Willow Inn, in Social Circle GA for a special lunch... yummy as usual. I brought Chandler's cake out at this time and he was truly surprised, as we had told him all along that we would probably buy him a small cake since we were traveling. We had also told him that the adventure itself was a gift, so there wouldn't be any real gifts to open, but he got a Garfield (his favorite comedian) DVD and Magic Treehouse Book set... both strategically chosen to give him car activities for the trip home.
Turns out the return trip home morphed into a 2 day layover in Alabama ( nowhere near our path home, mind you) Chandler was thrilled as he has always wanted to "see what Alabama looks like" Clay ran with that as the whole reason we were going, but really had business to tackle, so it was win-win for both Clay and Chan.
Chandler had more presents waiting on him at home- presents he didn't expect to receive- at first I thought this would lessen his birthday experience, to drive to Alabama instead of home to surprise him with these few little gifts, but getting to open them today was icing on the cake so to speak, as he absolutely adores Mr. Antonio's kids, and football, and Sweet Home Alabama...
Of his birthday, Chandler says "It was great!"