Amanda, Milly and I left this morning around 9:00 on what would turn out to be the longest trip to Rougemont, normally about a two and a half hour trip, ever.
First we stopped off in Clayton at about 11:30 to see my boss, Scott. We used the GPS to get there. Anyway, Scott hadn’t met Milly yet and Amanda hadn’t even met his younger daughter, Ava, who is now… two or three? Scott, Ava and his wife, Ann Marie, were all there. Addie, the older daughter, was in school.
After that we met up with Erin at Southpoint for lunch. We were there for a bit before she got there, then we went to look for a birthday present for her. Since the dogs were in the car, I ended up taking Milly and heading on out while Amanda and Erin shopped. We did get Milly her first ever Duke hat.
On the way to the Rouge I called my old buddy, Jason Revill, to update him on my goings-on, since he was going to try to meet up with us. He was helping prepare some stuff with his parents at Aldersgate Church, so Milly and I ended up stopping by there to see them. Nearly eight months old, and she finally gets to meet my best friend and his parents, who were like a second set of parents to me. We tried to get together before, but it just never worked out. It felt special to be able to introduce Milly to them.
We went on to Rougemont after that, arriving at about 4:00. Seven hours, longest trip from Wilmington to Rougemont ever. My dad, Andra and her baby, Addison, were there. Addison was so sweet. She was excited to see Milly (they’re exactly seven months apart) and kept hugging her. Milly isn’t very advanced on her interactions with people her size yet, so I think it annoyed her more than anything else. But it was so sweet to see. I thought many times today that I can’t wait for them to be big enough to really play together.
Josh and Jackson arrived with Erin and Amanda right after them. Amanda and Erin had seen Elmo and Dulce, one of my parents’ dogs and Erin’s, by the road and had picked them up. Amanda got some poop or something on her clothes from it, so she went to change and wash her clothes. I spent some time working this evening.
Uncle Roy got home from work as Jackson and left to find some Cold-Eeze, mainly for Amanda because she felt some sick coming on, but I had a little bit of a sore throat yesterday and thought it would be good for me too. We went to three or four nearby places but couldn’t find any. I had a good time riding around with Jackson. I told him why we preferred to call my mom Mum Mum instead of Nana (a name in honor of my own grandma versus a name similar to what we’re calling Milly’s other grandma, which could make it confusing) and he told me that with my peacoat on I looked like a villain spy. He asked if I was a spy so we talked about what situations I’d be able to tell him if I was a spy or not.
As I said, we didn’t find the Cold-Eeze, and I didn’t realize Amanda wanted them as bad as she did, so I went back out after I dropped Jackson back off at the house and this time I went towards Durham instead of towards Roxboro. I also picked up some extra baby food because Milly was wolfing it down. On the way back I noticed that it was lightly snowing. Amanda’s brother, Michael, texted a little later and said it was coming down pretty heavily in Wilmington and actually sticking.
Amanda and I put Milly to bed after I got back then Erin, Josh and Andra went out and Dad went to pick up my mom, whose flight had been delayed.
Amanda got Addison to go to bed then she went to bed herself shortly after. I snoozed on the couch while Jackson played Wii. When he was done he wanted to watch cartoons, and while I was flipping through the channels trying to find Cartoon Network for him we came across Pink Floyd’s The Wall, which he decided he wanted to watch.
I just went to let Bruce and Harvey out to pee and the ground is already covered in snow, so tomorrow we’ll have to get some pictures of Milly out there in it. Amanda packed warm clothes for her just in case this situation occurred.
Zach Dotsey