Millions of Peaches, Peaches for Me (or the Critters)

I'm back after a little break. I had the kids last week while Rian headed to Orlando for training.

We headed to Ft. Valley, Georgia on Saturday June 19 for the annual Georgia Peach Festival. Rian and I have been excited about this largely due to the world's largest peach cobbler. We were told to temper our enthusiasm a little this year due to some internal festival squabbles but I can tell you it turned out to be a great time, aside from the drive up there. The Critters are stil getting used to their new car seats and they didn't want anything to do with them this particular morning.

Ft. Valley, Georgia.

They even have peaches on their streets!

We hit the road at 7am first stopping a Breugger's Bagels for some peach coffee, just to get us in the right mindset. While peach and coffee does not sound like it would marry too well, I can assure you it is quite tasty, and this come from someone who strictly drinks plain black coffee. We headed up through Thomasville, Georgia through some other small towns until we merged with I-75. A few minutes later we were pulling up to Meghan's house. Meghan and her mom took us to down town Ft. Valley were all of the happenings were. We just missed the parade but we were able to see all of the street vendors and see the sights. Meghan and her mom had to head off around 1pm, Meghan had to take a teacher's test.

Can you tell who is excited?

Meghan, Kathy, Rian, the girls.

Dad and Hadley (aka Peach (note it is singular, peaches = stripper).)

Meghan and Rian.

Rian and I headed over to Lane Packing which put us into peach overload. We had a bite to eat here and it was excellente. Rian came up with a great plan for the Critters, she got them the salad bar so we could feed them a little bit of everything. We then took the tour of the packing facility which was actually pretty cool. It is amazing seeing the shear number of peaches that flow through this place. We grabbed a few peach items, peaches (of course), peach bread, and peach preserves.

Brother finally succumbed to "peach overload."

Hadley.

CarCar.

Brother.

We had to wake him up for this picture, hence the look of disdain.

The world's largest peach cobbler was scheduled to be doled out around 2pm. Apparently we should have gotten there a little bit earlier, the line was quite long and it was about a bazillion degrees outside. We braved the heat to get our cobbler and then headed back tot he AC. Meghan's mom called to let us know that Pearson Farms had a batch of white peaches. For those of you that don't know these are the Holy Grail of peaches. These things are so freakin' good. Unfortunately, they ripen a little later in the season so we weren't able to get too many of them. Off again in the car, this time our bearings were Tallahassee, Florida. It was a long hot day but we were able to cram in a lot of fun. Thanks again to Meghan and her mom for showing us around.

Oh, and the peach bread makes ridiculously good french toast.

Chris

New Look, Same Great (I hope) Taste.

Lets hope that this change goes down better than the introduction of "New Coke," "Crystal Pepsi," and "Zima." I was getting a little bored of the layout of the blog. I think that the layout/look had run its course. I truly do appreciate the work that went into creating it, though. Since the Critters turned one a month ago I decided it was time to update the look of the blog to reflect year one through two. I chose the "Simple" layout, lets hope that somehow that title will ooze over into our life. I think Rian and I could use a little "Simple" time.

I have some favors to ask of you all out there in blogland, first let me know what you think of the new look. Do you love it or hate it, or maybe somewhere in the middle (also known as "I really don't care.") As you can tell I have added a very complex and cool tool bar under the main picture of the Critters. This allows you to read our journey to the Critters. It also allows you to learn a little about each Critter (there will be more added to these pages). Finally you will see a link that is entitled "F.A.Q." Click on it, I dare you. You will notice that there is nothing there, this is where my big favor comes. Let me know if you have any questions about our journey through IVF, the Critters, finances, the strain of raising triplets/multiples. We are very open about this type of stuff. Just leave me a comment with your question if you have one. I already have quite a few that will be added to the section but I just wanted to get ya'lls take.

I have a few posts in the hopper and we will be heading up to the Georgia Peach Festival on Saturday. We also have just booked a trip to St. Augustine for the 4th of July, 5 day vacay here we come.

Chris

Pickin' Blueberries Captured on a Blackberry

Rian and the Critters headed out to Molly's parents farm to pick blueberries (and a few blackberries) last week. According to Rian a great time was had by all. Let me tell you them are some good berries too.

Here are a few pics (taken by Molly's Blackberry - hence the play on words):

The girls checking out the grass.

I thought we were here to pick berries?

Okay, really, were are the berries?

Reese getting acclimated with his surroundings.

I don't think Reese is a fan of grass.

Chris

A Little Bit of Randomness

Hey everyone, not too much going on here just a few random bits:

1. I will be the featured blogger over at Life with B & A (&D). Abby is the author of the blog and does a great job over there. Go check out her blog tomorrow (Thursday).

2. I have also been contacted by csnstores.com to do a review. I have chosen to review an Emile Henry pie plate. Rian has been jonesing for one for a while. Stay tuned the review will be up in a week or two. CSN has over 200+ stores to chose products from. It's stores range from cookware to sofas. With a range of products like that you are sure to find something that you need.

3. I was unlucky enough to get selected for jury duty this week. I got thrown into possibly one of the most disturbing trials a person can be selected for. I saw and hear things a parent definitely doesn't need to see and hear. Unfortunately there are some truly horrendous things in our world. Do yourself a favor and give your little ones a big hug, I know that I did as soon as I got home.

Chris

The best piece of gear we have gotten, period.

Look how happy this strange woman looks.

Grandma Barbara purchased the Charcoal/Grey Phil and Ted's Metro Backpack for us to tote the Critters around in. To be more specific to tote one Critter at a time around. After trying to figure out the directions (apparently the folks from New Zealand like to use pictures instead of text to explain things, unfortunately the pictures make no sense) we were on our way to test it out on a family walk. While you could definitely feel that there was a Critter attached to your back it was so much more comfortable that the other carriers. This makes things a lot easier than having to worry about the double stroller and then another single stroller. The Metro backpack folds down virtually flat.

The big test came on Saturday when we had a full day of errands to run. Reese and Hadley split time in the backpack while we wandered through the mall. Two things: 1. The Critters absolutely freakin love this thing, we makes everything more enjoyable; and 2. my back did not hurt at all after wearing this thing for 2+ hours.

The big test will come in a couple of weeks when we head up to Ft. Valley, Georgia for the Peach Festival. That will be a full day extravaganza.

Chris

Leave of Absence (sort of)

This is the only time you will see this man on the blog.

Similar to that coach down south I took a leave of absence, although it was not strategically planned after my team got whuuuuuuped in the SEC Championship game. While there haven't been too many posts lately that doesn't mean that there hasn't been anything going on. Quite the opposite. Memorial Day weekend we headed down to Orlando for Adam's High School graduation. We had a great time down in Orlando and the Critter's got to go to the pool. As usual you couldn't get Hadley out of the water. Brother is warming up to the water and was actually really kicking his legs like he was swimming. CarCar is still a little tentative with the water but she is definitely getting better.

On the home front we are just trying to get back into the swing of things after getting back from Orlando. The Critters are definitely getting more mobile. Both CarCar and Hadley have both taken a few unassisted steps. (We are currently trying to get this on tape.) While the girls will only take a few steps unassisted they will cruise down the hallway with their push cart. You literally have to get out of CarCar's way when she gets a full head of steam going.

Hadster giving Brother a push.

CarCar the workhorse.

This month is chocked full of activities for the fam. After a much needed lazy weekend we have the Georgia Peach Festival, blackberry picking, a visit from Grandpa Dave, Father's Day, and the Forth of July coming up. There is no slowing down for these Critters.

Chris