Sunday, July 18, 2010

It's been a long, long time since we've been back to Savannah after having lived there nearly 4 years ago! Chad's business has been working on two large projects in Savannah and Tybee Island and because he couldn't go home this weekend, we decided to go crash at his hotel. :-) It was a whirl-wind trip and Chad had to work some while we were there, but the kids and I had a really nice time driving around all the old places we used to play at...Forsyth Park, Victory Drive, Tybee Island, Skidaway Island, the Savannah and Oglethorp Mall, ect. We even drove past the hospital where Rauly was born (St. Joseph's Candler) and paid our old neighborhood and house a visit!

It's amazing how your mind protects itself. The two years that we lived in Savannah were downright HARD! Shepherd's Osteomyeltis, Chad's meningitis, and virus's, ear infections, bugs....you name it, we got it. At one point we literally thought our house might be making us sick due to getting so violently ill over and over and over. On top of that, Chad's job was going nowhere fast and he was pretty miserable in his career. Looking back, we can see so that God had his hand in bringing us to Savannah and that the growth we experienced there was necessary...but boy, it was NOT fun! (The only other plus side was we both got super-skinny! lol!) Going back to my earlier statement about how your mind protects itself, I had forgotten practically everything about the city. I had to use my navigator to get me EVERYWHERE...when you intentionally don't think about something (or somewhere) for long enough, it apparently goes away! As I drove around, it slowly began to come back to me but it was literally as if I was driving through a fog....eyes squinted....thinking "oooooh yeaaaah....I remember that now!"....this particular blog post held good memories. Since moving to Fleming Island, our family has been healthy and we have felt at "home" here...whereas Savannah always felt like a transition...we just knew we wouldn't be there long.

One of the places that we had nothing but wonderful memories of was Forsyth Park! I took the kids there on Saturday morning and we stayed for nearly 3 hours. It was so neat to see Shep and Rauly playing on it...the last time we were there, Rauly was Lillie Anna's age and Shepherd was just a toddler! I pushed Lillie Anna in the same baby swing that Rauly used to sit in. :-) The pics below are from my IPhone, so I apologize!

BeaUUUUtiful Forsyth Park!







Tybee Island...Shep and Rauly practically lived on this beach!
I didn't take these pics, but these are two things you'll see each time you drive on the island!


After a really great weekend of reminiscing, we ended our time with daddy at his favorite store - Bass Pro! We frequented this place while we lived there...they have an awesome aquarium stocked with MASSIVE fish and Shepherd used to plaster his face up against it and just stare for the longest time. He (and Rauly) were much busier on this trip and were captured more by the cool 4-wheelers and boats than they were the catfish....which is fine b/c daddy and momma like to dream of jet-ski's and water-skiing while we salivate over speed boats. :-p

SO, while I have absolutely NO desire to ever move back to Savannah (or stay for an extended length of time), I'm thankful that we were able to visit and remind ourselves that the city is actually quite amazing! Something I think we'd both forgotten!

2 comments:

Jamie said...

This was a really fun post for me to read b/c I journeyed back to your old post links. I'm cracking up b/c you didn't watch C*H*I*P*S (yes, those of you who watched the show know that's how it's written!!!) My siblings and cousins would have been stoked to meet Erik Estrada!!! I can't tell you how many hours we pretended to chase bad guys on our bikes!!!!!! You totally missed out! Anyhow, glad you had a wonderful trip! That bottom pic of Chad and the kids is hysterical! That Rauly-girl is crazy! :)

Michael and Hannah said...

I did not realize you have been blogging for that long. And I did NOT know about Shep's severe illness! How very scary. It made me shiver when I read his story. God is so faithful and what a wonderful testimony to His goodness to see where he's brought you today. Oh, and by the way... you're still super skinny!