Welcome to the South

A couple of weeks ago we decided to take a drive to see more of this gorgeous state we live in. With the trees starting to turn, I thought it might be a great time to get a picture for our Christmas card. I brought all the equipment but I was also realistic - if it didn't happen - OK, no big deal. It was a good thing I had that attitude. Here's the story...

We drove to this little town about 45 minutes away called Guntersville. It's adorable, you feel like you have stepped back in time. If only I hadn't had a car full of crazy, hungry boys I could have spent the day, just me and my camera and had a great time. But, that wasn't the case. (when is that EVER the case!?) Supposedly there is this great state park in Guntersville, there are signs for it everywhere but we drove and drove and drove and saw NO state park. We were frustrated, the kids were hungry....such is my life. So we went through the McDonald's drive through and pulled over at this lame boat landing. The lighting was all wrong, Jackson kept making funny faces in all my pictures, but the kids had fun feeding their cheeseburgers to the fish and throwing rocks in the water. Here were the results....(stay tuned after the photos....the best part of the story is yet to come!)

Boats were starting to come in so it was time to leave the boat dock. It was at this point that the lighting was becoming ideal and I did go to the trouble of packing up the tripod, dressing the boys in matching shirts, making Sean coordinate his shirt with mine and bringing a spray bottle with water, hair gel and combs to do the boys hair. How could I give up now? So, Sean pulled over at this Yacht club with great looking trees and a covered pavilion over looking the lake. At first look it seemed like the perfect place, there were even these great tree stumps that I could have posed the family around. We get out of the car, I open up ALL the doors to get out the kids and all the camera equipment. Then, I begin to do Jackson's hair. I think it was a this moment that I noticed the swarming bugs. No big deal, I thought, they must just be in the pavilion. Then I realized the swarming bugs, were mosquitos...yeah...mosquitos. We left the pavilion only to see a haze of bugs, no let me rephrase, a haze of mosquito's covering the entire landscape. Everywhere. We of course freaked out and frantically began swooping up everything we had just unloaded and throwing it back in the van. After we had all reached what we thought was the safety of our vehicle, we noticed the 50 or so mosquitos that had made it inside. We spent the next 10 minutes chasing down these pests with a vengeance. By the end, we were out of breath and traumatized.
I knew we were living in the South, I knew there were supposed to be massive amounts of bugs here, I just really haven't seen them in the last 4 months. I mean, the bug guy comes to spray every month and aside for the crazy ant piles in my yard, I haven't given bugs much thought. Then I come to find out that the city I live in has these trucks that drive around every month fuming the city for mosquitos. It is part of the taxes we pay - a tax I will GLADLY pay by the way! So, I guess aside from the great schools, great people and great community, I have one more reason to be grateful for where we live. It may be a while before I venture out of my safe little city again.
After all, I can still hear them now, all those mosquitos coming to feast on my family, thinking nothing more than, "Eames family, welcome to the South!"


(I stole this picture off the web, but it is a pretty accurate portrayal and helps you get the idea of how horrifying the experience was!)