Helen, Part 3

Brad got Emma up first thing on Sunday morning and headed down the street to "Ain't Bee's Bakery" to pick up some breakfast. Apparently, it was a sight to behold. He said that he felt like he was in Mayberry. He said that all of the people there were telling him how much she looked like him and complimenting her on her tan! Thank goodness she got Brad's skin instead of mine. I burn the second I get in the sun, but he tans nicely and so does she.

After we ate and Emma had a morning nap, we left for Cleveland (about 15 minutes away) to Babyland General. I was looking forward to taking her there SO much! I've been 2 or 3 times years ago, but this month they moved to a HUGE new location. Brad kept calling it the "compound" because it really did look like one!



I wasn't sure what Emma would think or if she would really enjoy herself. I had nothing to worry about. As soon as she saw the first babydoll, her face lit up in a smile that didn't leave her face until we left. She had SUCH a good time! She would reach out and touch their faces and smile at them and point to different babies. We saw some vintage dolls on display that are now worth upwards of $15,000 a piece! The solid cloth ones (all of the ones in the pictures) are $200 to adopt. We decided that we'd get Emma's very first Cabbage Patch baby here, but there was NO way that we were going to go home with a cloth one! We found some that were 25th anniversary edition dolls. They were modeled after the few very first dolls that came out in 1983. We narrowed it down to 2 and Emma chose a blond baby with short hair. Her birthday is our wedding anniversary - October 1!

This is a little friend that Emma made - they were so cute!

We haven't taken her out of the box yet, but will be sure to get plenty of pictures when we get home and "birth" her from the box! We left just as they were starting to do a "cabbage section" on Mother Cabbage. There were a TON of people over there watching, so we couldn't get close enough anyway. We stopped to take a few pictures of Emma and her new baby on the bench out front.


We came back to the cabin and Emma took a short nap. We woke up and had dinner and then headed back into Helen to drive around. On the way back she was fussy, so I pulled over at the bridge over the Smith River at Unicoi. We walked down to the dock that overlooked the water. It was SO pretty - I've never seen lake water that was that blue/green. Got lots of pictures there too!


We headed back to the cabin and Emma got another jacuzzi bath. She's going to wonder what's going on when we get home and there are no jets in the tub! Unfortunately, her sleep was miserable. Once she fussed and I jumped right up to put the passy back in, she realized that I was sleeping right next to her. She woke up once an hour to play! No fun.

It was a wonderful little first vacation! Can't wait to do it again!!