Family Visit

Several weeks ago, we had a great visit with Dave's family. They were all in town for the weekend and Noah especially loved spending time with his cousins!

Friday night we went to Dave & Busters, which was like a mini-casino for Noah. He was mesmerized by the noise, the lights, and all the kiddie games where you just keep putting your tokens in the slot hoping that they reach the right train car (or truck or a number of different-themed machines) in order to win some tickets. Remind me to keep him away from Chuckie Cheese and all those places really designed to reel in the kids!






We spent Saturday at a local water park. Noah had a great time in the big, shallow pool and spending some time with cousin Jaden.

A Busy Week

We had many busy days here in Nashville last week! It's been hot, so we've tried to stay inside for the most part, but here are some of our adventures from the past few days...

We spent one early morning at the zoo. All Noah wanted to do was ride the carousel, but after a few times, I'm usually a little queasy. We rode it 3 times on this visit and here he is on our first spin that morning, riding the jaguar.


On Saturday, we saw the live show, Thomas and Friends. The show was definitely geared towards toddlers and Noah had a great time! (I'll leave the critique from David and I out of it.) He was excited to see Thomas, Percy and James and couldn't have cared less about any storyline. Anytime one of the trains left the stage, he immediately wanted to know where they were and when they were coming back. Since the show, he's been inseparable with the few Thomas toys we have so we know it made quite an impression!



So we've had a pile of gravel in our yard ever since the work has been done on our house. We've kept it with the intent of spreading it on our gravel driveway, but Noah always wants to load up his wagon full of it and just likes to generally play in the big, dusty pile. We finally had some time this weekend to go out and spread the gravel in the driveway (that is, David found the time to do the work and I found the time to watch and be moral support). Noah used his wagon and a garden trowel, which has become his own shovel that no one else can use and he gets out anytime David gets out the real shovels. He was so excited to be of help and wouldn't admit how hot and sweaty he was!

4th of July Weekend

We had a great, long weekend. We picked blueberries and blackberries on Friday and again, Noah wasn't interested at all. I'll keep the hope that someday he'll at least enjoy being out on those farms!

I think the highlight of Noah's weekend was our pet-sitting for a neighbor. We had Baxter here at our house from Friday night through Sunday afternoon and Noah was so excited! We've known Baxter for years and he is now starting to show some signs of aging, so thankfully they would just kind of follow each other around and Noah didn't try to get too rough with him.

The only frustrating part for Noah was the number of naps Baxter would take each day. But when Baxter was up and ready to interact, Noah was thrilled! All weekend, Noah would say things like "Guess who I found in the living room?" or "Look who that is!" as if he had forgotten that Baxter was in our house. I know Noah was sad to see Baxter go on Sunday, but thankfully, we get to see Baxter a lot since he's a neighbor!

Here are some random shots of the two of them...

Vacation!

We've had a busy couple of weeks with Katie's work ramping up for each event and Nana babysitting Noah for the long week. They really packed a lot of activities into the week and we're so thankful for her generosity!

Then we had a great weekend visit with Nana and Pop Pop and are looking forward to the family get-together in a few weeks!

But this past week we went on a family vacation and had such a great time! We spent a week in a cabin in a national recreational area and had a great time outdoors, but also playing games and spending time together at the cabin. We took all the kids on a bunch of family-friendly hikes (meaning they had wide paths, some of them stroller friendly, were not on a cliff-side and were fairly short). I think Noah's favorite hike was alongside the river. He was in a cranky mood before we even started the hike and as he got progressively more bored and cranky, David thought to have him collect some rocks and throw them into the river. Not only did Noah have a great time throwing rocks on this trail, but on every trail after it, he wanted to get rocks to throw. Who knew throwing rocks could be so thrilling and memorable?

One day we all packed up to go swimming at what was described as "the most beautiful sandy beach in the Southeast" and I wish I had a picture to show you what we found when we pulled up. I think we made the best of the situation and did a little wading in the water, but it was definitely nothing of what was promised in the brochure! We ended up finding a swimming pool and spent some great afternoons there.

Noah was really intrigued by all of the horses and cows we saw in the area and especially the ones we continually saw on the farms that were near the cabin. On the last day, we were able to go to one of the farms and see 3 horses in their stalls and pet them. As excited as Noah was, he was distracted by the barn kitties that were roaming around and I think had more fun watching and petting them then the horses. Go figure!

I think the highlight of the trip was Noah playing with his cousins. It's so much fun to see how he loves those girls and interacts with them. Hopefully, it's a good place to start as he gets ready for a new little sister this fall!

Here are Nana and Poppy with all of the grandkids.

Noah and David at the swimming pool.

Katie and Noah at the farm with the horses.

David and Noah with the horses in their stalls.

Noah hanging out on the cabin deck with Kim coloring.