Tour de Nashville

Happy Memorial Day everyone.

I'm thankful for a day off so that we can recover from our vacation! Do you ever feel like your vacations are so busy that you need to take a few days to recover afterwards? Funny thing, isn't it, how busy we keep ourselves.

We are also all sick, all 3 of us, although my boys are much worse than me, at least for now. Good thing, because neither one of them are very pleasant when they're sick, and at least I still feel good enough to help them a little bit. Just head colds, sinus pressure kinda thing. But the whole runny nose, sore throat, headache thing is no fun. Noah's never really had a sore throat before, that I know of, but I'm pretty sure he does now, because he's doing this little "fake cough" thing, that almost sounds like he's just playing, but then he gets irritated and fussy. So I'm taking that as the sign that his throat is sore and he's just never felt it before. Poor thing. His nose is a faucet. Snot bubbles are gross. Enough of the details, back to the fun trip.

We tried our best to squeeze everyone in during our recent trip to Nashville. First, let me just say we have been looking forward to this time away SOOOOO much. Probably Matt much more than me, because of the busyness of his job, but we have been ready for time with family and good friends for a long while now. The main point of the trip began with a golf tournament, with of course time to see aunts and an uncle on the side :-)... but then the weekend turned into a reunion of sorts for Matt and his college buddies. It was so, so nice. Everything went about as smoothly as it could have and we got to see a little bit of everybody.

We flew in on Wed. morning so we could catch Aunt Jess before she left for a weekend of her own with some girls. We spent Wed. with both sides of the fam, playing around the campus of TNU (Noah LOVES the fountains and all the steps, as if that is a surprise!) and then going to dinner at Pei Wei. Yum. Then Matt left earrrrly Thurs. for the golf tournie and Noah and I stayed at TNU with Carrie/Jess. Between Thurs. and Frid., Matt got to play 90 holes of golf (I think that's 4 rounds of 18 and two rounds of 9, if you're trying to figure it out!) with his best friends in the world, and I'm not sure what he enjoyed more, the golf or the company. Noah and I went to lunch with the Aunts on Friday at a cute little sandwich place called Which Wich, then to Centennial Park and Opry Mills Mall with Carrie. After the marathon golf tournie, Matt and I met up with some of his friends for a little C & C: (Starbucks Coffee and Conversation). Carrie kept Noah, since we were out till midnight.

Sat. we met the Harveys--Matt's adoptee family while he was in college--for lunch at Chile's, then the friends at the mall (again), and then our evening culminated with a BBQ and hanging out at the Twinings. Adam and Christie were very gracious to have us all over and share their enormous collection of toys with Noah and Paul. Who, by the way, are basically the same size all the way down to the 2x wide shoes from StrideRite. I found them pretty cute together. Not that they played together--in fact, I don't think they really could have cared less about the other the whole evening. But WE know they'll one day be "Friends". Our night continued with the new Indiana Jones movie and once again we returned home after midnight, now exhausted after 2 late nights in a row. And a bit disappointed with the movie. :-(

Sunday was just as I expected it to be: we filled up a whole row at Nashville First Church and then 6 or 7 tables pushed together at the best TexMex in the Mid-East, SATCO (SanAntonioTacoCompany). I don't remember a single time in Nashville without at least A visit to SATCO. It's truely a MUST GO. After a casual hour or two of queso and conversation, we girls said our goodbyes and the fellows headed out for one more 9-hole of golf--on a count of Daniel, supposedly. But that brings us to a whopping total of 99 holes in just 4 days. That trumps the 3 trips I made to Walmart in 3 days while in TN.

As I said in the beginning, we were soooo ready for this trip, and we were not disappointed. It was a good balance of seeing friends, seeing some sights, spending times with family, and relaxing, just a bit. Noah had a BLAST with the Aunts and it was nice to finally get to introduce him to our friends and see their kids again. It appears Noah picked up a few new habits, like his new cheesy smile and sticking his finger deep into your nasal cavity. I'll leave you with one of the photos as an example, and then I'll add some when I get Carrie's photos because she has several great ones. What a little goof he is now!

Noah feeding the cat

Here's a vid of Noah helping me feed the cat. He LOVES doing this now.

Noah on the Water

Noah loved riding the boat on the water this weekend. Here's just a smidgin of his excitement.

Weekend Whirlwind

Ahhh, it is 11:oo p.m., Noah's in bed sleeping soundly, Matt is working on his Sunday School lesson for tomorrow, and I get to enjoy the last hour of my 29th birthday by myself. Yes, I did say 29, peoples. I know I don't look a day older than I did on my wedding day, but I'm trying to be real with myself. I have just begun the 30th year of my existence on this planet. It sounds so monumental when you say it that way. As Matt said today, I only have 365 more days before the dreaded 3-0. He hits that mark in just 2 & 1/2 months. I'm not really sure how I feel about being 29. The thought of it DOES feel old. I'm not entirely sure what happened to year 28. No matter what side of 29 you are on, you were probably either "just there" or will be any time now. Life goes by so strangely fast, doesn't it. Only occasionally does it slow down. This weekend was one of those times when I wish life would just slooooow down so I could appreciate every breathe.




Our “weekend” got started early on Thurs. evening when we took Noah to a local park and enjoyed watching him run up and down the ramps and climb in and out of the slides like a real toddler. He doesn’t really understand how to “play” with other kids yet, so he’ll follow them around and when he catches up with them, he just stands too close and scares them away. It’s like he doesn’t realize he’s a 1 year old trying to hang out with a 8 or 9 year old, he thinks he’s just one of the gang. We had fun being with him and seeing him TRYING to interact with others.
Then Friday Noah and I had a 2 & ½ hour errand/grocery marathon involving the mall, Sam’s Club and then Walmart. We grabbed lunch in there too, which was a sight to see itself: Noah and I trying to share chicken nuggets, fries, and a root beer float in the back seat of our Vue in the parking lot of Sam’s Club. Noah has decided he’s in to dunking his food like mommy and daddy now, so every bite had to take a dip into the BBQ sauce (aka very messy). It turned into a much longer lunch than I expected. We also took our time at Sam’s, strolling through the aisles “talking” about everything we saw. Noah pointed out “Ball” to everything that looked even remotely like a ball, including all 50 something “ceiling boueys” (that’s what they looked like to me!) and cantelopes, tomatoes, etc. basically every fruit and vegetable expect for bananas. He also said “Byeieee” to practically everyone we passed, which gathered us quite the attention. Oh yeah, and all this pointing and saying Ball and Byeiee took place while Noah sat in the back of the big grocery cart on top of a gigantic dog pillow I decided to get for Peyton. At one point he leaned back against the back of the cart and propped his arms on the side of the cart, looking like a sulton on a flying carpet or something. What a funny kid. That afternoon Matt got a babysitter so that he and I could finish our 18 holes of golf that we began last Nov. and got rained out. It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed it very much. Matt is so patient with me and very encouraging, even though I played terribly.

TODAY got even better. We started my birthday day by sleeping in (sort of—Noah got up as usual, so we took turns sleeping in) and then a yummy breakfast at IHOP (bday bfast is a Hays tradition). After lunch we headed to the waterfront for a beautiful leisurely afternoon on a pontoon boat. A couple from our church own a boat rental co. and invited us to join them for a few hours while they “broke in” a new motor. Noah loved the water and the ride, for the first 30 min. before he fell asleep to the rocking of the boat and the hum of the motor. I enjoyed soaking up a few rays of sunshine (for once!) while Matt sat under the canopy with Noah. It was just about what I’d call a perfect afternoon! Nice surprise, too. THEN finally, tonight Matt and I went to dinner and a chickflick movie while Noah stayed at home with a babysitter. We had a good time out alone and Noah had a good time at home with Katelyn. He is 14 months today by the way!

All those stories and I only have pictures of this afternoon's boat ride, but aren't they so cute! My two boys.

Last Photos of April

Before May gets totally underway, a few more photos from April...
Matt's college friend Daniel came to visit a few weeks ago, and Noah took to him pretty quickly. They were buds for the weekend.

Noah lifted two 2-liters and relocated them to their rightful place: the siran wrap/plastic bag drawer. Right after I took this shot, he tried to shut the door, but for some reason it wouldn't close...
Noah is now climbing all over the furniture. Here he is trying to reach the cat. He's standing against the highchair, if you didn't notice.