Lost Footage

Last year I was blessed with an abundant garden. This year I slacked off some and it shows. I got my garden in late and then hot weather hit. It took a toll on my little seedlings and stunted their growth. My yellow bell peppers are puny. I’m waiting on cukes and tomatoes and the other broccoli. I’m happy I got something.

Here’s Audrey with her friend Serenity. They had a sleepover that went really well. I swear these two are twins separated at birth. I’m really bummed that they won’t be going to the same elementary school together. Means I will have to schedule more play dates!

We did get outside for some pool action before rain came. Nate loves the water and I can’t wait to sign up for swim lessons. I also can’t believe that I got action pictures with my slow camera.

 

We’ve had some fun shopping excursions! We stopped at Traverse City Pie Co. for some cookies and coffee after lunch. You can see the kids enjoyed them. Not sure if you can see Nate behind that big cookie!

Then it was off to Trader Joe’s. My mom raves about the store which is at least 40 min from my house. Me not so impressed. The kids found these shopping carts, which I have heard are quite the rave. I did find a delicious chocolate bar! But not worth a 40 min drive.

So Friday I needed to hit Sam’s Club. The only place I buy diapers. Once again it’s after lunch but my lil’ man was worn out from the previous shopping day. He actually fell asleep while sitting in the cart. I pulled out the changing pad and a spare set of clothes to make a bed. I guess it was good enough. He got about a 30 minute nap in the cart!

Cheesy Nate

Cheesy Audrey

Nate finally had a play date with our neighbor. The boys are 6 weeks apart in age. It makes it hard not to compare them and expect Nate to be on the same level. I know that Nate will be there too, he’s just pacing himself. Nate did enjoy giving hugs. I hope that this is a start to a good friendship!

Other than that it’s been pretty low key around here. Started some back to school shopping and gearing up for the new school year.

Nashville~Part II

Had some issues with my blogger template that I had to address before I could finish my Nashville post. Onward!

Tuesday

We decided to sleep in this morning. All the hustle and bustle from the conference and the heat really got to us. After getting ourselves ready we headed for a short walk over to the Country Music Hall of Fame. It was a nice museum and took me back to being a kid. I remember many times being dragged to museums to learn the history of something. Nate enjoyed the freedom to run around and Audrey enjoyed the dresses. She especially loved the Taylor Swift dress.

Although I don’t know everything about country music, I learned a lot and respect those that paved the way for the music I listen to now.

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After that we were off to lunch at Jack’s BBQ! The most talked about BBQ joint down there. It was really good but wish it was a sit down and order as opposed to a walk-up-and-order. We have a BBQ joint in downtown Detroit called Slow’s BBQ and there you sit down and order. After lunch we strolled back to the hotel and was lucky to bump into Liz and her 3 year old daughter Ashley. They live about 45 minutes from us and I’ve gotten to see them a couple of times at LPA events.

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later that evening we took a drive out to Historic Franklin and got some dinner.

Wednesday

By now everyone is crabby from the conference and bad nights of sleep. At this point I realize we should have gone home but I still had the banquet on Thursday and planned on leaving on Friday morning. By this time we are leaving on Starbucks for breakfast, just give me coffee. Today we headed out to the Nashville Science Museum. I know that it isn’t too far from the hotel but I accidently put the wrong address into the GPS and end up at some worn downed warehouse. Oops! Re-enter address and we are there. I didn’t tell Audrey we were going here and she kept trying to guess what the building was. I guess I choose a good place to go because Audrey and Matt disappeared. I was left with Nate to venture on our own. Some things he found exciting and others not so much. There was a whole area dedicated to the human body and healthcare. I tried to get Nate to put on this little white doctor lab coat but because I asked that wasn’t going to happen. Some day I will get those cute picture, right? In the center of the museum they have a play structure that you can go higher and higher up. Never let you 2 year old lead the way. I’m trying to be all encouraging, climbing through tight spot till we are at the top. You have 2 choices: you can go down the stairs that everyone is coming up or you have a twisty slide to go down. Guess who wouldn’t go down the slide and I don’t like heights, especially with a 2 year old who is prone to falling. I was the “fun police”, as Matt calls me, and carried Nate down the stairs with a diaper bag/purse in a steep stairway that’s about the width of me. Geez, what we do for our kids!

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Thursday

Starbucks again in the morning! Today was to be quiet, hang out for a while before the banquet. We ran into Jaime and Caty in the lobby and we excited to chat and get a couple photos.

We decided to take a drive, stop for lunch and of course, stop at Lowe’s (Matt works for Lowe’s)

Then back to the hotel for a nap for Nate. Audrey had been enjoying the Children’s Room at the conference and they loved having her. She wanted those tokens so bad so she could shop at the banquet. I tried to get some nice pictures of us for the banquet but I had the camera on the wrong setting and my kids don’t like their pictures taken together.

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We really only got to stay for dinner at the banquet by the time we were done eating, we had to get the kids. The food was okay and the prices on drinks were ridiculous! But we had fun at our table. We had a family crash our table, which split another family up. The table crashes refused to go to their assigned table because it was not place in the correct spot according to the diagram from sign-up. A mom and her younger daughter sat at another table which left 3 seats for her other daughters at our table. The one daughter was quite pissed and made sure that everyone knew it. I actually had someone come to me with the assignment book and asked if our names were on that table list. I proudly pointed to our names. But maybe it was for the best that those girls mother wasn’t at the table. They didn’t hold back and they had me laughing so hard I was crying. Mainly it was about the blind lesbian keynote speaking and some of the things she said. The one thing I remember is that LP’s are very sexual people (her words, not mine). Made me wonder who her partner was. Anyway, it was a nice night and the husband and I got a dinner without the kids.

Friday

Time to head home. We were up bright and early. Matt checked out at 6am and we were on the road at 8. It was a 1 1/2 hour drive to Mammoth Cave National Park. It was a pretty drive back to the visitor center. I didn’t realize how many people would be there and that they have different tours at different times. Should of done my research. I was expecting a Niagara Falls where you just walk up and look. We did however run into a couple families with LP’s. How cool is that. The cave is absolutely amazing! I can’t wait to go back and do a bigger tour. It was very humid that day and made it hard to hike. I was hot and sweaty but when I got to the cave opening it was like nature’s air conditioning. Underneath the temperature drops to around 68 degrees. You can see steam rising up out of the opening. After we got up the lenses on my camera and glasses fogged up. One thing I am happy for is that Nate only weighs 24 lbs. You are not allowed to bring anything down into the cave except a camera, jacket and a bottle of water. After taking pictures my new goal is a new camera. Something that might be able to get better pictures down there.

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Nashville~Part I

Howdy you'll! We made it to Nashville!

FRIDAY

The kids and I flew in while Matt drove down. Nate loved the airport and getting to see the planes. But he especially loved the luggage cars. We had some time to wait for our plane and enjoyed a little shopping too! I was so nervous about how the kids would do on the flight that I forgot how I don’t like to fly. Or maybe I just realized that. During the take-off I was doing my deep breathing so I wouldn't pass out. Audrey noticed and thought that I looked funny. I probably did! But it didn’t make it any better when she smiled and said, “It feels like we’re falling, mom!” From the airport we hopped a shuttle to the hotel and started to find a place for lunch. I hate being someplace and not knowing where to find food. Nate was on a steady diet of McDonald’s Sausage McMuffin, M&M's and Doritos's. He doesn't eat very well when he is in a new environment. After Matt arrived, I had us checked into the hotel. We threw everything in our room and headed out to the mall and stopped for dinner.

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SATURDAY

In the morning we headed out early to take the kids to the zoo. It was Audrey's choice for a non-LPA event. I thought that it was an important thing to do since this was our family vacation too. Not fair to make it all about him. We had a great time but could have done without the humidity. We saw Giraffes, Elephants, Lorikeets, Meer Kats, Tigers, Lynxes, Clouded Leopards, Alligators as well as amphibians, reptiles, fish and spiders. We even saw bats which Nate screamed at and started to cry. He didn't like that they flew. Guess it's better when animals don't move! We played on their big play scape and hit the gift shop before a little sprinkle of rain showed up. Happy to get to the air conditioned car, we were hot and sweaty. Since Nate wasn't eating to well, we swung through McDonald's for some chicken nuggets (which he ate one) and headed back to the hotel. Time to hang around and bump into some familiar faces. We finally found Kim and Preston! I also ran into Katie and Bill from The Little Chocolatiers. I talked with them for awhile. Later we left for dinner and ste at Rippy’s BBQ on Broadway. Nate finally ate a PB&J sandwich!

SUNDAY

Sunday came fast. Happy 4th of July!! We ate some breakfast and then tried to spot some friends. Yeah, finally some Facebook and blogging friends were found. We had a quiet morning at the hotel and Nate was getting sleepy. Matt headed down to the 4th of July festivities at the waterfront with Audrey. I took Nate to Panera Bread for another PB&J and a yogurt smoothie! After we went for a walk and found Walgreen's which was closed. Thank God there was a Dollar General across the street and I shopped there. Got a few munchies for the room. On the way back to the hotel Nate fell asleep and I took him straight to the hotel room for his nap. By the time he woke up it was a race to get him ready and head out for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory with our POLP's. I wasn't expecting to wait 30 minutes for an elevator and by the time we walked over to the restaurant it was already 5:30. We were to be there at 5:00. There were 9 more of us left to be seated and they wouldn't let us till 6. That really sucked because everyone else was in the first seating and all the kids got to hang out with each other. They were ready to head down to the fireworks while we were eating our dinner. We thought about going but after we got outside and saw the massive crowd I knew Nate wouldn't do well. I was having a hard time getting the stroller through the crowd. I gave up and headed back to the hotel. Plus, I forgot ear plugs and that wouldn’t have gone very well. I figured we watch them on TV, after all Detroit's fireworks are televised. I watched NY City's beautiful fireworks on TV instead because they don't televise Nashville's. Big bummer!

MONDAY

Today was a busy day! We started by driving out to the Loveless Cafe for breakfast. It was really good and the homemade preserves with biscuits were to die for. Then we rushed back to make it for Nate's first doctors appointment (appt). First appt was with Dr Yahner a nutritionist. I get concerned over my kids eating habits but Nate is normal. I did learn that his portion size needs to be really small. Boy can that kid pack it away some times. Next appt was with Dr. Jallo a neurologist. I had him examine Nate and then look at his MRI. All good news and it is very unlikely that Nate would need decompression surgery! So we are done with neurologist. We did the free hearing screening in which they said Nate didn't pass on his left ear. We see our ENT in August and will talk about it then. After some lunch Nate had his last appt with Dr. McKenzie an orthopedist. He checked him head to toe and after answering some concern we were giving a clean bill of health. So unless anything of major concern comes up the next National will be more social. Trying to fill in the blanks, my memory has escaped me. I can’t remember what happened after Nate’s last appt. He probably napped and then we headed someplace for dinner.