Our trip to the South

During the first week in June I packed up the kids and headed to Southern Indiana for a visit with our families.  The trip was actually a combination visit/kid drop-off because Derek had a conference in Nashville that started on Sunday.  The plan was for the kids and me to drive down to visit my parents Thursday through Sunday then I would leave for Nashville to meet Derek.  My parents would keep the kids overnight and then would take them to Derek's mom's until Wednesday when Derek and I would drive back from Nashville to Evansville to pick them up.    I know it sounds like a complicated schedule, but we managed to pull it off and everyone had a great time.

Before heading down to Nashville to meet Derek I spent a few days with the kids and my family.  We took advantage of the nice weather on Saturday and headed to French Lick for the kids' first train ride.  Adalyn loves trains and was very excited to climb aboard and be able to look out the window.  The train departed from French Lick and was scheduled to travel to Cuzco, Indiana and then we would go back to French Lick from there.  Basically Cuzco is a tiny town near Patoka Lake and has been deemed by the French Lick Railway as an ideal turn around point for their train rides.  There isn't much there besides a small general store/cafe and three porta potties for train passengers.  After boarding at Cuzco and starting for French Lick we traveled for a few miles and then come to a screeching halt.  Our engine had broken down and we had to sit on the train for about an hour waiting for the back-up engine to come rescue us.  Needless to say being on a stopped train in the middle of a cornfield with my children and many other restless young children wasn't exactly ideal.  But, it does make for a good story and interesting memories of Carter and Adalyn's first time on a real train.

All Aboard!

Riding with Papaw

Sunday morning I headed to Nashville on my own.  It was very odd driving all that way by myself with NO car seats in the car.  I hadn't driven that far by myself in quite some time.  I met Derek at the Opryland Hotel and then we took off to go see Hermitage, which was Andrew Jackson's home.  Although it was a record breaking heatwave in Nashville, we enjoyed seeing the grounds and the interior of the home. 

The Hermitage



One of the atriums from high above



Lots and lots of water

I made Derek pose in front of a few waterfalls

The fountain right outside our balcony. 

For the remainder of the trip to Nashville Derek was very busy with his conference and meeting with clients, so I basically worked around his schedule and spent time with him when he was available.  I had lots of time to myself, which I enjoyed.  I spent that time exploring the huge hotel, taking pictures of the beautiful gardens, doing a little bit of shopping, and relaxing poolside.  Derek also made sure that I took advantage of the hotel spa.  I had a massage and facial on Tuesday, which was wonderful and made me feel very spoiled!  I really enjoyed walking and checking out the various gardens at the hotel.  They also have many shops to browse and I also made my way to a great Nashville Mall.

Across the street from the resort was a museum owned by Cooter from the Dukes of Hazzard  and a wax museum owned by Willie Nelson.  Since I have an hour one afternoon I went to check out the cheesy tourist spots.  At least I got to see the real General Lee.  I know, I know...you're so jealous!

Believe it or not, this place was very crowded!

I didn't even watch the show, but I know this car is famous!

 I joined Derek for dinner most evenings and was able to attend several of the evening receptions.  The food at the recpetions was very good and the first one we went to was actually a whiskey tasting.  The last reception was a concert for the attendees by Clint Black.  I thought for sure that I would know at least one Clint Black song.  Well, I didn't know a single one, which shows how much of a country music fan I truly am.



Despite not being big country music people, after the Clint Black Concert Derek and I headed to the Grand Ole Opry to try to get tickets for the 9:30 show.  I was interested in going because a lot of big names were performing that night--Carrie Underwood, Martina McBride, Darius Rucker, Lady Antebellum, the Oakridge Boys, and some other people I hadn't ever heard of.  I had tried to get tickets throughout the day over the phone but they were sold out.  The ladies at the ticket office told me that since we were staying at the Opryland Hotel and were co close we should ride the shuttle over and try to get tickets just before the show started.  So, that's what we did and to our surprise there were two great seats available when we got to the ticket office.  The show lasted until midnight, which was a bit past out bedtime, but we were so glad to have experienced the Opry. 

The Grand Ole' Opry

The conference ended on Wednesday, which was great timing because the CMAs were later that week and the place was beginning to get a bit crazy!  Before heading to Evansville to pick  up the kids, Derek and I planned to go to Franklin, TN for a bit more sightseeing.  Franklin is a small town about twenty minutes from Nashville and was a site for a civil war battle.  We toured a house that was in the center of the battle and another house that served as a hospital for the Confederate Army.  Normally I'm not a huge history person, but touring those houses was really interesting.  I would highly suggest anyone making the trip to Nashville to make a side trip to Franklin.  It also has lots of cute shops and restaurants in their downtown area. 



Damage from Civil War bullets



Carnton Plantation--used as a Confederate Hospital in the Civil War.

Such a history buff

After we got our fill of Civil War history we headed to Derek's mom's house to pick up the kids.  We missed them very much and even though I'm sure that they missed us, they were reeling from all of the fun stuff they got to do with their grandparents.  My parents had taken them to Chuck-E-Cheese's and Toys-R-Us (just to look) on Monday and Grandma Freihaut took the kids to the mall to play on the playground and ride the train and to eat at McDOnald's and Chik-Fil-A.  To say that we had to put the kids on serious detox when we got home on Thursday is a serious understatement.  I'm writing this post two weeks after the fact and I think they're still coming down from the high of being super spoiled!

Showing off her new Cowgirl hat from Nashville

3 year and One Year Pictures

During the last week of May we took Adalyn and Carter to get their three and one year pictures taken.  I decided to use a lady I hadn't used before, but I had heard very good things baout from my mom's group.  She works out of her home and is a stay-at-home mom who does photography in the evenings.    Even though our kids weren't the most copperative (ok...they were down right difficult) she did a great job and managed to get some good shots of the two of them.  I have included several of my favorites...

Our Very Hungry Caterpillar has a Birthday Party

Carter's birthday party was held on Sunday, May 29th.  When we had Carter we were excited about the possibility of his birthday always falling on Memorial Day weekend in hopes that our out of town relatives would always have a three day weekend to come celebrate with us.  However, as we progressed through the party planning process we quickly discovered that having a birthday around Memorial Day can actually be a royal pain because it also means that we have to compete with high school graduations.  We ran into complications when planning the party, ordering the cake, and  buying balloons at the party store all because of high school graduations. I have a feeling that we'll always have this issue when planning Carter's parties!  This year we learned our lesson and will begin to plan his parties much farther in advance!

The theme for Carter's party was based on the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  We love to read the book to the kids at bedtime and Carter loves to have it read to him.  The bold, primary color scheme  made it perfect for a first birthday party and Carter is our Hungry Caterpillar because he eats and eats and eats and grows and grows....  I made several Caterpillar decorations to hang throughout the house and had a lot of fun planning and shopping for the decorations and favors.  I have told people that planning parties for my kids has filled the void I had from not teaching and being able to plan fun classroom activities and units. 




We had family and friends over on Sunday afternoon for an afternoon of birthday fun.  We were so happy that so many of our family and friends were able to make it.  Carter was excited to so many people and was eager to play with the kids and watch them run around around.  We had set up the pool, water table, and several other activities in hopes of keeping most of the activity outdoors.  However, mother nature wasn't as cooperative as we would have liked as is rained on and off all afternoon.  It did let up enough for Derek to grill and for us to move the highchair on the deck for the big first birthday cake moment.  Carter wasn't too sure about digging into the cake at first, but eventually warmed up to the concept by forgoing the use of his hands and diving in head first!  That's my boy!








As the afternoon moved into early evening the rain let up and the kids managed to find their way to the backyard and somehow ended up in the pool.  Although the water was too chilly for most adults' liking, the girls were having a blast in it.  Carter elected to wtch poolside, but had a great time playing with the landscape rocks by the a patio.


Overall Carter's Very Hungry Caterpillar party was a lot of fun and went very well.  We are thankful to have so many wonderful people in Carter's life who love him.  We loved being able to throw a party in our backyard and not having to worry about anyone getting hit in the head by golf balls!  The party concluded a first birthday celebration that seemed to span over several days and many sweet treats for Carter.  He loved every minute of it and  we look forward to many more back yard celebrations and get- togethers with family and friends.

Carter is.....

On Friday, May 27th Carter turned ONE!  I can't believe that a year has already passed since we were blessed with our little guy.  It seems like just yesterday when Derek and I were headed to the hospital in the wee hours of the morning (1:30 to be exact) so that we could welcome our little guy to the world.  We just love him to pieces and have cherished every minute of his first year.

On Friday we celebrated Carter's birthday with several outings throughout the day.  Derek's mom was still in town for his birthday party, so I had soneone help me with the outings, which was great.  In the morning we headed to Chuck-E-Cheese's around 10:00 in an attempt to avoid the lunch rush of kids celebrating being out of school for the summer. Our plan worked!  The place was basically deserted at the beginning of our visit.  Addy and Carter enjoyed riding the rides.  Addy really loved playing game and earning tickets and Carter loved watching the automated Chuck-E-Chesse on stage.  He just kept pointing and waving at him and clapping his hands.  It was a lot of fun to watch him get so excited about it.  If I would have guessed I would have thought that he would be scared out of him mind of being so close to the freaky giant mouse, but I would have been dead wrong! 

After getting out rides and game playing time in we picked up Derek for lunch and headed to Chili's.  We usually do a birthday meal at a restaurant for birthdays and we dicided to head to Chili's for Carter's big day.  The beauty of a one year old's birthday is that by then they really don't have a favorite restaurant and can be persuaded to eat just about anywhere, so we decided Chili's would be great!  We went during lunch time because heading to Chili's to eat dinner (or anywhere for that matter) is nearly impossible to do in Bloomington-Normal on a Friday night.  Everyone in the town loves to eat out!  After a great lunch we headed home for the ever important nap time.

That evening Carter opened his gifts from us and then we headed to the Discovery Children's Museum here in town for a little more celebrating.  Carter and Addy both really enjoyed the museum and we loved the fact that no one goes on Friday nights, s the place was empty!  It was so nice to let the kids roan and their own and not have to worry about losing them in the crowd.  Carter enjoyed the water table and paint wall, while Addy really loved just about everything!  It was a lot of fun playing in the make believe area where Addy sang a few of her :original" tunes on stage and Derek and Addy put on a puppet show together.

 We capped off the night with a quick trip to Dairy Queen for Carter's birthday ice cream cone. He was loving his cone until it fell to the floor.  Then we had one upset little one year old!  He did manage to steal a few bites of his mom's ice cream though; which made everything all better.

Carter continues to grow and learn new things everyday.  He isn't walking yet, but it always cruising and walking along furniture.  He has been very hesitant to let go and stand on his own.  He now eats only table food and is slowly becoming a more adventurous eater.  He is a much pickier eater than Adalyn was at his age.  I blame Derek for this, as Derek isn't so adventurous with his appetite either.  He says a few words including hi and dada.  Even though he doesn't say a whole it is evident through his body language that he understands much of what we tell him.  Carter loves to give high fives and draws attention from people  when we are out and about by waving at them until they notice him and they wave back.  The kids loves attention from anyone and everyone.  On Tuesday (May 31st) we took Carter for his one yeaer check-up and vaccinations.  Everything checked out  and the doctor said he was doing great.  At the appointment Carter weighed 26 lbs (90th percentile) and measured 31.5 inches long (90th percentile).  Dr. Boe joking commented that he was slimming down because he dropped from the 95th percentile to the 90th. 

 We love our little guy so much and have had such a wonderful time watching him grow and learn so many new things throughout his first year.  We can't believe our baby is already one!  It's amazing how fast time flies!  Happy Birthday Carter!