Fall Break!

To say that I needed a break from school might be an understatement. I have been really burnt out with school for the past couple of weeks. If I am feeling like this...how are the students feeling about going to school for 7 weeks without a day off? Hmmmmm. It was too long. So, I took off Friday for our trip to Nashville and we were off today for Fall Break. I am going to have three 4-day weeks in a row! Woohoo! Love it.

Bennett and I got up this morning and had some oatmeal while I entered a few grades. It had to be done by noon and I had waited long enough. We got ready and then headed to In the Zone. Casey told me that it is really nice and clean. We pulled up and saw that the sign said "CLOSED MONDAYS!" Oh well...maybe Thanksgiving break. We headed to Kid City.

The last time we went to Kid City, Bennett was about 15 months old. Wow. He was totally different this time. Right when he saw the playscape he headed right for it as fast as he could and immediately started climbing!

I could not get him to smile for the camera at all! He was so serious and determined as he climbed everything.

Since we were all the way out at Kid City, we stopped by Safety Town to get his car seat checked. I have been feeling that the straps weren't right. They said that the seat was in the correct position! Props to Neil. We did have to adjust the seat belts for Bennett because he has been getting out of it recently.

We met Gammy, Neil, Andrew (in town from Ohio), and Russell at the Boardwalk for lunch. It was fun and of course, Gammy spoiled her boy!

A Day in Nashville

We were up bright and early on our day in Nashville. Bennett woke up around 7 so that is when we all pretty much started our day. We were all showered and ready to go before 9. Beck had some good restaurants picked out for our breakfast. The first one, Germantown Cafe didn't open until 10:30. We wanted to go, but with an almost 2 year old...we have to eat early! We ended up at Panera. We went by the Belmont mansion and to his cousin's house for the zoo pass.

We stopped off at the Nashville Parthenon for a few minutes on our way to the zoo. The weather was so nice and great for being outside. Bennett loved running around on the grass.

Dr. Beck, radiologist

We headed to the zoo after from the Parthenon. Beck's cousin let us use their family zoo passes to get in. It was so nice...a great day for walking around the zoo. The zoo is not really anything that I love. The animals all caged up and smelling bad are not really for me. But, I don't want Bennett to miss out on anything! I ordered his cute elephant shirt especially for this trip! :)

This was the meerkat (or MeekRAT as Beck says) manor. There was a little area to crawl under to be inside with the meerkats.

No sure what animal we were looking at here...

The petting zoo area. Ewwwww. I sat this one out. Neil and Beck took Bennett in to feed/pet the animals. He really seemed to like it.

Beck held our camera the whole time and took pictures of our family. That was such a nice gesture so that we didn't have to worry about taking pictures.

Yay! Elephant!

I took this picture mainly to show my students the thatch roof for their architecture booklets.

After the zoo, we headed to Whiskey Kitchen for lunch. This place was SO GOOD! It had huge windows that were open and the weather was perfect. Bennett loved it!

I did too! I had the sliders. They were served on buttermilk biscuits with a choice of steak, fried green tomato, ham, or chicken. Totally awesome, but probably not worth the calories.

Me, Bennett, Neil, and Chris

We had a great time in Nashville. It was a REALLY long ride in the car, but it was worth it. Beck, thanks for being such a great host! Can't wait to return the favor when you love back to Shreveport!

Nashville Night

We have been planning this trip for months now. We were planning to come on this trip to visit our friend, Chris in August until Bennett broke his arm. He even sent us a typed itinerary of each day's activities. We had to postpone until we had a little break. Since I am off for Fall break on Monday, we thought this was a great time to go. Beck was in medical school in Shreveport for four years and was sort of our child. We fed him about 3 nights a week and we all loved it. He is even Bennett's self-proclaimed god-father. He begged us to visit in while he did his intern year in Austin, but we never made it. We knew we needed to go to Nashville while he does his residency at Vanderbilt. So here we are! We arrived in Nashville after our morning in Memphis. We got to his swanky apartment building that he said he was leaving unlocked for us. The only bad part was that he forgot to mention that you cannot use the elevator without a special card. We found someone to get us up to his floor and waited for him to get home.

We did a quick driving tour of Nashville and got to see a lot of Vanderbilt. We saw the hospital and where Beck works. We decided to do downtown and get some dinner at Merchants. We did not know that we needed a reservation, so we had to walk around a while until our table was ready.

Bennett thought Elvis was pretty cool!

We stopped and looked at cowboys boots since we were in country music land.

We had a nice dinner at Merchants. Bennett loved the duck fat fried tater tots. Right when he got there he threw his sippy cup onto the table and busted the candle holder. We thought we were done before we started.

Beck thought he would be funny to put the tater tot on his finger as well.

After a long day, we went back to the apartment and blew up our air mattress. We had a fun-filled day!

Walkin' in Memphis

We had the privilege of staying with the Auschwitz family in Memphis on Thursday night on our way to Nashville. It was so nice to stay in their guest suite. We had a fun time playing on Friday, going to breakfast, and then to the Memphis Children's Museum. Thanks so much for letting us stay and play with you Tyler, Monica, Caleb, and Kennedy! We had a great time.

We barely got to see Tyler. He was asleep when we got there and then was gone to work before we were awake. He was able to make an appearance at the museum for about 10 minutes before being called back to the hospital for some fancy brain surgery. Hopefully we will get to see them in Shreveport for the holidays.

So here we are at the museum...

The museum was pretty cool. Bennett loved it. They had a few real cars and a fire truck to climb on. They had lots of special areas dedicated to different professions...a dentist area, construction, architects, and tons more.

This was the fun toddler area. It was a lot of fun for the boys.

Here is Bennett sitting in the mini house eating the fake food. He did not like when he realized it was fake.

Sweet Baby Kennedy. She is only 3 months and so cute!!

Tyler and Monica

This is the little dancing room. It had a mirrored ball and loud music. Bennett loved it.

So did Neil!!!

Here are Caleb and Bennett trying to climb in the "skyscraper." We were worried they would get stuck so we axed this idea.

Neil loved the paper airplane making area. He is so serious.

They had a paper airplane launcher. You can see it flying into the target.

Beck made sure to let me know that I needed to space out the things I wear for when they show up on the blog. I know I wore this on Sunday to church, but no pictures were on the blog yet! I am thinking it will be my favorite Fall outfit this year.

Bennett is wearing this guitar because of all the "music cities" we were in. Memphis=Elvis and Nashville=music city!

This is the only time we could get the boys to sit for a few seconds. They will be 2 in December. Caleb is 2 days older than Bennett.

Here are our boys at 4 months old. They are so big now!

This slide came out of the Fed Ex airplane. Bennett and Caleb loved it!

Thanks again Auschwitz Family! We had a wonderful time in Memphis. Can't wait til next time.