Tennessee, Part I

The boys and I just returned from visiting Nana and Papa in Tennessee last Tuesday. We spent almost two weeks there, and we had a real nice visit as always. The kids and I survived security at the airport, especially on the return flight when I had to have endless bottles of medication sealed up in plastic bags. More on that later.

Before I get into a little about what we did on our trip, I'd like to share a connection Christian made recently about what I was trying to explain about the Internet. Lately, he is into looking up insects and other creatures on the computer. Because of my children-induced ADD, I cannot sit still while Christian wanders through a site that I pull up for him (usually it's PBSkidsgo.org); I will show Christian a thing or two and then he's off to navigate on his own. But because I am not familiar with too many children safe websites, and especially after I pulled up an earthworm site that I thought was normal but ended up showing an obscene photo, I am wary of letting him look on his own. I tried to explain that sometimes "yucky, disgusting" things show up that are not for kids' eyes and that mommy doesn't know enough about keeping his eyes safe from such gross things on the Worldwide Web, when suddenly Christian recalled a song he recently learned at school. Some of the verses are:

Be careful little eyes what you see...
Be careful little eyes what you see...
There's a Father up above,
He's looking down towards us...
Be careful little eyes what you see.

It's pretty terrific to see when your child makes a profound connection. At the time he learned that song, he probably did not think much about what the lyrics meant, yet he pulled it from memory when I explained some of the dangers of what can be found (or what can find you) on the Internet.

Back to our trip! Here are some photos of what we did and who he we saw:

Christian learned how to drive the four-wheeler. Some nosy neighbor reported Papa to the cops, and both Christian and Papa got pulled over for riding on a 'main street' with a minor, and Christian had his first ride home in a police car. At least he was allowed to sit in the front seat of the cruiser. After Nana asked what happened to the four-wheeler (did they run out of gas?), Christian replied, "I don't want to talk about it." Papa fixed the problem with the police chief & they were able to return to riding through the neighborhood, but must drive directly to the creek in the field behind them now.

This is one of Gaby's favorite things to do. He just loved taking those rides. Papa also let them sit on his Harley, and he even took them for a ride in his red 'race' car -- I've not even done that! Those kids are pretty special to Papa.

This T-shirt pretty much sums up Papa's personal philosophy. Gaby likes to listen to the blues with Papa. After one such night of hanging outside, Christian told Nana, "I'm tired of Johnny Cash."

We saw our friends Libby and her brother Justice.



And Jojo had more fun running around their green, green yard and among Nana's beautiful flowers.

Nana gave us all some much needed trims. Nana was much relieved to cut off Gaby's mullet.

We saw MeMaw and Poppy (Mike's grandparents), and one of the best part of our visits for Gaby is seeing the big farm machines. Poppy has a few tractors and some barns to tend to the ginormous bovines roaming their property.

Mike's dad, Grandpa Kenny, and his friend Karen also came to visit from Indiana. Poppy has a four-wheeler and so Grandpa Kenny took the boys out for a ride.

Here's MeMaw ...


and the invincible Auntie Linda who singlehandedly got the county's spay/neuter clinic up and running during her 'spare' retirement years... Yeah, I know I'm bragging...it's pretty cool, doncha think?

Where was Jojo all this time his brothers were out having fun? He was snoozing on Karen's shoulder, and that was the night Papa and I took him to the emergency room with a raging fever and ear infection.

More to share coming soon.