5/28 - Trip & Camping to TN

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Here is a short recap of our weekend and then I'll be bouncing all over the place to address each collage. We drove to TN on Thursday afternoon/evening and got in at 8:00pm. We all slept inside the first night. We woke up Friday morning and it was pretty darn chilly and I didn't bring warm clothes for us so we hit the thrift stores and bought some stuff. The second night, we had a camp fire and then slept in tents (even Papa). It got freezing that night. It was a record 40 degrees that night and the previous record had been around since 1979. Nice timing we had. We all did great and made it through the entire night although we were freezing. Eli slept with me in the smaller tent and Aiden slept with Brad in the larger tent. Papa sawed logs slept just a few feet away in his tent. The sun (and freezing air) woke us up by 6am on Saturday morning. On Saturday night, we were all desperate for some good sleep and we all slept inside. On Sunday night, both boys said they wanted to camp so I was in the little tent with Eli again and Brad was in the big tent with Aiden.

On Friday morning it was pretty cold but they boys wanted to explore some outside. Eli finally found a nice comfy seat in papa's swing and got warmed up with a blanket. In the afternoon, the sun comes into the backyard and Eli wasn't such a fan of that. He really wanted to sit in the swing but didn't like the sun. He sat in the tent that I put up during his naptime and then finally went over to the swing. He said it was too sunny and went back in the tent (along with his sleeping bag and blankets) and waited there until Brad and I built a contraption so the sun wouldn't hit directly on the swing. Once that happened, Eli was happy to join us outside. 

I've given each boy a collage to summarize their Memorial Weekend. Aiden helped papa plant flowers and some vegetables on the first day there. Papa told him he could come water his flowers anytime he wanted and he was sure to relay that message to me. He then took his tools and played in a pile of dirt over the new septic tank my dad has. He was super excited to use the walkie talkies. We made a rule that if someone was out on the 4-wheeler that we needed to use the walkie talkies. Aiden was so very excited to have a camp fire. He tried to patiently await to make smores and actually collected about half the sticks, if not more, that we needed for the camp fire. I was surprised that he ate a couple of smores while we were there. Smores are messy and there is no way around that. That is huge progress for him. He had lots of fun dancing at the festival that we went to in downtown on Sunday evening.

Eli had a great time as well. Sometimes it's hard to get him outside but once he's outside, he's good to go. Eli had fun using his 'map' and telling us where to go exploring on Papa's property. He always enjoys dancing and there are a couple of pictures of him dancing away at the campfire and also at the festival. He has so much personality for such a little guy.

The campfire was something both of the boys were really excited about. Aiden helped collect sticks and they eagerly brought the chairs and crates to the campfire area. I would never have guessed that the smoke a fire makes would be so exciting for these boys. They were running around and trying to run under the smoke and around the smoke and all kinds of crazy games. They were having a great time running around and dancing to the 'camp fire songs' station that I played on my phone from Pandora. Eli didn't like smores but ate a few bites of graham cracker. Aiden loved them and once he got over having to get a little sticky from the marshmallow, he was enjoying himself. Aiden and I even played a few games of Hiss while hanging out by the camp fire.

So here are just some random collages. Dale, my Dad's friend from KY, came by to say hi. He brought his remote control helicopters that he's been working on. Brad was excited to help him look at them and Aiden wanted to play with them so bad. We had to explain those were expensive big boy toys. After camping that first night in the tents, Aiden could barely breathe the next day (he is allergic to almost a dozen trees and grasses) so we gave him some benedryl. That normally doesn't phase him but I think with 2 days of no naps, a late night the night before, restless sleep from sneezing, and getting up early, he totally passed out for over an hr on the couch in the living room. We stopped at the COOLEST McDonalds on the way to my dad's farm for dinner. It was huge treehouse structure built mainly for little guys (ages 2-5). The boys run in and start playing right away. I then realize there is a sign that says "closed for cleaning from 6-9pm) and told Brad, I'm so glad it's only 5:05pm. I then notice tons of very old people sitting in the kids area and people setting up microphones. It turns out we are in the easter time zone and it's 6:05pm. Totally stinks and the kids were so disappointed. What is really frustrating is that we were only in the eastern time zone for about 15 min that day while traveling (my dad's farm is in the central time zone). To get the boys out and stretch their legs, we walked over the the goodwill that was near the McDonalds. The boys enjoyed playing with random toys and Brad got a really good pictures of Aiden rocking out with his guitar. In the bottom left picture, you can see my dad and the boys standing at the window. They were watching a turkey right outside my dad's place.

We went to a festival on Sunday night in downtown. They had live music (bluegrass) and the boys really enjoyed it. They were dancing up a storm and then playing tag for a bit. I had to include the picture below of the toothbrushes. These are the toothbrushes of just Aiden and Eli. Seriously. They weren't brushing their teeth long enough a few months ago so I bought the kind that had light-up timers on them. For some reason, the boys refuse to actually use them to brush their teeth; they just use them for the timer. The print to the right of the toothbrushes is a deer footprint that I thought was neat. That was on my dad's property. The two print under the toothbrushes are ... can you guess?  Bear prints. We went hiking through an area park on Sunday afternoon and we saw bear tracks a couple of times which made me slightly nervous. Once we came upon a spot that had some baby tracks, I was very nervous. Nothing is going to stop a momma bear from protecting her baby bear if she even thinks the baby bear is in danger. I educated the boys on what to do if they saw a bear which made me feel slightly better. Aiden has been obsessed with taking pictures and being in pictures lately. It's too funny. In the picture to the right of the bear tracks, he says, "take my picture mommy" and then poses for me. He's actually even taken a few pictures too and they have turned out pretty well.

While we were in TN, Aiden developed a rash. It got pretty bad but thankfully with lots of benedryl, it has subsided. We have no idea what caused it but thankfully it's getting much better. The bottom picture of Pouncer cracks me up. He got in to our bag while I was packing and was pleading to come with us. The final picture is an egg carton game I did for the boys. Each boy had their own egg carton and colors were painted in each spot. Their goal was to find a matching color of something outside to put in each space. Eli didn't really care but Aiden did a great job with it. It was a fun way to give them something to do and more of a purpose while exploring.

One last thing. Aiden was so cute while hiking on Sunday afternoon. Papa taught him how to follow markers in the woods by looking for tagged trees and staying with the same color. Aiden kept wanting to lead and saying he was an expert hiker.

Here are two beautiful pictures we took on our hiking excursion.

And this picture of the boys cracks me up. Aiden just thinks it is ridiculous to stop and take pictures. He doesn't not enjoy it at all. He just wanted to keep on hiking. Eli enjoyed the break but Aiden was so bored (we stopped for about 5 min) and kept saying, "come on. What is taking so long? Let's go."

I had to include these handful of pictures from Eli because he's just too cute and his personality really stands out. What a carefree and loving little boy.

Aiden doesn't like to take pictures that much because he can't be bothered with actually stopping something so I have to get my fix of pictures with Eli.