true boy tales: Road Warrior

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Road Warrior

I think I can officially claim that title after driving down to Tennessee this past week on my own, with the boys. It was 10 hrs of driving plus stops (it took about an hour for lunch and dinner stops with eating and bathroom breaks and diaper changes and letting them run around a bit. We only stopped twice on the way home!) I wanted to get down there before Bennett starts preschool since we most likely wouldn't see my Dad again until October. The drive actually wasn't horrible. I had a huge box of snacks on the passenger seat and would just pass stuff back to them. Dawson's need to look at a new book every 3 minutes definitely got old and annoying but we made it and I didn't regret doing it! I had a big bag of suckers and let Dawson eat probably 10 or 15 on the way home :) We had a lot of fun while we were there and fit in a lot of cool stuff. And the boys love being with their grandparents.

The Memphis Zoo:

These apes ended up completely terrifying Dawson. He was bawling and bawling. He'd never seen any in real life and their human like antics were just a little too weird for him to handle. The rest of the time at the zoo, any animal that got too close to the glass made him cry again.

Buddha bellies:

An amazing playground in the largest Urban park in the US (bigger than Central Park!)--it seemed very futuristic. These pictures won't do it justice. The metal caging you see in the background is a tunnel that winds between the 4 different playscapes (called "nests"). Eventually it'll be covered in vines, like an arbor:

Dawson stayed under this water feature half the time and ended up soaking wet and completely covered in sand:

This "spider web" went on forever and led up to a tree house in the middle:

The Children's Museum--so perfect for their age (sorry, these were all taken on my phone so the quality's not so hot):

Bennett on the weather channel:

Hopefully Bennett learns a new technique for working on his patients if he wants to be a dentist:

It was a fun trip and I was glad the drive wasn't torture! I could probably handle it a couple times a year alone with the boys and I'm sure we'll go down a couple times as a family. It was great getting a taste of my parent's new life down there and the church seems so wonderful. My dad's already fitting in great and loving it. Now I'm hoping for a girl's trip down there with my mother-in-law to help my mom decorate their new house!

4 comments:

Nana JudieAugust 28, 2011 at 12:45 PM
Already looking forward to road warrioring with you! What awesome places for kids down there!
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mandaAugust 28, 2011 at 1:51 PM
I wanna come too!!!!
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NikkiAugust 29, 2011 at 6:47 AM
You are my hero! 10 hours?! I want to know your secrets...I have a six hour road trip coming up this weekend with the kiddos...not by myself, but it sounds like you're the long-distance pro!
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CandyAugust 30, 2011 at 6:52 AM
Wow great job!! I knew you could do it. I want to go to Memphis. that zoo, park and museum look like so much fun!! Now, that you know you can do 10 hours, another 15 would be nothin'! come on out ;)
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for the book lovers {my recent favorites}:

Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan: An incredibly haunting medical memoir. There's a lot of medical info to read through but I didn't find those parts boring and difficult to wade through. I thought she shared just enough. But if you like a book that's easy to read, this isn't it. I couldn't get this one out of my mind for a very long time. An unforgettable true story.
Me Before You by JoJo Moyes and What Alice Forgot by Lianne Moriarty: I'm just going to lump these two together because they're in the same category. I'm calling them deep chick lit. A perfect summer book to get lost in. Read them. Both. I promise you from the bottom of my heart that you will LOVE them. (I liked them both way better than Where'd You Go, Bernadette.)
These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner: Most of my favorite books have a main character with a whole lotta grit. I wasn't quite sure about this one when I first started it but, oh, did it sweep me in and not let me go til the last page. I also love a book that makes me "emote out loud" as I like to think of it. This one had me smiling all the way through and crying my eyes out at the end. It follows a young girl through her life in the Arizona Territories in the late 1800's. A must read for anyone who likes Historical Fiction.
Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill. I LOVED this book. Its a very well researched historical fiction novel about a young girl kidnapped from her village in Africa and sold into slavery. It follows her through her whole life and the unbelievable heartache and trauma she lives through. I've been telling people I liked it as much as Unbroken but the main character is so much more endearing and has so much spunk.
Another Place at the Table by Kathy Harrison. I have a thing for modern day memoirs of utterly heartbreaking stories (Like Breaking Night and Blackbird). This is a Foster mother's first-hand account of the children she took in over the years and the unbelievable trauma they went through before they came to her.
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls. I loved this lighthearted yet emotional story of a strong woman making the best of a hard life in the Southwest, beginning in the 1930's. I love her writing style--just cuts to the point of every story without too much "fluff" and yet tells it in a way that you can picture everything in vivid detail. Her memoir, The Glass Castle, is one of my all-time favorites, and this true-life novel about her grandmother didn't disappoint.
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. Modern day fiction about a girl raised in Foster homes and her struggles throughout life. She learns about the Victorian Era language of flowers and that becomes a huge part of her life. I finished it in two days. An easy read but very emotional and moving.
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers. The true story of a man's experience after Hurricane Katrina when he decided not to evacuate in order to look after several properties he owned. Quite an unbelievable story and so hard to believe this happened in the US only a few years ago.