Clydesdales

Friday afternoon I took the kids to the Trac where one of the famous Budweiser Clydesdale horses was going to be making an appearance.  They were excited to see the horse close up and even more excited to get to see some of their friends and their Daddy! 

The horse was really big and the kids were happy to run right up for a picture.  After hanging around a while, having frozen yogurt, and playing with friends, they ventured back up for another visit and got to pet the horse this time.  

On Saturday morning we woke super early to get to Handley's cheerleading.  It was really cold, but they stayed warm by jumping around.  The rest of us were freezing while watching in the shady stands.  

We warmed up quick though because it was soon 80 degrees and then we were making our way to the pre-school fall festival.  The kids thought the hour we had to spend there before Harper's soccer game went by way too fast, but they had fun making crafts and sliding down the inflatable slides.  

Harper did awesome at her game and scored a few goals again this week! 

Handley was trying to beat the heat during Harper's game so she was prepared with her umbrella for shade.  She was so thoughtful and even hung out on the sidelines with the soccer players during their breaks so she could provide some shade for them, too. 

 

Next we stopped by the new house to check on progress and it was just awesome. I can't wait to see what all gets done this week.  Check out Making This House Our Home Sweet Home (my house blog) for more details about what gone done at the end of the week. 

We were all exhausted by the time we got home and were happy to lay low for the rest of the evening, while Robby took off for a work dinner.   

Picture Day and a Playdate

I've been meaning to give an update on Hudson and school. He has done a complete 180 from those first few weeks when he cried the whole time and begged to stay with me.  Now he gets so excited to go to school, talks about his friends and teachers, and walks right in with a grin on his face.  I'm so thankful that I stuck with it because he loves school now!  It just took him a little longer to adjust than most of the other kids.

Today was his picture day. I had a different outfit picked out for him to wear, but this weather has been so wacky that it's hard to dress the kids for school. It feels so cold in the mornings, but by lunchtime it is hot! Yesterday he wore a similar outfit and this morning when it was time to get dressed he insisted on wearing a blue shirt (polo) with "sleeves on, too" (white shirt under).  It really wasn't worth the fight, so I let him pick it out, head to toe. I can't wait to see how he smiled for his picture.  He sure was excited this morning before time to head to school though and was literally jumping up and down when I asked if he was ready to go.

The past few days when I pick him up he comes out of his class and goes straight for his bag and then raises his arms and exclaims, "GREAT DAY!" before I even ask him how his day was.  It's so stinkin' cute!

This afternoon after school we had a playdate at the park with some new friends.  Harper and her friend, Katelyn, are in the same class and have become really close.  Their teacher says she has never seen two girls bond so quickly and Harper just adores her.  I'm so thankful that she has made such a sweet friend.  Her little brother, Will, happens to be in Hudson's class so it works out well that everyone has a friend to play with!  The girls had fun riding bikes and as soon as we got back in the car Harper said she wanted to take her training wheels off, just like Katelyn.

Hudson and Will threw the football and kicked the soccer ball together until Hudson started getting tired and decided he was no longer interested in sharing.

The Tennessee Aquarium

On Sunday morning everyone woke up bright and early. Thankfully, Nemo, happened to be on TV, so the kids were happy to watch that and get excited about our trip to the aquarium that day.

My kids love staying at a hotel and because we don't do it that often, they get excited about the little things like using the room key to open our door, riding the elevator and perhaps the best thing of all...the free breakfast.  They were cracking me up going down the line and picking out what they wanted to eat.  I must have made 6 trips back and forth to the buffet before Robby showed up from his run and I finally got a chance to sit down and eat something myself.

We got to the aquarium just before they opened and spent a few hours exploring all of the exhibits they had to offer.

The first they we came to were the sting rays that the kids could touch.  Hudson was obviously in awe! 

They all thought it was fun to touch them.

One thing that became a trend during the day was Hudson falling in love with the exhibit, yelling loudly with excitement while pointing and telling us what he saw, and then him crying and begging to go back to see more as I made him move on to the next thing.  At the end of our time there he finally realized that we were going to be seeing more and there were other neat sea creatures waiting for us.

Handley's favorite was the giant sea turtle!

It was really a wonderful aquarium and all three kids loved leisurely getting to watch and look at all the fish.

We left just after we finished at the aquarium and stopped for lunch on our way back to Atlanta.  We could have spent another day in Chattanooga though.  There was a large children's museum we were staying close to and if we go back we will also definitely ride the Chattanooga Choo-Choo we were told about.  The great thing about this trip was that we were so close, but even only going for one night we were able to squeeze in a lot of fun things and feel like we were really on a mini-vacation.  

Weekend Getaway in Chattanooga!

Handley has been on Fall Break Thursday of last week to Tuesday of this week, so soccer and cheerleading were both cancelled for last weekend.  Robby had a suggestion last week for us to get out of town for the weekend and we booked a quick weekend getaway in Chattanooga.  We left Saturday morning after breakfast and were there in just about 2 hours. We made our way up Lookout Mountain and had lunch on a nice patio on top of the mountain.  It was a perfect day and lunch was delicious.  

Next we drove around a little and then stopped at Ruby Falls on the way back down the mountain.  It was an obvious tourist attraction with a lot of people.  Robby though he remembered going here as a kid and explained to us that we would take an elevator down to see a waterfall inside a mountain.  That was accurate, the part he failed to remember was how long this little excursion actually took.  

Here we were after riding the elevator 260 feet into the mountain.  We were walking on a path through a cave.  The kids were loving it at this point and thought it was really neat we were in a cave.  

Then our tour guide took our group further and further along the path that the original cave explorers took in 1929 (except they had to crawl through areas like the picture below for most of the way).

Along the way we saw all sorts of formations and crystals that our tour guide explained to us.

And, while all of this was very interesting, it was a little lengthy for our young audience and it turns out we walked a 1/2 a mile to get to the waterfall.  And I ended up carrying a grumpy, tired, and whiney Hudson for the entire 1/2 mile in and 1/2 mile out.  He was miserable and wanted nothing to do with the water, the tunnel or my suggestions to have him walk or let Robby carry him.  My arms were sore the next day!

When we finally saw the waterfall it was pretty neat and they had it lit up with special effects, so that was fun to see.

So happy to finally have made it.  

When it was over we couldn't get to the car and get a paci to Hudson quick enough!  Ha!  We went straight to our hotel downtown and checked in just in time for Hudson to take a nap and the rest of us to see the UGA/UT kickoff.

The girls were super excited to say "cheers" with their complementary water bottles and none of their silliness could have woken their very worn out little brother (still sleeping in the background).

After halftime we woke Hudson up and decided to go exploring the city.  Since we stayed downtown we could walk everywhere.  We made our way down towards the river and saw these fun bridges the kids loved climbing up and over.

They were located right beside the Tennessee Aquarium (which we would visit the next day).

Along the river was so much fun.  There just happened to be a bluegrass festival going on so there was music, vendors, and a lot of people walking around so we spent some time watching boats and paddle boarders go by.

Then the girls got into some sort of crazy posing mood and wanted me to take their picture over and over.

And Harper wanted to take a picture, too.

Then we just let the kids run around and play on the grassy lawn by the river.  The girls did more posing and cartwheels.

And Hudson was the happiest he had been all day just playing with his football.

Next we walked backed through the streets of downtown and found the Moon Pie store, which are apparently made in Chattanooga.  Handley loves moon pies, so she was in for a treat.  The kids all got stickers and picked out a sweet to have after dinner.  Then we found a restaurant to eat at and when we walked in we were in SHOCK to see the UGA/UT game with a 1:30 left and to see us loosing.  We had left the hotel at half-time thinking we had it in the bag.  Our server happened to be a UGA fan, too, so he didn't mind that we were glued to the TV and in no way ready to order until the game was over.  It was a close one, but thankfully we (barely) pulled out a win.  The girls were cheering proudly!

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and because Hudson had slept so late I knew there was no way he would be ready for bed. I had packed the kids bathing suits because our hotel had a heated pool so I surprised them by telling them we could go swimming at night (something they LOVE to do).  We let them swim for about 45 minutes and at almost 10 PM they were finally in bed.  The girls begged to let Hudson sleep with them and he seemed excited about the idea of it, but just after this picture was taken he was asking to get in the crib, so that's what he did.  All of us slept great that night and it was fun to have us all 5 in one hotel room...just like a big sleepover!

Family Time

As I mentioned in my last post, we had such a great time spending the weekend with my family and I'm already excited for Christmas when we will all be together with my parents and Cameron, too!  One thing I love most is how we can all laugh together and we did plenty of that this weekend.

We all enjoyed sweet Sophia and getting to see how much she has changed (and I got my baby fix)!

On Thursday night the kids were running around outside, tumbling, and the girls were practicing cheers.  Handley started doing toe-touches...

then Uncle Trey joined in...

I just loved that these sweet cousins all got to spend so much time together with my mom.

And Hudson was just thrilled about this picture and getting to hold Sophia. :-)

And one more picture ... this one of my awesome cousin, Bryn, and the girls.  She came over last minute to watch the UGA game with us!