Dogwood blossoms, Chattanooga Nature Center -- by Katydid
I feel as if I should fling myself into a chair with an anticipatory yet relieved sigh, and say, "We're back! Now let me tell you..." Well, I'd probably do something of the sort if I was meeting you for coffee, but it's hard to get the same kind of frame with a blog post. And actually, there aren't so many stories to tell... We were gone for 3 weeks, and yes, we did drive; my mother flew up to make the drive down with the kids and me, roughly 1000 miles, and probably the thing about that trip which was most exciting was the GREEN line -- at that point almost exactly at the Maryland/Pennsylvania border. It snowed on the hilltops the day we left, which made green grass and roadside daffodils all the more exciting, and when we got to Tennessee and saw redbuds and dogwoods in bloom, the effect was almost delirious. The weather bounced around while we were there -- up to the low 70's, then plummetting into the 40's with even a few snowflakes -- but for the most part, it was kinder than a New York spring, and the kids had a good time. I confess I had a little garden envy, because my parents' next door neighbor had already tilled up three large plots of ground and his onions looked as if they were progressing nicely. Back home, Andy told me glumly, all we had was cold rain, and he was trying to get our new chicken coop built in spite of it, but the garden was far too wet to till.
While we were visiting my parents, we had the pleasure of meeting a few online friends, who are now -- happily -- friends in real life as well.
Jennifer graciously invited us to play at her (beautiful) home, and the kids had so much fun I had to carry a kicking and screaming Pip back to the car because I think he wanted to live at her house. (And just in case anyone is wondering, her learning room is even better in person!) Unfortunately my kids came down with a cold and so we couldn't get together for a second time as planned, but -- maybe next year!
Right before we left my parents' to visit Andy's family in Memphis, we did manage to meet another online friend, though...
(Does anybody notice that one of my kids is missing in this picture? Was he standing behind someone? I can't remember. I thought I got everybody...)
This is Marjorie's lovely family, whom we met at the Chattanooga Nature Center. Katydid was most happy to make the acquaintance of several girls on this trip. Although I think one of the high points of the Chattanooga Nature Center for the kids (girls and boys) was the decidedly ungirly owl-eating-a-white-rat moment.
Katydid had the camera at the nature center, so, predictably, I have lots of pictures of horses, snakes, and flowers, and not very many of children or even one of the nifty tree house they have there. On our way out, though, we drove through the attached arboretum and I did manage a picture of this:
Now the story goes that a storm carved the image of an Indian warrior into the side of the mountain. Can you see it?
About a week and a half into our trip, we picked Andy up at the Nashville airport (my parents live in middle Tennessee) and drove over to Memphis to see Andy's family for Easter. By this time -- predictably -- most of the kids were sick, but not seriously, so we had a chance to go to the zoo (a tradition).
It was a little cold -- we should have been wearing our New York field trip apparel -- but the kids had a good time with their cousins. And we got to see penguins. More on penguins later, as they are currently a Big Deal around here with a certain three year old (Pip).
The polar bears were a big hit, too. Katydid had the camera:
We also went to Dixon Gardens, a garden, art gallery, and a once private home -- all donated and now open to the public. The gardens are incredible, especially in mid-April with all the azaelas in bloom. Dixon Gardens deserves its own post (or photo album), but here's a glimpse:
Andy and his family took the big kids to see a Memphis Redbirds game... an outing that resulted in the most memorable and scariest story of the trip, as Farmerboy decided to attempt to get back to the seats on his own and instead, got lost. Security had to be called. Mercifully, the first I heard of this was when everyone got home with Farmerboy safe and sound. Farmerboy is now required to HOLD HANDS under pain of death. I'm thinking about handcuffs.
He had an early birthday celebration while we were there:
at Joe's Crab Shack. (Today -- April 22 -- is actually his birthday. We opened presents at 7 AM, but he won't technically be 6 until 9:22 PM. No sense in speeding up time... hard to believe that he's already 6 when it doesn't seem that long ago that I was staring at an ultrasound, counting movements and wondering whether I would be sent home from the hospital or not... and then those midnights dragging myself back into the hospital bed after late visits to the NICU.)
And, of course, there was Easter:
Well. After all that, we're taking a week to settle back in, recover from the new colds some of us (me, Katydid) have, clean house, and reacclimate to ordinary life. As soon as we got home, Andy grabbed the tiller and went to work in the garden, so we have our garden work to keep us busy and to make up for the lack of azaelas. Sort of. ;-)
Welcome home! Next time you are coming through, I need to make arrangements to hijack you at the boarder. ;-)
Posted by: Amy | April 22, 2009 at 02:55 PM