Campbell's trip to Atlanta

Last week our good friends Tim and Holly Bewley invited us to go with them to Atlanta to see a Braves game and then go to the Georgia Aquarium the next day.  We thought this would be a great time to reward Campbell for being such a good big brother, so we  left Andrew with David's parents and headed to Atlanta.  

He liked the Braves game--our tickets were awesome, so he could really see the game.  We did have to walk around a little bit because a 2 year old's attention span is a lot shorter than a baseball game.

Then we went back to the hotel and the boys and Holly swam.  I didn't because I didn't have my suit.  Actually, I didn't have Campbell's suit either, but because he's a boy, he could just swim in his shorts.  But he did say to me later, "Mommy, when we go to Florida, can you bring my swimsuit?"  But the funniest thing is that he was going under the water like a little fish.  He's always so much braver with David than he is with me.  

The night was pretty interesting--Campbell and David slept in one double bed while I got one to myself.  We tried to see if Campbell would fall asleep with the TV on, but no dice.  So it was lights out for everyone at 8:30.  I had a great night's sleep, but David...well, he didn't get quite as much sleep.  hee hee!  :)

The next morning we went to the Georgia Aquarium.  It was really cool.  We saw Beluga whales, sea lions, penguins, whale sharks, hammerhead sharks, and all kinds of other really cool stuff.  The best parent was this tunnel where the fish were swimming all around you.  Campbell had a blast, and David and I did, too.

Thanks, Tim and Holly, for inviting us to go along with you and sharing your awesome tickets with us.  We had a great time.  And I'm pretty sure Andrew had fun being spoiled by MeMe and Papa while we were gone.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Happy Birthday to David.  You're a wonderful husband and a great father to our boys.  We all love you very much.  Thanks for being you!

look what I can do

Andrew has been trying to crawl lately and is really getting frustrated.  But I didn't know he was getting so frustrated that he was going to move on to walking.  This morning we were playing in the floor and I looked over and he had pulled up on the cube he was playing with.  He had tried to do that a few times, but he'd never been successful until today.  Then he decided that standing was definitely the way to go and wanted to do that the rest of the time.  But then, as you see in the third picture, that he fell down and brought the cube with him.  No tears, though!

In other news, David took Campbell to play golf this morning and Jeremy and Miles George came along.  Campbell and Miles are good buddies and sure to be quite a pair when they get older.  Here are some pictures from this morning.

And next we're heading off to Russ's 3rd birthday party.  Happy Birthday, sweet Russ!

The battle of the cicadas

Sara, you asked for a funny story on my blog, so this one's for you...

So I thought that cicadas only came out every so many years.  No one told me that there'd be some in my backyard this morning.  But let me back up and give you a little background information.  The last huge cicada outbreak was my senior year of high school--right at graduation time.  Well our graduation was held outside on the football field.  And I was absolutely terrified that these bugs were going to swarm me and sent me running for my life in that ridiculous bright blue cap and gown.  I was praying hard for rain so they'd move it into the gym, but no luck.  Ultimately it turned out fine, but I am still a bit scarred from the incident.

Now for today.  If you're in  Nashville today you know that it is a beautiful day outside--not too hot and low humidity (a rarity in August!).  So Campbell and I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and the fact that Andrew has been rockin' out his morning naps (yesterday was a 3 hour one that I woke him up from!).  We went out to swing on his swing set, and everything seemed fine.  Then I heard it.

It was that unmistakable sound that I can't even describe right now.  I frantically searched for the source, and then I found it.  It had landed on the beam right next to the swing I was pushing Campbell in.  It's sad to say this, but my first thought was to run away from it.  But I couldn't just leave Campbell there.  He was oblivious of the bug and his mother's impending panic attack.

Let me just describe this thing for a minute.  For those of you who grew up in the country, this thing looked like a horse fly that was on some serious steroids.  For those of you wondering what in the world a horse fly is, it looked like the biggest and scariest fly you've ever seen--outside of the movie The Fly which freaks me out completely.

I summoned up every bit of courage I could and removed me flip flop.  I thought if I could scare it, maybe it would leave us alone.  After all, don't people always say that bugs and things are more afraid of us than we are of them?  In this case, I highly doubt it.  Whack, I smacked the beam very near to the freakishly large and scary bug.  It circled the play set a few times then flew away.

Whew, I thought, even patted myself on the back for a minute thinking how brave I was.  But then I heard the sound again.  And then it was coming from the other side.  Yikes.  There's more of them!  And then I spotted another one flying over our yard.  It didn't stop, but it appeared to be casing us.  I just knew that the screeches and buzzes I heard were the cicadas all over the neighborhood gearing up to wage an all-out attack on us.  

We stayed out in the yard for about an hour total, but by that time, my nerves were shot.  I was seriously freaking out at every sound.  I even saw a few more cicadas fly around us.  That was enough for me.  Let's go inside and get a snack, I told Campbell.  And of course, he agreed.  Safe at last!

The moral of the story is, I may have won this battle, but the cicada war is far from over.  Beware!!