We're Home

And it was good to get here. Although, it was a nice break/treat to be with only one of my children and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of holding that angel baby, John. I very much enjoyed the trip and felt it was productive as well as enjoyable. We made a trip to the outlet malls not too far from Laura Beth's house. Productive, except for the fact that I still cannot find children's crocs anywhere. I have searched high and low for some new crocs, but they are nowhere to be found. Can anyone tell me where they might be hiding? BTW-I'm not referring to the real crocs, would actually prefer a cheaper version.

Ellie and Luke were happy to be reunited. It took about two seconds for them to get busy in their pretend world. And about three seconds before there was a fight to be dissolved.

I think Andrew and Luke were also glad to see each other.

After we all said hello and gave lots and lots of hugs and Andrew went down for a nap, I took mom's camera and had a little fun. Come on, spring, come on...

While Luke and I were gone to LB's, mom and dad took Ellie and Andrew to the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. There is a treehouse exhibit going on right now, and I assume it will be there for awhile. Luke heard this being discussed before we left and was not so thrilled with the idea of being left out of that. We promised to take him when we got back. So, what better day than today? Apparently, about ten thousand other moms had the same idea.

Nevertheless, overall it was a very pleasant experience. Not to mention very humorous and pretty entertaining to watch the other parent/child interactions. It was a good reminder that I am certainly not the only one dealing with the occasional, or not so occasional public meltdown. Nor am I the only one trying to catch the perfect shot of my child sliding down a slide or climbing a ladder. Cameras were out today in full force.




The Wizard of Oz treehouse was the unanimous favorite.


My personal favorite was the children's garden, which isn't a part of the treehouse exhibit. It is a year round attraction. Say hello to goldilocks, mama bear, and baby bear.

My absolute favorite--a fairy gate!


We even made a new friend, who was quite taken with Andrew. Andrew wasn't quite as sure.


I highly recommend a visit to the Botanical Gardens if you live nearby. At one point, Luke commented, "This is such a so fun place, isn't it?" Just wait a little while longer, when the flowers are in full bloom, I'm pretty sure it will be absolutely breathtaking.

If you go on a day when children are out of school, you will most likely encounter quite a few sobs, screams, and exhausted children and moms and dads, doing the best they can to keep the meltdown under control. On our way out, I heard one mom say, "please don't have a meltdown the last five minutes, you've made it this far". It wasn't doing much to motivate the little boy. I thought we were going to make it, but ours happened on the way to the car. And surprisingly it was from Luke. I think only because Ellie had managed to beg her way into the stroller. Both were complaining that their legs were just so tired and they couldn't walk anymore.

Needless to say, they are both sound asleep right now. And tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful again. Just a few more days until Steven comes home. Although we have had lots of help and the days have gone by faster and more smoothly than I had expected, we're ready!