Brody's School Blanket

Brody is starting the Georgia-funded Pre-K program this year. It is freaking me out that he will be at school 7 hours a day, 5 days a week as a 4 year old. It seems crazy. But what seems more crazy is me- when he's home all day. You can't really beat free preschool. So anyway, they have nap time at school and each child is asked to bring a blanket to keep at school for their naps. Brody doesn't really have any blankets- he never got attached to one as a baby like Bridger did. My friend Hannah gave me the idea to go to Joann's and let him pick out his own fabric for a blanket to take to school. I know- she's smart. When we were going to Joann's, I asked what kind of blanket he wanted and he said he wanted a sheep blanket. There was no sheep fabric, but luckily he spotted this map fabric and immediately changed his mind. Then he picked out the blue backing. I made it today during his nap so when he woke up, he was really excited to lay down with the blanket on him. He laid it out and pointed out everything that is on the different states. Now I'm just worried that he won't nap at school because he'll be too excited about the "pyramids" in New Mexico.

Myrtle Beach

We went to Myrtle Beach in 2006 when Brody was 15 months old. We had a blast so we decided to make another trip there this year during Adam's terminal leave before he starts his new job. We made it to the beach twice, Ripley's Aquarium, and the water park there, Myrtle Waves. We got a lot of sun and had some fun. Vacationing with a 2 year old and a 4 year old doesn't ever amount to 100% fun.

Funny story..we pretty much ate every meal out since our hotel room didn't have a kitchen. Once when we were sitting at the table eating, Bridger climbed under the table and wouldn't come out. He kept telling us to leave him alone and that he was going to stay under there for "a yil bit". He just sat there under the table for like 10 minutes. Then we realized that he had soiled his diaper under there. He was too embarrassed to do it in front of us. When I said that happened, once, I meant thrice. Three times he crawled under the table to do his business and wouldn't come out until he was sure he was done. You'd think he would be ready to potty-train. Well he's not, okay? We've tried. He hates the toilet.

Also, every time we went into the elevator at our hotel, Bridger said, "I want to go down the alligator!"

So anyway, here are the pictures:

Friendly sawfish at the aquarium.

In front of the aquarium.

These boys love each other. They don't always act like it, but I love when I see the love they have for each other in the things they say.

Bridger in the sand dog.

I thought this was creepy, but who doesn't love a creepy sand creation?

Adam built this sand turtle and the boys had fun collecting shells to put on top.
Adam's creations- sand turtle, Lightning McQueen, and sand castle. I think he liked playing in the sand more than the boys did.
Brody and I had so much fun jumping over the waves. I love the Atlantic Ocean. It is way warmer than the Pacific. Also, how thrilled would that lady behind us be if she knew she was on the internet?

Brody finally got the courage up to brave the BABY water slide at the water park like 30 minutes before we had to go. It took 3 hours of convincing. Then he went over and over and over again. Bridger- not so much.

Where have you been all my life?

In One Week....

...our new house went from looking like this:To this:
To this:We move in September 25. We can't wait!

Hostess City of the South and Low Country

My mom and I took a girl's trip down to Savannah and then up to Charleston. I make a record of the proceedings:

The first night we stayed at a bed and breakfast in Savannah. It was really cute. Our unit was two-stories with a little living area/kitchen downstairs and the bedroom upstairs. It was very southern-style decorating. The bed and breakfast serves fresh chocolate chip cookies every night at 8 so we partook before going to our room.

That morning we went to eat our breakfast and were sad to discover what these people expected us to put into our mouths. It was some kind of Eggs Benedict on English muffins with a mustard sauce on top. No thanks. I asked for a toasted English muffin and some fruit, which I only ate a few bites of because they thought it was okay to throw a bunch of plain yogurt, granola and nuts on top of it. My mom was a trooper and ate most of her "food" but I obviously left hungry.This is the outside of the bed and breakfast.

We went straight to downtown Savannah and got on a Trolley tour bus. We took a 90 minute tour, which was really interesting. The driver knew his junk and we got to see all of the amazing plantation homes and house museums. After the tour, we walked around ourselves and looked at all the shops and squares. There are 22 squares in Savannah, all of which are like little parks with 9 streets branching out of them. Most of them have monuments in the middle of them and they all have a lot of really cool history. Our tour came with free shuttle wherever and whenever we wanted so we could get around faster. This came in handy since it was almost 100 degrees with 70% humidity that day. It was exhausting just walking around in the heat. We lost our energy quicker than we usually would in different circumstances. These are moss-hanging trees that are seen everywhere you look in Savannah. Out of all the things we saw here, the trees were my mom's favorite. She reads a lot of southern romance books and apparently they all talk about the moss trees. You should have heard her squeals of delight when she saw the trees in real life! In fact, when we got home and looked through the pictures she took, most of them are of moss trees. Really.

We went and toured the Juliette Gordon Low house where the founder of the Girl Scouts was born. I couldn't believe how much the tour guide knew. He was about 150 years old so he probably lived with Juliette at some time and that's how he knew everything. It was a charming house with a lot of the Gordons' original furniture and art work.
We really liked this house. It was two houses built side-by-side for twin sisters. They looked exactly the same. I wish I had a twin sister to build a house next to. That would be fun.
The Waving Girl Statue is on River Street facing the Savannah River. Florence Martus was the daughter of a sergeant stationed in Savannah and the brother of a lighthouse keeper. As a little girl, she would go out to the river and wave at all the ships coming in with her handkerchief and the sailors began to wave back. She continued her waving tradition for the rest of her life- 44 years- and never missed a day. I think she should have missed a few days to do something with her life, but that's just me.
This is the place where the park bench was placed in Forrest Gump where he would sit and say stupid things. It is called Chippewa square. I know of one person who likes that movie. There you go, Perry.
This is River Street, which faces the Savannah River. We walked along all those little shops. A lot of them were candy shops that made their own fudge and glazed pecans. I don't like either of those things.

When we were too tired and hot to do anything more, we left for Charleston, South Carolina.
We were tired when we got to the hotel so we just went to bed. In the morning, we went to breakfast and then went to the visitor's center to get on a tour bus. We took another 90 minute tour around Charleston, which was also very informative and entertaining. The tour guide was born and raised in Charleston and talked about all the things he did as a boy that he now takes his grandkids to do. It was pretty cute. We saw a lot of really pretty old homes that are worth millions now. We saw Fort Sumpter , which is an island east of Charleston. The iron work in Charleston is amazing. The homes are elaborate and charming.This house is on the market for a little over $10 million in case anyone wants it.

We decided we wanted to go to the beach so we went to a little local grocery store and got stuff for lunch. We changed into our suits, got our folding chairs, and headed for the beach. We just walked to where we saw water. When we got there, we were humiliated to see that we weren't really at the beach. We were at a riverside park overlooking the river. We looked retarded with our suits on, carrying our beach chairs and towels. We played it cool and pretended we had planned on bring our own chairs to eat our picnic in our bathing suits (even though there were benches and places to sit everywhere). After we ate in shame, we quickly covered our faces and ran to the car and drove to the real beach. On the map, there was a picture of a lighthouse by the beach so we wanted to go there. When we got there, this is what we saw:
Not really the lighthouse my mom was expecting in Charleston. It looks creepy and scary up close. It is triangular in shape, which was pretty cool. We loved the beach. Warm water, cool breeze and a cute little blond toddler we watched playing in the sand. It made me miss my boys. We were done with our trip and ready to head home. When we got home I went in and saw my sweet boys sleeping in their beds.

I think I want to make this a yearly tradition. Next year maybe we'll go to Europe. Right, mom?

Hi, this is Adam. I thought I'd add the excitement that Brody, Bridger and I shared while mom was away doing obviously boring things. We had fun, but have no pictorial record of such. You'll have to imagine us wrestling, playing tag, riding bikes, swimming, going to chucky cheese, reading books, shopping and making funny bodily noises. We also threw together this little bench swing for when we have a new back yard - but you don' t have to imagine it because I took a picture.