A Road Trip to the 'Villes (Part 1 of ??)

Two weeks ago, Nathan and I embarked on a wild road trip adventure.  It had been over 4 years since I had been back to Nashville and I decided that if I was going to make it back within the next few years, I'd have to make the trek with Nathan this summer (because spending 14+ hours in the car with a toddler AND infant and without Brian isn't my idea of a fun time!)  Fortunately for my sanity, I was able to convince Gran to drive up to our house and ride/drive the leg to Knoxville with us.  We headed out Wednesday afternoon after Nathan's nap, car loaded with books, children's music, DVDs, old favorite toys, new toys from the dollar store and the Ipod.

The first two hours to Ashville went well.  We stopped at awesome indoor McDonald's playplace to have dinner and let Nathan stretch his legs and get a much-needed change of scenery. Nathan absolutely loved it!  He would run between the toddler size slide and and area where they had toys on the walls (balls that you could move around tracks, little barrels that you can spin, etc.)  The toddler slide was not very slick and Nathan climbed up it at least once, and then walked part of the way down without falling!  Right before we left, a little girl about 3 came in with her mom and Nathan was fascinated with her and kept following her around. She seemed to enjoy the attention and Nathan always loves making a new friend.

The plan was to tire Nathan out with playing so that he would fall asleep on the second leg of our journey. But as we hit the road and his usual bedtime approached and then passed, we saw no signs of a sleepy Nathan.  I think the fact that the sun was still brightly shining in the windows was definitely working against us!  So by 8:30 when we arrived at Granddaddy and Grandmother's, he was very, VERY tired. I took him straight to his room to put him to bed, but he was somewhat reluctant to fall asleep in an unfamiliar crib in an unfamiliar room, so it took me a while to get him down. Thankfully he slept really well through the night and I even had to wake him up the next morning at 7:30.

We puttered around Grandmother and Granddaddy's house Thursday morning, with Nathan spending a lot of time outside with Gran. After he showed considerable interest in pouring our water glasses out onto the back porch, Gran assembled a water station for Nathan consisting of two differently sized cups and a dishpan full of water. Nathan spent lots of time pouring the water between the cups, all over the back porch and in the ivy, and all down the front of his shirt and shorts. They had a blast! Finally it was time to eat lunch, pack up the car and head to Nashville. I had been more concerned about the car rides from Knoxville to Nashville and back because I didn't have an assistant in the car to help entertain Nathan, so I decided to make the drive during nap time, hoping that at least a short nap would make the trip go more smoothly. I was certainly blessed on that Thursday because Nathan slept from the first minute we got onto I-40 in Knoxville to the minute we exited in Nashville about 2.5 hours later. Usually Nathan only sleeps for about an hour in the car even though he sleeps for 2 of more when we're at home, so I have to believe the late bedtime the night was actually a blessing in disguise!

OK, folks, that's all for tonight.  More to come at a later date with lots more pictures!  But I'm helping out at our VBS starting Sunday night, so I will probably be a little slow with new posts next week.