Outtakes

Staycation Day Four

Ewww! And then we got the pinkeye! So, we remained at home on a Momma-directed quarantine. (You're welcome.) Eric built a fort using all four pieces of furniture in our house. Elijah occupied himself for an entire half-hour by dragging all his toys into the fort. Daddy was also permitted to come in and read books. We attempted kite flying on this hot day, but mostly just stayed inside combatting the eye goo and wearing glasses. Gross.

Staycation Day Three

We started the morning at Mason's Efficiency Restaurant. There is no website for this restaurant; we were glad we had cash. It was super fun to go there. It is an old, old restaurant and motel (that's right, motel) and has some super, super inexpensive food. There were all these local people eating there. An old lady runs the cash register and serves as a waitress. She offered to hold my baby while I ate AND I LET HER. That's the kind of restaurant it was. Awesome. And, I'm pretty sure our total was well under $10.
Next we headed to Two Rivers Park so Elijah could play on the fabulous wooden playground there. We headed over the pedestrian bridge to utilize the greenway along the Cumberland River. This is a great trail for stroller use, even the spur trails are fairly stroller-friendly (although they aren't paved). I had to include this picture of Elijah because he looks like this a lot. He did have a good time, I promise! Haven loved being able to see. I believe this was the first time we let her sit in the back seat. She likes it much better than the prone position.

Crossing the river is always a fun time. "Boat Momma! Boat!"Happy staycationing family:
We stopped by Papa Murphy's to pick up a Take 'N Bake pizza. It was really good, but didn't work so well for leftovers. I was able to use a great coupon from our Citipass book~:-)...which I won, have I mentioned that?

Staycation Day Two

Woohoo! We're off to Bicentennial Mall. Here are the happy boys! Elijah was "up high Daddy. Up high!"

The little sleeping girl enjoyed her stroller.
More water fun!



Elijah and I climbed on the pillars, during which I really felt my stomach muscles - eek!
She's awake, my happy Haven!
Elijah and Daddy showed me their secret place at the park.
Elijah and Momma were very excited about our first visit to the Cupcake Collection. Oh my! These are some delicious cupcakes. They are better and much more reasonable than the other cupcake gigs in town. Yum! Yum! (Ooops. No coupon here.)
The out of the ordinary sugar rush got to Daddy, so he joined Haven for an afternoon nap.
Fun days!

Staycation Day One

Marriage is all about compromise. In keeping with that premise we had our first (annual?) Staycation. Think "We can have just as much sitting in the dark eating peanut butter sandwiches!" and "Vacations should be the most exciting time of your life!"
Day One saw us at Nashville Shores (Eric)...
...eating a frugal picnic lunch outside the park (me!)... ...giving Elijah his first Twizzler (saved from a work function - Eric & Lydia)...
...enjoying some Dippin' Dots (Eric)...[Here Elijah is telling me that they are COLD!]...
...[Haven's darling little tutu hiney got a quick nap in before she was thrown back in the water.]...
...eating Hush Puppies at Uncle Bud's catfish (me - we had a great coupon!; Eric & Lydia - shared our plates with hungry Elijah)...
...eating ice cream (me - coupon again!) and splashing in the water fountains.
We do apologize for the low-riding shorts Elijah is sporting. Sometimes you just don't know if something fits until after your child wears it (or is that just me?).
Stay tuned to see how we continued to use coupons during the rest of our Staycation~:-)

Grammie

This little girl loves her Grammie!More importantly, her Grammie loves her. A very comforting fact since Grammie & Grampa will be her sole caretakers for the next few days.

Pool Time

As Staycation continued, we all sought opportunities for naps. The children diligently found time to sleep and so did I (ahem). A favorite napping spot for the children is right on Grampa.
Pool time was super fun, partly because of the perfect weather and warm water. Luke, Haven, and Elijah all got in and enjoyed it.
These Noodle water squirter things won the Toy of the Day award.

Haven decided pool time was WAY too exhausting for her and fell right asleep on Grampa.
Luke found another nice spot~:-)