Blair and Lund's Wedding

Blair and Jonathan got married this past weekend. It was seriously one of the most fun weddings I have ever been to! Michael was one of the groomsmen and Conor was one of the ring bearers.

I was pretty worried about Conor being a ring bearer. Conor is a special little guy and he takes a lot of patience. We started out pretty rocky...he absolutely hated his tux and threw a huge fit about wearing it. He frowned in every single wedding picture that was taken.

We tried to bribe him with suckers and all kind of treats. He still wouldn't seem to cooperate. But, when it was time for him to walk down the aisle he ate it up. I tried to hold him until it was time for him to walk, but he went a little early. He pranced down the aisle carrying his sucker in one hand and waving at everyone with his other hand. He had a huge smile on his face the entire time. The other little ring bearer that was his age was too nervous to go down the aisle.

We had to leave the ceremony right after he walked down the aisle because he was upset that daddy was standing at the front and he wasn't allowed to stand up there.

Unfortunately, his eye are closed in this picture, but he was SOO proud of himself. 

I had forgotten to take pictures of us, so I snapped a couple when we got home

Blurry, but oh so cute

I could seriously eat him up. He looks absolutely darling in his tux.

I headed back downtown and made it just in time for dinner. We had an absolute blast at the reception. 

Congrats Blair and Jonathan. We are so happy for you!

First Day of School 2017- St. Henry

Patrick had his first day of school a couple weeks ago. He was excited, but also a little bit nervous. From the amount of summer homework he had to complete, we knew it was going to be a tough year.

Since it's a little difficult to read his sign... He is 6 years old. He loves his family. He wants to be a singer when he grows up. Love him!

First year with an actual desk! We had lots of school supplies this year and he was excited to bust them out!

My sweet little Peyton also had his first day of Pre-k. He is going Monday, Wednesday and Friday's this year. He only went 2 days last year, so this will be a little change for him. Can you tell how excited he was to put on his uniform and match big brother "Pwatwick?"

He is 4 years old. Loves his brothers, sports and mom and dad. He wants to be a dad when he grows up. Seriously, so precious!

So excited to have these big boys together this year! But sad that fun summer days with these boys are over! 

Beech Bend Park & Splash Lagoon

We always try and take a quick family trip during the summer. Unfortunately, this year we didn't get to take the vacation we had planned. The boys helped me plan a trip to Chattanooga and we were all excited! Well the week before we planned to go, we all ended up with the stomach bug. Michael missed a couple days of work since all of us were so sick.  He has been extremely busy and just couldn't take off any additional days. The boys were devastated that we didn't get to take a "family road trip" this year. So, Michael and I tried to think of a fun day trip that we could do on a Saturday. We decided on Beech Bend Park, since it is only about an hour away and the boys adore water parks.

The day we were supposed to leave for Beech Bend, the boys were playing in the back yard and happened upon a yellow jacket's nest. Michael, Conor and Patrick were all stung and immediately swelled up. We had to put off our trip yet again. But, we finally made it happen the next day.

We arrived at Beech Bend close to when it opened on a Sunday. We tried out one ride in the park, but decided that the rides were not for us. It is an older park and the rides didn't seem to work that great.

It is a very small park and is very easily walkable. We headed over to the water park portion and parked our stuff at the large children's play area.  The lazy river circles the whole water park and the boys had fun floating and swimming.

Peyton had a blast going down all of the slides

Peyton really loves splash parks and he had a blast on this one

There is also a small pool with a lily pad challenge. This was one of Patrick's favorite parts. It's actually a little challenging since the lily pads move all around. Patrick did great, but Peyton struggled with it. He just wasn't quite big enough yet.  Honestly, this pool sort of grossed Michael and I out a little bit. It didn't seem like the most clean water and there were TONS of babies in this pool. Although I should mention that I found someone checking the water quality a couple of times at this pool while we were there. 

Michael and I ended up splitting up a bunch during the day. Patrick and Peyton had vastly different interests in this park and it made it difficult to hang out all together.  Patrick loved the lily pad challenge and the big wave pool.  Both the pools that Patrick loved were a little too challenging for the little two, so Michael stayed with Peyton and Conor in the splash structure. Peyton also really loved the large slides, which Patrick was too nervous to go down.

The wave pool made me extremely nervous. Every 15 minutes the massive waves would start. I really had to be vigilant about keeping my eye on Patrick. By late afternoon there were so many large rafts in the wave pool that Patrick was almost caught under a few with the huge waves. It meant that I had to constantly wade out to the middle.  The parts of the park that Patrick loved were also the only parts of the park that had no shade whatsoever. So, although we constantly applied sunscreen we both got extremely sunburned. My shoulders are still bothering me a week later. 

We reunited for a little while at the end

I should also mention that although the food isn't terrible, I definitely would not recommend it. It is very reasonably priced, but did not taste that great. You are also not allowed to bring in your own food. There is really only one place to get food in the water park area and the service is absolutely horrible. I was the second in line and it took me over 35 minutes to get my food. They had about 15 teenagers helping with the food, but they would stop and have a 7 minute conversation while serving you. Every single time the waitress forgot what I ordered and had to come back in between each item. It seemed as though it was happening to everyone else as well.

Although we had a really great time, I do not think we will be revisiting Beech Bend. The differences between Holiday World and this park were very noticeable. While Beech Bend is a much smaller park, it just didn't compare to Holiday World.  The lifeguards were much more vigilant at Holiday World, the food is much better and the park seems much more well maintained. Holiday World is much farther away, but we had a much better experience there (aside from losing Peyton last year, of course!). 

Franklin Rec Center- Splash Park

Patrick requested to go to a new splash park for his last day of summer.  After a quick google search, we decided on the Franklin Rec Center. Unfortunately, the pool was closed the day we were there and only the splash pad was open. The pool and the pool slides also looked really fun, so Patrick was a little bummed it was closed.

We ended up having a blast at the splash pad and stayed for almost 3 hours! I think the boys would have stayed longer, but they don't sell food. After plowing through all the snacks I brought, we were still hungry and decided to leave for a late lunch.  Next time I would definitely bring in lunch. There were multiple people bringing in large pizza's and Zaxby's, etc

They had a great play area for the little ones. Conor was entertained and loved it just as much as the big boys.

It was packed the day we went! I was sort of surprised since Williamson and Davidson county public schools were already in session. We lucked out with a shady spot to sit, which was great.

We had a blast and it was a fun end to the summer!

Downtown Nashville Library Story Time

One of Patrick's homework assignments over the summer was to go to a library story time. We had never been to the main library for story time, so we decided we should add it to the bucket list.  We went the week before school started and that ended up being a HUGE mistake. We drove around the parking garage for 20 minutes looking for a spot.  I thought I had left plenty of time, but we showed up right when story time was starting. The room was PACKED. There were over 100 kids (not an exaggeration, they actually counted) and they said it was the largest story time they had ever had. We were crammed against the wall and not in the most comfortable position.  Since we spent about 40 minutes in the car beforehand, Conor was in no mood to sit still and kept trying to run up on stage. We made it for the first 4 minutes and then decided to just explore the library. I think the big boys would have really enjoyed it, but unfortunately Conor was not cooperating (what's new?!?!).

These are all awful pictures, but here is a little glimpse of what the front part of the story time looked like. It is a really nice facility.

Some of the life sized artwork was really neat

They also have a large play structure which the kids really loved

And a great puppet area

The little children's book area is really cute

Conor ended up screaming bloody murder and I had to take him outside to the fountain area to cool off. It would be a great area to bring a picnic lunch to eat. The big boys were really disappointed that we did not get to explore the library longer. 

Lesson learned.... do not take Conor anywhere that requires being quiet :)

After story time, we met up with Michael and grabbed some lunch downtown. Conor insisted I carry him the entire 8 blocks, so I was exhausted and have no pictures. The boys also visited Michael's office and thought it was really fun. 

More Splash Park Fun

We had a free morning last week, which has been quite rare with all of Conor's appointments, so we decided to head back to the splash park.

Sweet Peyton was waving frantically at Michael's building, it was pretty cute

After the splash park we headed to look at the water and the boats. Patrick and Peyton were dancing and having a great time together.

Conor was sleepy and not feeling a picture, but they finally convinced him to jump in there with them.

It was super hot by the time we were ready to leave, but the boys saw the slide and insisted upon going on it. I am pretty sure their legs burned from how hot the slide was, but they didn't care. 

My littlest daredevil would swing himself on the bar and fly down the slide

Patrick also tried out the little ropes course

We all went home and had a great nap after lunch, which is a perfect summer day in my book.