Winn's Birthday Weekend

On July 17th, we headed out to Monteagle, TN for Sallie Wright Milam's (now Serene) wedding.  We stayed at the Smokehouse Lodge (which Meredith referred to as the Steamhouse Lodge yesterday).  The groom's mom arranged for babysitters to look after the children during the wedding festivities, so Roberts and I were able to sit down and enjoy dinner at the rehearsal dinner without being interrupted.  The wedding was in the morning at Anne and Claude Stuart's beautiful home.  It was truly and magical mountain wedding.  Probably the highlight of Winn and Meredith's day was our hike down the gorge of the Fiery Gizzard.  They loved rock hopping up the creek and seeing all the waterfalls. Sunday, we drove down to Chattanooga and our first stop was Rock City.  See Rock City was not as cheesy as I thought it would be and we loved hiking through all the narrow rock corridors and caverns.  The view of the 7 states was beautiful from the top and Winn had his first rock climb. From there, we went to the Boathouse which was right on the river and had a good late lunch/early supper.  The next day, we celebrated Winn's birthday by going to the Tennessee Aquarium! We got to touch sturgeons and stingrays.  My favorite were the long neck turtles and Winn's favorite were the sharks, of course!  From there we went to Whole Foods and ate pizza and Winn picked out a cake. Before heading back to Oxford, we sang Happy Birthday and Winn blew out 5 candles!  Happy Birthday to our sweet boy!

Beach Trip

Our beach trip this year was early, way back in the beginning of May.  Winn and Meredith have been out of school since April 30th!  We didn't do any swimming this trip, because the water was still chilly, but that didn't stop us from wading around in the ocean and catching crabs, hermit crabs and some fish. Winn got stung by several jelly fish and even stepped on an electric ray, but that did not deter him from getting out in the water to flyfish with Daddy.  LaLa and Aunt Annie came for a couple of days, so we got in a good visit with them.  We went to the zoo one morning with LaLa, but mostly just played on the beach.  Winn loved going out at night with the flashlight and looking for ghost crabs.  This was really the most fun I've had with the children down in Gulf Shores.  We can't wait to go back!

Wedding Weekend in NOLA

We all took a road trip to New Orleans for my Aunt Beth's weddding.  Luckily one of our old babysitters lives in New Orleans, so Roberts and I were able to have some grown-up time in the evenings.  Friday night was the rehearsal dinner at Arnaud's - an old French restaurant that Granddaddy used to love.  We got to mingle with the Wickstroms and see what a wonderful man Charles is and how much they love each other.  We got home late partly due to a Uber malfunction.  Saturday morning we hung out with the Fosters. We loved meeting our second cousins, Mimi (just turned 3) and Carly (almost 1) and one that will be here in July.  Meredith and Mimi are a month apart and we just happened to put them in matching Lily dresses! Winn had a great time stalking the lizards in Aunt Barry's yard.  We had a low key Saturday morning riding the streetcar to a park uptown.  The wedding was at 4 pm at the Presbysterian Church on St. Charles and the reception was at the Women's Opera Guild House in the Garden District right down the street from Aunt Barry's house where we convened late night after the reception.  They had a great band from Tulsa and the food was amazing, especially the grits and grillades served late night at Aunt Barry's. It was great seeing Ann Elise, Eustace and Claire, and all the cousins, Ben and his wife Leslie, Betsy and Jude, Josie and Chris, and then all the aunts and uncles from the Winn side and the Lawler side, like a big family reunion, though we were missing Mertie.  It was a lovely weekend and I am so happy for my Aunt Beth, Uncle Charles and their daughter Maggie. 

Turning 3!

Meredith turned 3 this week!  It was a low-key family celebration day.  We made apple cinnamon muffins for Meredith to take to mother's morning out.  Meredith's teacher sent me a video of her class singing happy birthday to her.  In the video, Meredith looks less than enthusiastic about turning 3, but she was in a good mood all day which is unusual since giving up her afternoon nap.  She received lots of cute new outfits from her grandmothers.  I think she changed outfits at least 5 times!  Daddy surprised her with flowers and an Ole Miss cheerleader outfit.  Winn gave her a fun dentist play dough kit.  She had fun playing with new musical instruments, until she got smacked in the nose by Winn the next day with one of them!  Meredith helped me make mac and cheese for lunch and we had breakfast for supper, a favorite around here.  Her cake was pancakes and she insisted on 4 candles, so she had one to grow on.  3 is an easy birthday- no expectations and balloons are so magical and exciting.  I wish we could all turn 3 again.