Summer Fun {part II}, Nashville Trip and changes

Make yourself comfy this one's gonna be a doozie. I'll try to keep it short and it will certainly be random.

The kids and I had a BLAST in Nashville!! Thank you to Lisa, Marilyn, Karla, Kelsey, CJ, Charles. Bubbies, Mimi, Nancy, Nanny, Anna Marie, Brendan, Wendy, Gran, Cathy, Kev, Cate, Zane, Lesley--and anyone I might have accidentally left off of the list- for helping us to have an awesome trip. Thank you for the visits, meals, hugs, smiles and cuddles with my kiddos. We had a great week of family and friend time and Jay did GREAT at Swim School!

Let's start there- we did 4 days of swim lessons- Jay cried, as predicted, but persevered. Day 1 he was less than cooperative. By day 4 he went down to the bottom of the deep end and got a ring and went off of the diving board without any tears. He rolled over and rested, then screamed. Which was INCREDIBLE. I took a video on my phone and in the chaos of cheering him on, deleted it. Boooo. 

 

Kar and Lizzy enjoying swim school

Here's a video of Charles taking Jay for his 1st ring dive!!

We visited with Mimi everyday. Jay loves her SO MUCH. Lizzy loves her already. She laughs and coos at Mimi A LOT.

We did Opry Mills and KarKar, Kelsey and CJ took Jay to his very first movie! Scooby-Doo. They lasted 24 minutes. Hey, it's a start! The kids had a great time and Mimi really enjoyed spending the day with them. 

Where are his shoes??

We jumped at Pump-it-Up. Jay really just ran around saying "Ruuuunnnnn!" Played at every playground we saw and went to Cheekwood to check out the Treehouse exhibit. It was AWESOME. Cate, Zane, Cathy and Kev live very nearby so we checked out their new house and ate some yummy burgers before taking on Cheekwood. Here's the info on the exhibit, I can tell you it was fun with all of the kiddos. I cannot tell you many details as I was on the "run ahead with the kids crew" instead of the "take a moment to read the sign crew". Jay literally climbed everything in sight.

"climb, climb, climb"

All of the cousins..Sorry, Lizzy! The stroller handle was blocking your sweet face and I didn't notice ! I think I was making sure Jay didn't make it over that rail into the water below!

Friday we kept it low-key with a lunch date at Chick-fil-a, Swim Lessons and dinner at Mimi's before hitting the road. 

I asked Jay to sit by sister to take a pic and this is what happened!

We got back to town and have been pretty busy since! We spent most of the weekend at New House and running errands. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were Jay's last days of Pre-School for the summer (and only his 5th and 6th day of Pre-School ever) Lizzy and I made the most of it by window shopping for Jay's birthday presents, shopping for things for New House and a family lunch out to celebrate Nanny (West's) 83rd birthday. 

Thursday we braved the oncoming heat wave to check out the zoo with the Chavers family. It was super-duper hot and perhaps our last visit there until the fall! Sheesh!

Saturday, again, we ran several errands related to New House (I'm starting to sense a theme here...). and Sunday we attended Asher Oswalt's 1st birthday party and Carter Weeks' 3rd birthday party. Jay is SO fun and SO busy at these parties lately! It makes me excited and just a teeny bit nervous about his party coming up. 

The kids at Carter's party

Enjoying our to-go cupcakes from Asher's party!

We've also moved Jay from his highchair to a booster at the table. He looks like such a big guy! (with and without the chocolate goatee) It's going okay so far, but it is easier for him to feed the dogs this way, so we have some lessons to learn there for sure. 

Lizzy is getting ready to make the move into the highchair. I hope this will make her enjoy eating from a spoon. So far she is really not a fan, I do hope she comes around soon. We start actual baby food two weeks from today!