Nashville and Chattanooga

***We finally got our camera back today, and I was able to download the remaining pics from our trip. I hope to be taking more pics now and posting more frequently!!!

Doug had a work meeting/conference in Nashville, TN, May 1-4. We had already decided we wanted to go to Chattanooga as a family that Thursday for a long weekend, so timing for his work trip worked our perfectly. Because I have friends from PT school still in Nashville, Callen and I decided to tag along and visit the city I left almost 9 years ago (hard to believe!).

We started our trip in Atlanta on that Saturday, spending the day hanging out with my family. My brother, Stevie and his wife Liz live in Atlanta, and they wanted us all to come for a day and see where they live. We had a great time walking the BeltLine, eating lots of yummy food, and just enjoying each other's company for the day.

The whole crew!

The Epps siblings and Big Steve

The Epps sisters

Enjoying King of Pops on a HOT day

We stayed the evening at Doug's dad's house before heading to Nashville the next day. Callen and I were pretty much on our own in Nashville. We stayed at the Gaylord Opryland, so we spent the first day exploring the hotel and rode the boat through the Delta section of the hotel. We met up with a friend from PT school and her two kiddos. It was pouring rain, so we let them play on the playground at Opry Mills and then had lunch at the Rainforest Café. Cal and I also visited Belmont University, where I went to PT school, to see the new facilities and how much everything has changed over the last 9 years. It was great catching up with friends from so long ago, but it was also nice once the conference was over and we could spend time with Doug!!

On our boat ride through the Opryland

Making friends with Rex

Climbing...what he does best!

On Wednesday morning we left and headed to Chattanooga. We spent the afternoon letting Cal nap and hanging around our hotel, the Chattanooga Choo Choo. We had planned to spend the afternoon and early evening playing in a park and getting dinner, but cold temps and lots of rain changed those plans quickly. (Original weather forecast showed high 70s and low 80s for most of trip with maybe one day of rain. It rained almost everyday except our last day and temps were in the 60s. Of course I had not packed any pants, rain jackets, or warmer clothes for us!!).

We told Callen we would ride a train in Chattanooga. As soon as we arrived, he was ready to ride the train, and got very upset when we told him it would be a few days! Good thing there was a free electric bus/shuttle that left from our hotel and takes a 30 minute loop around the city. We rode that to dinner and everywhere else we wanted to go over the next few days, and that made Cal a happy boy! He loved the bus, and quickly became very confident sitting all by himself.

One of our many bus rides

On Thursday, we went to the Creative Discovery Museum. It was a good time, and Cal had lots of fun at the construction exhibit as well as the toddler play area with tools and pretend house garage. Once again, the weather limited some of the outdoor activities at the Museum, forcing us to stay inside most of the time.

Not sure how you start feet first and end up this way!

Making baskets with crazy contraptions!

Playing music with dad

Hammering in the 'nails'...we have replicated this activity at home, giving mom a god 10-15 minutes of free time to make dinner!

All Cal wanted was to wear a construction hat...he finally found one!

Friday was the big day...Callen got to ride a train! The weather was finally nice and we made plans to go on the early train ride at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. They have a lot of options for train rides, but the one we opted for (it was the only one running that day, but it would have been what we chose anyways!) was the Missionary Ridge Local. It was a 6 mile out and back ride with a stop off at the end of the line in East Chattanooga where the locomotive rotates on a turntable to make the return trip. A 'conductor' came by and punched our tickets and we rode the train to the turnaround point, opting to stay in our seats for this part of the ride. For the return ride, we stood in the vestibule and watched out the windows at all the activity going on. I would have to say this adventure was a highlight of the trip. One, Callen was so excited and taking it all in. Watching his joy and excitement was wonderful and made it more exciting for us. Two, they do a really good job and make it interesting for people of all ages. Doug and I both found the 'tour' very informative and interesting, as well as enjoying the train ride itself. I would highly recommend this excursion for someone visiting Chattanooga.

Getting his ticket punched

Checking out the ticket!

Enjoying the ride

Looking out the window as we go through a tunnel

Hanging out in the vestibule on the return trip

Looking out the window to see what's ahead

Later that afternoon we made our way to Coolidge Park and Walnut Bridge, the pedestrian bridge in Chattanooga. It was so wonderful to finally have good weather and let Cal run around outside. He played with the musical instruments, kicked and chased after the ball with Doug, and rode on the carousel. That evening we enjoyed dinner with Doug's college roommate and his family. What a nice change of pace to enjoy dinner at someone's home while traveling instead of eating as fast as possible in order to be done in time to chase the 2 year old!!

Walking under the bridge

Making music

Playing soccer with dad

Riding the carousel

Walnut Street bridge

Bridge jumping

This trip was a great little getaway for us. It wasn't our normal camping/hiking trip. I'm not sure how well I would have done sleeping on the ground at 7 1/2 months pregnant, plus Doug's work schedule only allowed us to get away for a few days instead of a full week or more. This seemed like the best option for us (plus we both have been wanting to visit Chattanooga). Chattanooga is a great city, much like Greenville. There are many options for both young and old to enjoy.

Hard at Work

The last few months have been spent getting ready for little Peanut's arrival. Cal and Peanut are going to share a room, so I had the bright idea to change up the décor and overall theme of the room. We love the safari theme the room had, but I wanted to make changes and give Callen more of a big boy room feel. Because of spacing in the room, we knew we needed to have a loft bed for Cal to sleep in and put the crib underneath the loft to maximize space and efficiency in the room. We enlisted the talents of Oupa for the bed building, and we got to work putting in a new closet system and painting the room. Each project took at least 2 weeks longer than I was expecting it would just because of living in an old house!! The existing closet was a mess. Doug had to remove boards, patch the walls, and prime and paint before we could install the new closet system. For the rest of the room, we ended up having to sand the walls, prime over the existing color to make the color grey we chose look good, and paint the walls and trim how we wanted them. It took us over two months to complete all these projects, but we are SOOO happy with the end result.

Closet before

Nice big hole leading to one of master bedroom closets!

Callen helping with spackling

Primed and ready for closet install

Finished closet!

Peeling the stick-ons off the wall

Sanding walls and choosing paint colors (we went with the one on the far left)

Callen overcoming his fear of the Shop Vac to help clean at the end of each day!

Patiently waiting for mom and dad to play with him!

Taping!

Painting!

The grey color going on 2/3 of the room

Accent wall in preparation for painting

Dark grey of accent wall

Finished project except for outline of white 'V' will be either yellow or pink stripe depending on gender of Peanut!

Another view of rom with single paint color

My big kid bed is here and I can touch the ceiling with my head!

Climbing the ladder...over and over! The crib will be below the loft with enough head clearance for us to lift Peanut in and out of crib without any problem.

This is awesome up here!

Night one was a success!

A big thank you to Callen's Oupa for all his crafty skills in building this bed for Callen. It was a HUGE undertaking (we may never know the extent and amount of curse words spoken to us under his breath!), but it was so worth it to see the joy and happiness Cal had the first time he climbed in the bed. He still loves to get up there and hang out each night. Our next plan is to build a little pulley system with a basket so Cal can raise and lower books, toys, etc. in and out of his bed. He can't safely carry anything up and down the ladder, so he needs a way to get things out of the bed...without throwing them! It has been a crazy few months with house projects, but we are finally slowing down and taking time to relax and enjoy our last few days as a family of three.

Oh My!!!

I want to apologize for my lack of blogging the last month and a half! When we went hiking over New Year's, I dropped our camera and broke the screen. It was still usable, but we waited until a few trips and outings were over before sending it to be repaired. We got it back (still broken) in time for our Tennessee trip with instructions to return it with payment for repair. So, back it went to be fixed once we returned home. (We are still waiting for it to be returned to us almost a month later!!! I'm not as good about taking pictures with our old point and shoot, and it's hard to capture a full event with the iPhone. Therefore, our picture taking has been significantly less these last few months!) Also, after returning from Tennessee, we ran into some serious computer troubles and are just now getting everything back and running properly. Until I logged into my blog account, I didn't realize my last post was April 18th! Call me a slacker!!

I actually sat down and wrote a full blog on our Tennessee trip only to realize that half the pictures from the trip are still on the disc...and can't be downloaded until I get the camera back! So, a few random pics from the last few weeks taken on the phone will have to do for a blog! Sorry!!!

We are finally potty trained! I love his independence...sometimes!

Helping mommy bread chicken. This kid loves to help me cook

Helping dad at Home Depot aka the Orange Project Store!

Our new thing...obsessed with anything firefighter. He would wear this hat and these boots just about everywhere if we let him

Living the dream at Costco! Snacks, sunglasses, and rain boots. He couldn't ask for more!

Last day of school was last week...first day pic on left and last day on right. Someone is a little more excited about school these days!

As soon as I get the camera back, I will download the remaining pics for our TN trip and get that blog up! I will try and do better about blogging over the next few weeks...I can't guarantee anything come end of June/beginning of July!