THIRTY-EIGHT

What a fun week we had. It started out with a lovely visit with Papa Bruce and Grandma Judy. I hadn't seen them in almost six years. V was won over immediately with the sparkly dress (though the lack of stuffed animals was hard for her to get over) and Theo was just happy with everything. 

2016 week thirty-eight

Thursday evening we hit the road to drive to Tennessee! A 12.5 hour drive is so tough for little ones. We gave them as many breaks as we could when we stopped for gas. Theo loved stretching his legs behind the wheel. 

When we finally go to the hotel baths and a diaper change were the first order of business. And apologizing to Matthew because I had been wrongly attributing the poisonous diaper odor to him for the last hour or so of the drive. Then V curled up in her own big bed naked with a burrito, an animal show, and her giraffe. 3 year old heaven.

V also got to experience the magic of watching a movie on TV. She was really frustrated with me because of all the "commercionals" and couldn't understand why I wouldn't stop them and just put her movie back on. Jumanji seemed to be playing on repeat this weekend so we caught various parts of it a few times. She loved the "scary game" movie. But then she had nightmares the next night, so maybe it really was a bit too scary. She kept frightfully asking, "What would happen to me if I went into the scary game movie? Am I going to be turn to a monkey?"

Theodore found a new best friend in the A/C unit. Periodically I would find myself sweating and go to find out that he had set it to max heat and max fan. He just loved the way it blew his hair and face though. Also, I found both knobs broken off of it at various times. I hope he didn't inflict lasting damage. Though he incurred lasting damage by toppling into something metal. The top of his ear was sliced along the ride and purple all weekend. Sad baby. 

The wedding wasn't until the evening on Saturday so we tried to do a few things around Knoxville, like tour this house from the 1700s. But sadly we were unable to do any of the things we wanted because of football. It was a huge college football rivalry game this weekend and Knoxville was a sea of orange from both teams. Matt was going a little crazy with all the traffic and the orange.

Hobbit baby.

This house was the Riddle house in my mind. I couldn't see it any other way. We didn't get to go inside bc it was closed for a different wedding that afternoon, so we just walked around the grounds for a while. I always think I want to live in houses like these, but I am too much of a wuss. I'd be seeing ghosts and spooks in every corner as soon as the sun set. So I'll just settle for visiting in the daytime. 

Since we couldn't go anywhere in Knoxville proper, we drove to the lake and went to eat at Sweet P's Barbecue. This was the best sauce I think I've ever had. But I guess I am more of a vinegar-type barbecue sauce over the sticky sweet kind anyway so probably most Tennessee barbecue sauce would be excellent to me. They accidentally gave us an order of banana pudding to which both of us thought, "yuck." But neither of us can let food go to waste so we ate it. We repented immediately for our distaste. It was not only good for banana pudding, it was just plain delicious. We almost took it back from Vera after we said it was for her. 

After we did all that we could do we still had 4 hours until the wedding, so we just went to the venue to hang around the grounds.

V and I ran around the hills and lawns.

And V made friends with a horse. 

They requested we didn't take photos of the ceremony to be mindfully present, but here are a few shots around outside. The beautiful brides finishing last minute prep. One of the brides, Hilary, was my first college roommate. I can't believe we've known each other for 9 years now! 

V fulfilled one of my life goals for her to be friends with Hilary's nieces.

Theodore was amazing and slept through the entire ceremony. 

V got served an entire chicken! She was thrilled. 

Theodore ripped my dress at the very end exposing me, so I had to run to grab a sweater from the car. I wish I had taken a photo with the Colgan ladies before I looked so frumpy. Also, I'm a bit disappointed to find all my photos so blurry. Oh well, I'm so grateful I got to be a part of this. Hilary, I love you. I wish you and Chelsea so much happiness and strength and love. Let's visit again soon when there aren't 100 other people who want to talk to you as well. I'm selfish and I want you all to myself for at least 8 hours, ok?

Home again, home again, jiggety jig. The best present I can give myself is a super clean house to come home to after a trip. It was so restful to just come in, sit down in a clean space and tackle the messy car later. Theo took his first steps shortly after we got home. V had her first 45 minute screaming tantrum that ended in a long hard nap shortly after we got home. 

Quotes:

"I'm just a dirty princess right down to my paws!"

"C'mon Mama. Let's ask the horses if we can pet them. And if they say 'nay' then we can pet them. That's how they talk. They say 'nay'."

"Look at the beautiful wedding girls. Her name is Elsie (it's not, it's Chelsea) JUST like ELSA! Isn't that crazy! It's so special. They are JUST THE SAME!"

Said to Hilary's sister with blonde hair, "Hi. My name is Veronica. Did you know that you have white hair just like Elsa? It's really just the same."

"Mama, I figured it out! Peanuts rhyme with Penis!" She's been really into figuring out if things rhyme lately.

"Aliens are called Elliot." Nope. She's never seen E.T.

"I just really want to take a grackle home and put it in the freezer."

"Make sure I don't pee in my pants!"

"Make sure I don't fall off my chair!"

"Make sure there are no wasps in my room. They might be hiding. But you can find it and you can CLENCH it dead."

"The wasp will go in the toilet and get water and poop on it's body and the poop will make it die."

"Don't let Theodore fall in. He will get poop on his body and die."

"Hooray! They killed that man!" I dont even know what to say... It was a cartoon. It was ambiguous if he "died", but still, I don't love that she shouted this. It was the voodoo guy from Princess and the Frog.

"Someday when I'm really big I can jump over trees and step over them and climb up to the top and sit there and not fall down. I'll be really brave to know how to do that."

Vera, "I like it when bunnies jump on my hand and I can bring them home. I just really like that."
Me, "Has that ever happened to you?"
Vera, "No. No small animals or big animals ever jump on my hand to take them home because I'm not a princess."

At the hotel one of the workers asked Vera her name, she promptly responded, "I'm Veronica Princess."

V also made friends with an older gentlemen in the hotel breakfast area. Every time he would try to read the paper she would run up to him to prattle on about something or other and then run away. It turned out he was going to the same wedding we were. He was so sweet and was excited to see her again. V kept telling me, "It's just my friend. That boy who is old is my friend."