So as luck would have it my sister (Ariel) and her family recently moved to Nashville, Tennessee. I've been so excited for them to finally be in a place of their own again and needed an excuse to visit family and since my mom lives on the Western side of Tennessee I figured why not knock out two birds with one visit? After much back and forth texting we decided Spring Break for the Wilson kids would be a great time to go see both sides, PLUS this way Cara could officially meet all grandparents and aunts/uncles (aside from a couple of my brothers). I was so excited to put this all together and see everyone!
Queue the week before we left finding out I am pregnant, that sure made the idea of flying with a baby while battling sickness a fun thought haha. Luckily I wasn't feeling sick in the beginning of the trip, it wasn't until we were leaving mom's and going to Nashville that the sickness started to sink in, but as long as I ate I was fine so we'll move on from those details.
We started out in the Memphis/Southaven area. Mom is always great at finding fun things to do with us when we visit and this was no exception. We Flew in Wednesday day (Cara slept almost the whole time during the flights...we're so lucky to have an easy traveler) and got there late enough to have dinner, do some grocery shopping (for some food/diapers for Cara) and unpack and visit for a bit. Will got in late that night so it was just us and Mom so Cara got to bond with her a bit. The puppies we were nervous about with a baby being nearby, they hadn't been exposed to one before so we weren't sure what to expect, but after some warming up they ended up loving her (Molly kept giving her very wet kisses...Cara wasn't a big fan, but we were just happy they got along). Thursday we took as a relaxer day, we walked some shops at their outlets, ate out a bit, and adjusted to the new place. It was a nice day.
Friday we went to my mom's work to say hi to everyone and show off the cute baby, which they all fawned over, and then to this drive through safari thing where they give you buckets of food and you get to roll down your window and feed the animals. They had zebras, buffalo, camels, llamas/emus and ostriches (I think that was it) and they loved coming over for food. At first it was slow, but once the buffalo saw us they went crazy for it. Cara seemed to love seeing the animals and being not strapped in her carseat (we did let her wander around in the car since the speed limit was only like 10 mph). It was such a fun way to spend the afternoon. I'm an animal junkie and plan to make Cara one too so this was a great start!
Saturday we hit up the Memphis Zoo, which was awesome. I love that zoo and even though Cara still doesn't see EVERY animal she did seem to like some of them there. Another great day with good weather. I was bummed the bears weren't as playful as they've been on my other visits, but I still love seeing them. I think the best part of the day might have been when we went to the seal area and it was clearly posing for pictures in the pool area so we took Cara over to show her and she saw a little boy and got so distracted by the boy that neither of them noticed the seal trying to get their attention. The little boy even started dancing for Cara and she started acting all bashful, it was the most adorable thing. Neither ended up seeing the seal, but it was still too cute. After putting Cara down that night we got her Easter stuff put together and hid some eggs for her to find. I was SO excited to have her first Easter with family!
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| The only pic I got of us at the zoo |
Sunday was Easter so we woke up and walked Cara around to find her eggs. Of course once she found one she only wanted to play with that, but we got her to go around and find more. It was SO cute seeing her reaction to her first Easter! We even put her in her cute Easter dress that I just HAD to get from Costco to show it off and basically she was the cutest thing to ever exist! Haha. We ended up having to leave around lunch time to head to Nashville and check into our hotel so we didn't get to stay long after that, but it was still a good visit.
Our drive to Nashville was quick. Cara napped while Larry and I talked about random things, it was so nice to have a mini road trip with him. We got to Nashville and checked into our hotel (which by the way, every hotel needs a room like our setup. It had a mini room within our room so we could put Cara in there and not have to room share. We could actually watch TV after she was put to bed like normal people! Thank you Drury Plaza Inn Franklin TN!!). We met up with the Wilson's and Quist's and Niel's who had all arrived earlier in the day. We sat around Ariel's apartment and got caught up. This was the first time all of us were meeting all the babies (I had meet Rachel before, obviously, but had yet to meet Lilly - Tori's daughter - and only the grandparents had met Cara so this was her first time meeting all aunts and uncles). Cara was OBSESSED with Lilly...I'm not sure if it's because she was the only one smaller than her or what, but she really wanted to play with her. She loved playing with Rachel's toys, but since Rachel isn't used to having other kids in her area there were some moments that Rachel didn't want to share (which is reasonable and we tried to respect the boundaries as best as we could...but poor Cara didn't have toys there so we just tried to keep her occupied with us). I felt bad because Cara wasn't feeling comfortable with all the new people all of a sudden around her so she wasn't her usual playful, talkative self and cried a little bit, but we made due with what we could and just tried to use today as a "everyone get used to everyone else" sort of things.
Monday we went to Nashville Zoo. This zoo is amazing you guys! It's decently sized (way bigger than Hogle) and the displays are more open (rather than being cage like) so the animals seem to be more active. Cara still wasn't looking so much at the animals as much as she was the foliage, but she did seem to have fun still. I felt so bad because they had this zipline thing that I thought looked like SO much fun, but I didn't think was pregnancy safe so when half the group decided to get tickets for it and they asked me if I wanted to I had such a hard time saying no, but I did, and you could tell everyone was like "really?!". I told them I wanted to take Cara on the carousel as an alternative and to avoid the questions as to why I would back out of something more adventurous...hopefully they don't think I'm a wuss now that I'm a mom. If I wasn't pregnant, or if I wasn't hiding it, I would totally have gone on that zipline thing! After the zoo we were all kind of wiped out so instead of making dinner we decided to go to The Cheesecake Factory at the mall down the road from the Quist's home. It was SUCH a yummy dinner and Cara really surprised us by eating not only her food and some pieces of bread, but like 1/4 of my pasta! She just kept gobbling it down, I joke she must have eaten her weight in pasta that night haha. We were also treated to a piece of cheesecake to take home with us...we are definitely spoiled when we visit with them! We all obviously went back to our homes to pass out after that amazing meal (I had a TREMENDOUS food baby that night haha)
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You guys! I was IN the area with the kangaroos!!
Does it get cooler than that?? |
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The whole group at dinner...Cara had pushed me out of the picture
RIGHT as it was being taken (we're in the back left) |
Tuesday was a very low key day. We took the kiddos over to the playground in the Quist's neighborhood. Cara tried to eat a bunch of the mulch, but she had SO much fun climbing the stairs and then we'd take her down one of the slides for her to climb right back up the stairs. She was a natural! Papa Wilson also brought out his drone to record everyone playing, I think they are making a video of the visit or something. He got some unfortunate work news too so instead of staying the rest of the week they'd have to head home the next day (which we were doing too, so we weren't missing much, but I feel bad that they had to leave earlier than expected). After the park we all got ready to take our family pictures. Tori had to run to Sally's to get some hair coloring (hers was green and she wanted a more normal color for the pictures) and Ariel wanted to hit up Aldi to find some good snacks. We had Jordyn with us too and I SO badly wanted to spill the beans on me being pregnant...kind of have a sister bond thing, but I knew I owed it to Larry to keep it in (plus we haven't been to the Dr yet and it's SO early so I figure I should at least keep it in until after my appointment). I felt even worse when Tori asked for someone to help her color her hair and I wasn't comfortable being around the chemicals so early on (so Tori, if you read this, know I REALLY REALLY wanted to help you and I feel bad I didn't say anything when you asked who could help you). Larry took Cara to take a nap at the hotel since she was exhausted playing on the playground so when he came back over I asked him to bring my hair styling stuff and makeup so I could do touch ups before the pictures were taken. We just went outside to this grassy hill, Ariel had a neighbor come with us, and we took pictures on one of their phones (I think it had some fancy picture setting). We only did a couple so it was quick and painless (I don't mind taking family pics, but I know Larry hates when they take forever). After that we grilled up some hot dogs and burgers and sat around to eat. Cara got her regular baby food and some bites of our food and was a happy camper. We all played a fun new card game...it was kind of like a family feud game where they asked a question, but it had multiple choice and we (in teams of two) had to guess what we thought was the most popular answer and we got points based off of how popular our answer was. I believe Larry and I won, but that's not the only reason it was fun.
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How cute is this picture of the
Two girls playing with Larry?? |
Our visits have definitely changed since a majority of us are married with kids and living in different parts of the country, but we still have so much fun when we're together. I felt so bad keeping our pregnancy a secret, especially since my sickness started towards the end of the trip so I was doing everything I could to concentrate on not throwing up (even stopping off at food places so I could get some fries really quick to fill my stomach) so I might have been acting a little weird, but I know once I tell them our news it'll make it make sense and we can look forward to more visits where I can be normal again haha.
Flying home was MISERABLE for us! Our flights were so bumpy and I didn't have food to settle my stomach at my beck and call so on our first flight I had to use the "baby throw away bag" as a throw up bag (YUCK!). Our connection was in Detroit and it was SO cold that in the time it took our plane to land (which was already delayed quite a bit), get everyone off the plane, get it cleaned up, and us onto the plane (which I could feel on the walkway that outside was FREEZING...like literally freezing cold) they then had another delay in order to de-ice the plane. We were supposed to land around 7:30, but we didn't land until 9! We were all SO tired, I started to get SO cranky, and by the time we got our bags and back to our car it was almost 10 so we got home super late. I was ready to be home, but really was annoyed by the getting home part. I think it tarnished my idea of how the trip went as a whole. I think pregnancy (at least early pregnancy) really messes with my head with trips.
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All sounded good...all tasted good..
Not all reacted well mixed in my belly! |
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| The eager traveler :) |
Anyways, that was our Tennessee Trip, overall we had a good time visiting with everyone, even though my sickness started I really tried to make the most of the trip. But I am looking forward to future ones...especially once we're done having kids so that I don't have to worry about hiding anything or feeling sick again haha.
