Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend was a fun "staycation" for us. It started Friday night when we made the trip to Barnesville for a cook-out at my Nanny's with my dad's side of the family. It has been so hard lately for us to get together with my Nanny plus see everyone on that side of the family, so we decided to go ahead and make the trip down and come home after eating. Garrison had a ball. He loved playing with his cousins Justin and Walt and enjoyed 3 different trips on Nanny's golf cart. We enjoyed spending time with Nanny and catching up with everybody. Even though the little man was very talkative and wide awake on the way home late Friday night, he did really good going to bed and afterwards we knew we made the right decision by going.

On Saturday we had company for most of the day. My dad came over to bring Terrell a lawn mower and play golf and my sister came over with her dog to have her trimmed for the summer. We all ate lunch together at Chick-Fil-A before the guys left to play golf and Garrison got in some play time. Then Anna's friend Lauren and her baby, Avery, came over. We all spent the afternoon together hanging out and talking before Anna and Lauren had to leave and the guys finished their golf game. It was a fun day for us and thankfully the little man took an extra long nap. I think getting in bed at 10:30 the night before had caught up with him!

Sunday we decided to go swimming at our subdivision pool since the weather was so nice and it had just opened up. We also noticed last weekend at a birthday pool party that Garrison seemed a little apprehensive about swimming and getting wet (so we are really wanting him exposed to the water before we leave for vacation in 3 weeks). On Sunday it took him quite a while to sit on the edge and put his feet in, but once he finally did and had a few minutes to get adjusted to the idea we were able to get him in his float and all over the pool just fine.

He had a lot of fun swimming and probably would have stayed in the water longer if it wasn't time for us to leave and have lunch. He took another good nap on Sunday and I started to feel a little better about all the naptime craziness.

On Monday we woke up and got ready to take Garrison to his very 1st Braves game. We may have chosen the hottest day of the year but we wanted to go to an afternoon game so it wouldn't be such a late night for him, and it worked out great for Monday because Terrell had the day off.


My two guys ready for the game

Mama and Garrison (and Austin!)

Our attempt at a family picture before leaving...

On the way to the game (He was saying, "no make picture mama")

Even though it was miserably hot, we viewed the little man's 1st Braves game as a success. I thought I was going to pass out after walking from the car to the stadium to our upper deck seats in the shade, but I made it okay and gulped down a bottle of water once we were seated. We actually weren't quite so miserable as long as we could feel a breeze, but I know we never would have survived if we weren't in the shade. Garrison did really good listening to us and staying in his seat, or right in front of it, basically the whole time. We brought in drinks and snacks with us so that kept him occupied throughout the game. Terrell had to take him to the potty in the 2nd inning, but after that we made it to 6th inning before deciding to get up and stretch our legs and walk Garrison around some. We took him to run to home plate by the Coca-Cola bottle first.

You might have to click on the picture to see it better, but he is taking off running in this one, yelling "mama! mama!"

For some reason about half way through, he decided to stop and tried to turn around and go back the other way. So daddy had to come in and grab him up!

After that we went and got a really big cup of ice cream and took it back to our seats to share. Garrison loved it... and dripped it all over himself. By that point I didn't care I just wanted him content so we could make it to the end of the game. Of course the game was tied in the bottom of the ninth and that's when Garrison said he needed to go potty. We ended up all getting up and making one last trip to the bathroom before heading out.

Garrison learned how to do the tomahawk chop while we were there and did it every time the crowd did.

He also clapped and yelled "Go Baves, Go Baves! Yay Baves!" a lot. I think he definitely had a good time. He even told us once that he wanted to go down on the green to play... meaning the field. Maybe one day he'll be able to run the bases after a game and he can go on the green part.

Even though it was super hot and again I thought I might collapse before we made it back to the car and Garrison had the biggest meltdown ever once we got in the car, overall it was good experience for him. I think he handled the heat better than us. The lessons we learned were that it's probably best to make sure the temperature is 80 or below for next time, and we should probably bring Austin as a baby (before he can walk around or run from us) or just wait unitl he's like 4. =)

Terrell grilled when we got home to top off our long weekend and the little man went to bed early. One of the best parts about being at Turner Field on Memorial Day was all of the military appreciation, recognition, and tributes they did. We live in a great country and it's because of the sacrifices of our military and their families. A quote I thought of often throughout the game when they showed service men and women in the stands is "All gave some, some gave All." That is so true and it's very easy to forget. God Bless America, Land That I Love! Happy Memorial Day!

***Breaking news: We are making it official, Garrison is potty trained! Woohoo!! AND, naptimes have been way better! Yay! Thank you Lord for these blessings!