Tennessee

 Monday morning we got home from Tennessee. By morning I mean 4 o'clock in the morning. We had a pretty eventful venture home but we made it in one piece. Our trip to Tennessee was great! We flew in early Wednesday and luckily we took off and touched down in between storms so we didn't have any delays. We got to spend the day with the Cooks. It was so good to get to catch up with Caroline and the girls. I have spent many nights at their home babysitting for many years so it is very special to me to see them playing in the floor with Scout.

Thomas loved on Scout all day :) So sweet!

    

Caroline

Kris and his sidekick for the day, Wesley (AKA Sassy)

My parents picked us up from the Cooks house Wednesday evening and we made our way to Centerville. On Thursday we went to my Grandparents place and took Cameron and Scout up in the field to feed and pet their  horses. Scout LOVES animals! She was not afraid of the horses at all and she had a fit over their dog, Slate. She has been to their farm before but the last time was Thanksgiving and she is much more curious now. She loved all the different things to look at. It was a good afternoon. After that we went to Columbia to celebrate Mom's 51st birthday. After dinner Mom and Dad took Scout home and Kris and I went to watch Eli's baseball game.

Cameron and Scout. They look so much alike in this picture!

Her first time to sit on Apatche

   Apathce is a very special horse to the Willis family. He has been around a very long time!

Grandaddy telling a story

I really tried to get her to look up but she just wanted to pick flowers :)

Me and Grandaddy

Slate

My 81 year old Grandmother...doesn't she look great?!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Eli plays 2nd base

On Friday Kris and I ran hills...that was torture...and then we ran some errands around town. Friday night we went to eat at Stoney River with Kevin, Becky, Jillian, Jillian's friend Bryce, Heidi, Graig, and Jen. The food was awesome!! Afterwards we went to Loser's to catch up. We don't get to do that very much anymore so it was nice. Driving through Hillsboro Village made me really miss Nashville. It brought back great memories of college and after college. Driving by Vanderbilt Hospital at night reminded me of getting out of the OR late at night..hungry and exhausted. (ok maybe that's not a great memory but still a memory) Nashville is such a fun city and SO pretty!  I am developing a love for Texas. I like Dallas and I really like Fort Worth, but I get such a good, homey feeling going back to Nashville. I love the closeness of it and the fact that you can go almost anywhere any night of the week and hear great live music! We had a great night out and it's always fun to see familiar places and faces.

Scout and Mrs. Ruth

Saturday morning my friend Jen Skipper took Scout's 9 month pics at my parents house. I can not wait to see them!!! She does amazing work so I know they are going to be awesome! Saturday was also Mark and Molly's wedding. It was beautiful and Molly looked gorgeous!!!  The reception was on the roof top of Ariel on Broadway. It was a beautiful night. It was also the weekend of the Country Music Marathon so there were thousands of people out and about. There was some pretty fabulous people watching! :)

All dressed up for the wedding with Grammy and Papa

Mr. and Mrs. Augustine

Broadway

On Sunday we went to church and then to lunch at Fish Camp. Afterward we hung out at Mom and Dad's and the kids played outside.

Scout and Granny

Scout with Papaw

We found out that our flight home was an hour delayed before we left for the airport. There were storms in Texas and Arkansas apparently so we figured we wouldn't get as lucky on the way home as we did on the way down. We get to the airport around 6:30 and our flight was still delayed until 8:20. After we checked in Mom gave Scout a bottle and then we said our goodbyes. After getting through security we then find out our flight has been delayed to now take off at 11:00 pm. Yep! Luckily I came prepared and had plenty of extra toys and supplies for Scout. Typically she goes to bed by 8 so this was going to be interesting. Honestly...I don't know how we got so blessed with such an awesome baby! She is such a great traveler! I know one day this will likely change but she was so good even though sitting in the airport late at night was not her typical night time agenda. First of all, Kris and I feel famous every time we go anywhere with her. People notice her all the time when we go to dinner and things...but for some reason at the airport people get really excited about her. I guess there are just so many adult  people in and out of the airport that it is a nice treat to see a sweet baby smile at you when you are hustling to get through security or trying desperately to get comfortable in your not so comfortable seat. She is quite the celebrity on the plane too. In Nashville we were walking to baggage claim and Kris was carrying Scout and making her laugh by kissing her neck. Fred Thompson walked by us on his way to his gate and smiled at her.  It was funny because he even turned his head as he was passing to continue to look at her. ( Is is it weird that every time I see that man I think of him being on Roseanne instead of being a respected politician, U.S. Senator, lobbyist, attorney, or on Law and Order which is one of my favorite shows? I guess I just first remember him on Roseanne....weird!) Anyway...back to Sunday...we get a snack and made our way to our gate for our four hour wait. Scout was wonderful! We made her a little play area in the floor and she sat and played, giggled, and jabbered for over an hour. After a while she got bored and so Kris and I took turns walking her around the airport. Finally at 9:30 she crashed....HARD!

   During this time we were all anxiously awaiting the Presidents big announcement and when it was finally released that Bin Laden was killed the area we were in went completely silent. I think everyone was shocked. It was an eerie feeling. Shortly after that people started talking and cell phones began to go off. We finally boarded the plane at 11 and Scout stayed asleep through the whole process. We had an entire row to ourselves which was really nice. As we were waiting to take off I was holding Scout next to the window and at the next gate over was another American plane and I began to think about 9/11 and what I was doing that morning. Now I will remember where I was when I found out the worlds most notorious terrorist was killed. I sat there and thought about the families who lost mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers during 9/11 and wondered how they must be feeling at that moment.  We finally took off shortly after 11 and we were supposed to land at 1 am. Once we got about 80 miles outside of Dallas there was a pretty bad storm below so we basically went in circles for about an hour waiting for conditions to improve. Finally we landed in Dallas at 1:45 am. We get to baggage claim by 2 only to find out that they had shut down the baggage ramp for half an hour due to lightening. So we waited another 30 minutes. Scout still stayed asleep in my arms through all of this. We finally got our bags around 2:30 and then waited another 10 minutes for the shuttle to take us to our car. Right before we get to our car it starts to pour down rain! The type of rain where you can't see anything! We make a run for it because we are so ready to get home. I covered Scout up as well as I could but it was raining so hard that her feet got a little bit wet. Kris threw our luggage in the trunk and we all huddled in the back seat of the car. Scout's car seat got soaked! By this time she was awake and she just started looking around and then she looked at me and giggled like "well this is fun". Kris got out and slid in the front seat..getting more wet...and turned on the heat. We tried to dry off the car seat as best as we could but Scout basically rode home in a wet seat. It didn't bother her at all though. She held my hand and looked out the window the whole way home. It was raining really hard! We finally get home at 3:30 am and in bed at 4:00 am. We were exhausted!!!   So that was our crazy trip home!   Everything is pretty much back to normal now and Scout is still doing great! We go to Cooks on Friday for her kidney tests so please keep her in your prayers. (and us too!) I really feel like everything is ok, but it will not be a fun day for her.

I hope everyone is having a good week!