Bluegrass and Bourbon

We just returned from 4 days in the land of bourbon and bluegrass. It was a weekend filled with grilling out, fun with family and of course, bourbon (well, for Richard - not so much for me).

Joseph did surprisingly well on the flight up. It overlapped with his normal afternoon nap schedule and Joseph refuses to sleep anywhere but his crib. Also, when Joseph misses a nap, he's pretty nightmar-ish, so we were pretty much expecting to be THOSE people on the plane. As we bordered the plane in the pre-boarding group, I could feel everyone's eyes on us thinking "Oh please, don't let those people sit next to us." And at the beginning we were THOSE people, Joseph pretty much screamed the first 20 minutes on the plane. But somewhere around 2 minutes before takeoff, this was what my child who never sleeps anywhere but his crib looked like:

Asleep with his ever present Monkey Lovey. It lasted about 30 minutes, but he woke up drowsy enough to quietly watch his "Yo Gabba Gabba" DVD and drink a bottle until we landed. (And yes, we paid for that individual seat you see him in. He is un-restrainable without a car seat or stroller).

Once we got there Joseph was ready for grilling with his Grandma & Grandpa (Cilla & Ricky), Aunt Kipling, Aunt Devon, Uncle Jason & Kairi. He ran around Cilla and Ricky's front lawn with Kairi, ate a popsicle and just enjoyed being outside with his family who loves him:

Joseph has a little nervous around my in-laws dogs, though. Normally he loves dogs - but their dogs are sort of on the big side...like a Great Dane and a mutt who has some St. Bernard in him. The Great Dane is as big as I am (she actually outweighs me by at least 20 pounds).

On Friday, we hung out with Joseph's great grandparents, Grandmommy & Papa Joe. He liked exploring their house and yard and getting loved on by more family he doesn't get to see very often.

That evening Joseph particularly liked getting to know Great Uncle David & Aunt Robin's three dogs. He thought they were about the funniest things he had ever seen. He really loved to feed them his snacks and let them lick his hands and face. He squealed anytime they came near him.


Later that evening, Joseph came down with a mysterious fever of 103.7. After a mild freak out, a call to the pediatrician and a dose of Tylenol, he had a restless night of sleep but woke up with just a low grade fever and ready for action. By the evening there was no fever. We have no idea what got into him.

On 4th of July Joseph got to see even more family members when we drove out to Great Aunt Elaine and Uncle Rick's house. They have a great big house right on a lake. Joseph wasn't necessarily impressed by the great view - but he LOVED all the stairs they had. Stairs up to the 3rd story, stairs down to the basement, a HUGE set of stairs up the deck.....there were stairs everywhere and Joseph climbed all of them many times over. Joseph was also super excited when Great Aunt Marchell gave him a special box of animal crackers she had bought for him. He couldn't stuff his mouth fast enough. This picture was taken with about 6 animal crackers in his mouth:

With all the family around, Mommy & Daddy actually got to relax for a little bit here and there. Daddy got to play cornhole with his cousin Patrick, Aunt Marchell and Jason.

And finally, on our very last morning there, Joseph got a little snuggle time in with Great Uncle David (who needed some cuddling practice because he's got his first grandbaby coming in about 7 1/2 months) and got to try on a pair of old cowboy boots that both Daddy and cousin Patrick wore as little boys. A little bit too big....but maybe in a few years, he'll be ready for them.

On Sunday, we headed home. It almost looked like our departure was going to have to wait until Monday when we got on the highway to go to the airport and were in dead stopped traffic due to a 14 car accident that had the highway shut down. We were pretty sure we were missing our flight. However, Richard in an attempt to piss off the entire state of Kentucky, drove 2 miles on the shoulder. At one point someone moved over in front of us to keep us from going further and Rich got out, banged on their window and told them we had a sick baby (which wasn't a total lie - I mean, he had had a fever the day before). They bought it and we ended up sprinting through the airport and got to the gate a few minutes before it bordered.

It was a fun weekend, but we are glad to be home, back to our normal routine and doing our normal everyday things (although Joseph does miss those dogs!).