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We are finally home from our Knoxville/Florida trip. We had a great time visiting but are glad to be home and hope to get Jack back on his normal schedule. So here are some pictures/updates about our trip.

First plane ride!

Jack did great on the plane. Of course, I was equipped with snacks, books, cars, crayons, you name it, but really we didn't need too much of it. Tommy bought some chocolate chip cookies at the airport and that made a big difference about half way through the flight. No tears for Jack the whole time!

Grandma and PawPaw's house (my grandparents)

We had a great visit with Grandma and Pawpaw. We stayed at their house and had some great time to spend together. At their house, there are lots of stuffed animals. I don't mean like teddy bears or Pooh bear, I mean once living animals that still look real (ducks, deer, rams, etc). Jack was in awe when we came out of the room the next morning. He really liked the ram and kepting wanting to get on it!

Downtown Disney

We had planned to go to Disney World, but it was just too hot! It was too expensive to only be able to spend a couple of hours there. So we'll hold off until Jack is alittle older. We did do Downtown Disney though. It's a free shopping area with lots of fun stuff for the kids to see. We saw Legoland, lots of Mickey stuff and tried to eat at the Rainforest cafe. Too bad it scared Jack and we had to leave after our drinks arrived!

Oh yeah, we also got to see the pediatrician in Winter Haven. Apparently Jack's toe somehow got infected. Some antibiotics and the next day he was fine!

Gatorland!

Gatorland is a place I went growing up. Go watch gators eat, wrestle and swim. It is actually pretty fun. We got to watch the gators eat whole chickens and then Tommy and Jack fed them hotdogs. Jack really had a good time there. It was just miserably hot. You can see how pink his little cheeks are!

Back to Knoxville

We enjoyed visiting with my parents, their dog Murphy, and Uncle Mark. Now we are at home for a couple more days before we head to Middle TN for the 4th of July weekend. Tommy and Jack are visiting Tommy's family in Portland while I get to see Kenny Chesney with some college girlfriends! Sounds like fun!

Knoxville Zoo

So we are definitely zoo people. We have been here in Knoxville since Saturday morning. Jack has really enjoyed seeing his Grammy and Grandpa and the dog Murphy. Yesterday we visited the Knoxville zoo. It was lots of fun. Even Uncle Mark came along! Here are some pictures of the day. We are flying out tonight to go to Florida. Thank goodness the flight is short!

Grammy and Grandpa

Uncle Mark and the camel

As promised...

So here are a couple of pictures from our zoo trip earlier this week. Thanks Lauren!

Jack did NOT like the monkey. So Mommy got to be in the picture too!

What a fun day!

Whew!

Whew! What a week so far. Staying home with Jack has been great. We have been having lots of fun. Here's a run down of the week:

Tuesday: Zoo with David, Gavin and Olivia (some of Jack's friends from our small group Bible study). Lauren went with us and was the only one to bring a camera. Maybe we'll be able to borrow some of her pictures. So I learned a few things at the zoo. Apparently (according to Jack), giraffes say "neigh", tigers laying down say "roar" while tigers standing up say "neigh", and of course, the wallaby looks just like our cat Buster who says "yeow." It was lots of fun and the kids really enjoyed it.

Wednesday: Storytime at the library. We met some new friends, got in trouble for throwing eggs, and had a meltdown in the parking lot over reading a Barney book. Nap time couldn't come soon enough, but Jack decided to take about 45 minutes to fall asleep. After all of this exhausting day, I had to work on writing papers for grad school. Oh well. There's nothing like being a mom. Oh, and I have pictures from this day. For those of you that are interested, my garden is doing really well this year. (I better knock on some wood.) I actually grew brocolli. Too bad I cut it a hair late. It was trying to bloom. I even got to snack on some sugar snap peas that were growing too! Hopefully Jack takes his veggie taste from me and not Tommy.

New favorite tennis ball.

He's also really taken a liking to wearing his hat low.

See the storm clouds in the background?!

Not happy to be going in to play.

I feel like a proud mama of this brocolli.

Everyday I asked Tommy if he noticed how much bigger it was getting!

Jalapenos- I started these from seed!

I was only planning on using the for the occassional salsa....

Mom gave me these daylillies a couple years ago.

For any of you without a green thumb, these are the best flowers!

Back inside to read our new library books.

Anyone read Japanese?

Thanks to Aunt Elaine, the shirt says "Looking for a Japanese girlfriend."

He hasn't had any takers yet...

No pictures from today. A little less eventful today. Just a good walk and playtime this morning followed by daddy playtime so Mommy could go to the library and study. We did go see the ENT today and the doctor was pleased by how well Jack is doing. We are amazed at his breathing now! No more snoring.

Better head to bed. Tomorrow is a big day of packing and getting ready to head to Knoxville Saturday morning. We are flying out of Knoxville on Monday to go to Orlando to visit my grandparents and see Gatorland. Sounds like we'll have some new/fun/redneck pictures to post before too long!

Happy Father's Day

So I decided to join the rest of the world and start a blog. I know we have done carepages, but I see that as medically significant material. (For those of you not aware, Jack had open heart surgery when he was 3 months old and has had lots of other medical story lines to follow that.) By the way, he is doing great after his tonsilectomy, adenoidectomy that was 2 weeks ago. He's even starting to put some weight back on! So, here's a blog that tells the details of some of daily life. Or I guess I should really say, what is the latest that Jack is up to!

For starters, happy father's day to all you fathers out there. Jack got Tommy a nice card and we took Tommy to the duck pond after church. Here are some pictures from our "wild" adventure. Jack was very unsure of the ducks. Hence why he is not in too many pictures near the ducks.

Jack with hot dog buns to feed the ducks.

Tommy had the ducks jumping for bread.

Notice the matching Irish hats?

What a good Daddy!

Okay, so Mommy had to have a picture too!

Now that I am home for the summer, I hopefully will have more time to do this. Although, I do have this thing called 9 hours of graduate classes to complete in the next 5 weeks! Rest assured, Jack is doing his best to help out! Until next time...