Matt spent all last week in Toulouse, France for a training conference. The trip came totally out of the blue. It's funny that we had been preparing ourselves for Matt to have to spend an extended amount of time in China, which thankfully never panned out, and then with just a few days notice, he was on a plane to France. He was gone for eight days attending an Airbus conference and unlike most of his work travel, actually had some spare time to do a little sight seeing.
He visited Carcassone, a walled city built in the 15th century complete
with a castle and a cathedral. He showed me about 300 pictures of his
time at Carcassone. He really enjoyed getting to see and learn about it.
He also explored the city of Toulouse in the evenings, ate some good food, and put his feet in the Mediterranean sea.
He told me it was the best trip he's gone on for work, partly because of the cool places he visited and partly because he had a mostly normal work week instead of the 80 plus hour weeks he usually puts in while he is traveling for work.
While Daddy was away, Nathan and I decided we needed to play!
I had been planning to attend a women's conference at our church for months, and when I found out Matt would be gone that weekend, I was worried I'd have to miss it since my babysitter would be in France. Thankfully, my mom came to the rescue and watched Nathan for me on Friday night and all day Saturday so I could attend. I'm so thankful I could go. It was a wonderful conference. Our speaker was extraordinary. Here is a news clip about the conference:
On Monday, Nathan and I headed West. We stopped in OKC and spent a few hours with Mindy and Carter. We played at the park and enjoyed lunch together. Erica joined us too. It was great to catch up with Mindy. We miss them since they moved last summer. We're hoping to all get together again soon.
After lunch, Nathan and I continued West and spent the next few days in Weatherford visiting family. It was a fun few days playing and being spoiled. We got to spend quality time with Matt's parents, Granny and Grandaddy and Momoo. Nathan had lots of fun playing with Uncle Jeremy's popcorn popper. He mostly just carried it around with him. He does the same thing with his popper at home. He'll push it sometimes, but usually just walks around carrying it.
We went to the splash pad in Weatherford a couple of times
And visited Grandaddy while he was harvesting wheat. Nathan got to see Grandaddy driving the combine. He was a little unsure of the big machine. We'll have to come back next summer during harvest so Nathan can take a ride in the combine.
Once he figured out there were rocks in the front yard, we couldn't keep him out of them. Granny even let him carry them into her house.
He took lots of wagon rides in the backyard and picked apples with Grandaddy.
We had a really great time visiting everyone in Weatherford and were sad to leave. The days went by fast which kept us from missing Daddy too much.
Nathan made sure to let his daddy know though that the next time he packs for a trip, he is coming along :).
Nathan,
You are 13 months old! I'm sure I say this every single month, but I am LOVING this stage. You are transforming from a baby to a toddler right before our eyes, and it is fascinating to see. You are learning new things every single day. I feel like a light switch turned on in your brain on your first birthday, and suddenly everything makes sense to you and you are understanding way more than I thought you were. Life is just so, so fun right now.
About the time we left for our cruise, you turned into a full time walker. I hardly ever see you crawling anymore. You walk everywhere and run sometimes too. Life is easier now that you can walk. I can get you out of your car seat and put you down and you'll hold my finger and we walk together instead of me carrying you. It's a little slower, but you're toddling is too adorable to pass up. You can walk much faster if you are holding onto someone's finger, so you look around to grab on when there is somewhere you want to go. Unfortunately, you only like to hold my hand if we are going in the direction you want to go. If I try to get you to go somewhere else, you'll reach up with your other hand to push mine away, then you just sit down and throw a little fit. You forget that I'm still bigger, and I can scoop you up to get where we need to go. This month you also figured out how to go from a sitting position to standing by yourself.
Your receptive vocabulary went through the roof this month, or at least
you are communicating with us enough that we know you are understanding
what we say. You know the meaning of diaper, paci, high chair, walk,
outside, sit down, no, no touch, dog, kitty, daddy, mama, Grammy, Papa Joe, high five,
bottle, drink, bye bye, nose, mouth, eyes, up, elephant (your little
blue stuffed one), and I know there are more that I can't think of. I'm
also sure there is more you understand that we don't realize you
understand too. You still don't say too many words. You can say, Dada,
mama, kitty, dog, hi, and I caught you saying drink once, but that's not
consistent. Every single day we catch you showing more understanding
and communicating more effectively with us.
Your favorite toys right now are your elephant ball toy, your scooter,
dump truck, and tractor. You sit on your dump truck and scoot backwards
while you say vroom. Super cute. You still adore being outside, and your
favorite outside activity is finding all of Rhapsody's toys and taking
them to her. We also blow bubbles and play on your slide pretty often.
You love to watch Sesame Street and start dancing when you hear the
theme song. Actually, you dance to any music you hear now a days. We
have even caught you swaying to the melody of our chiming clock. It is
too cute.
Summer time is a fun time with you. We've gone to the splash
pad a few times, and we've been swimming once too.
You are still a great sleeper. You sleep from 7:30-8:00 to about 6:00-7:00 and are still taking two naps a day. Every once in awhile you'll refuse to sleep during your afternoon nap, and you'll just play in your crib. You are mostly off the bottle. Occasionally you'll still have one at breakfast or bedtime, but mostly you drink your milk out of a sippy cup. You rarely eat baby food anymore and are almost totally eating table food. I'm still figuring out nutritious, easy meals for you especially for lunch. Thankfully, you are not too picky.
For breakfast your favorites are yogurt, fresh fruit, cereal bars, waffles, and eggs
For lunch we've tried grilled cheese sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, meat sticks, macaroni and cheese, ravioli etc. You also usually have some veggies, fresh fruit, and cheese with your lunch.
You are eating whatever I cook for supper, so there's a lot of variety. Your daddy is a pasta lover so you eat a lot of that. You went nuts over the manicotti I made the other night. I know you ate more than I did!
You have milk with every meal and another 6 oz at bedtime. Honestly you are not a huge milk fan (unless it's in a bottle). You prefer water or juice most of the time.
You weigh about 23 lbs and wear 12 month, 12-18 and 18 month clothes and a size 4 diaper. We recently got you a new car seat too. You are growing up!
We started doing blanket time this month, and you are doing great at it. We set the timer together and then you sit on your blanket and play with your special blanket time toys until the timer goes off. Then we clap and celebrate and you help me clear the timer. I'm so impressed with your obedience and understanding. Sometimes you get tired and will fuss and whine, but you rarely try and get off the blanket. There are several times throughout the day that I see you pointing to your blanket time toys. I think you enjoy it, as much as I do. It's amazing to see my busy, active boy, sitting still and playing quietly for a prolonged period of time!
We are limiting your pacifier use to your crib and in the car. We still let you have it when we aren't at home if you are tired or in a stressful situation (doctor's office, hair cut, church nursery, etc). You know that you have to leave it in your crib and will take it out of your mouth and throw it down when I pick you up. I think sometimes you like to get in your crib and play just so you can have it. I still love to rock you before you go to sleep. We'll grab your blue stuffed elephant and a paci out of your crib and cuddle for a few minutes before I lay you down. It's one of my favorite times with you.
It's crazy to think about what we were doing last summer and how different you are now! We're just so thankful you are a part of our family.
We celebrated Matt's birthday over Memorial Day weekend, and it was a fantastic weekend. It's hard for a three day weekend not to be fantastic, but I think this one was extra special. We did so many fun things.
On Saturday afternoon we ran to the zoo for a couple of hours. It was a pretty day and we didn't have any plans for the afternoon, so we decided to go. We are enjoying our zoo membership, because it's no big deal to just run out there for a couple of hours because it's free.
The picture on the turtle is becoming a tradition, and can I just say I love my baby boy's outfit especially the rare moments we had with him actually wearing his baseball cap.
We visited the giraffes, sea lions, monkeys, flamingos, elephants, and the petting zoo while we were there. We also caught a little of the elephant demonstration and watched an elephant getting a bath.
We rode the train around the zoo too before Nathan got totally worn out.
Saturday evening we invited some friends over to help celebrate Matt's birthday. Matt grilled burgers and we visited and played Rock Band. It was a fun night!
We love all of our friends and had fun rocking out with them Saturday night.
Before everyone left for the evening, we ate cheesecake. It wouldn't be Matt's birthday without cheesecake :).
On Sunday night we were thinking of things to do and decided to try a Driller's baseball game. Oh my goodness, we all had such a good time.
We sat on the lawn right by the children's area. Nathan walked all around.
We let him play at the splash pad. He had a blast playing in the all the water.
It started to get a little chilly and we saw him shivering once, but he didn't want to leave. We dried him off and changed him, but all night he kept wandering back over there hoping we'd let him play in the water. There are several splash pads around our city and we've already tried a few of them out since Sunday. I'm sure we'll be frequenting them a lot over the summer!
He played at the playground for awhile too.
And of course he ate some snacks and a couple bites of our hot dogs.
Oh yeah, there was a baseball game going on in the background too. Nathan liked to walk around, and the only time he sat still was while he was eating. Good thing Matt and I aren't huge baseball fans, because we only caught bits and pieces of the game.
We all had such a good time and can't wait to go to another game soon!
Monday was Matt's actual birthday and he didn't have to go to work! For his birthday dinner he wanted to grill steaks. My parents joined us for dinner. All he requested for dinner was steak and bread. Oh my husband, that's all he ate too.
We ate and played a game of Settlers. It was a great way to end our long weekend.
Our 6th wedding anniversary was on May 20th, the day we drove home from our cruise. The whole cruise was really an anniversary celebration, but we decided that on the last night, we would "officially" celebrate. After dinner we strolled around the ship, and watched the sunset. Then we splurged and each got a drink and walked around in the quiet and reminisced about the 6th year of marriage. It was a special time for us.
We each came up with our top 5 moments of our 6th year.
I was wishing that our anniversary could have fallen on a day when we were actually on vacation instead of the day that we drove home, but the more I thought about it, it was fitting that our anniversary was at the end of our vacation. Our marriage and our Happily Ever After is about being home. Sure we love the ocean sunsets, sparkling blue water, three course dinners, pampering, room stewards, sand between our toes, and freedom from obligations, but that's not what defines our marriage day in and day out. It's the budgeting and bills, sippy cups and Sesame Street, good morning kisses and good night cuddles. It's dinner and dirty dishes, evening walks and bath time, It's falling asleep to a movie on Friday nights, board games with friends on Saturday nights and church as a family on Sunday mornings. It's schedules and story time and play dates, making decisions together and resolving conflict. It's date nights and "How was your day?" and finding time to make our marriage a priority amidst busy schedules. That's our fairy tale, and I wouldn't want it any other way.
So we came home on our anniversary to loads of dirty laundry and a very excited baby boy who smiled and giggled and wanted to be passed back and forth between the two of us a million times like he wished we could both hold him at the same time. It really was a wonderful anniversary.
Our last stop on our cruise was Nassau, The Bahamas.The island is supposedly packed full of people. We didn't see much of the island while we were there. We had other plans.
This was the port I was most looking forward to because we had planned
to spend the day at the Atlantis resort. That excursion is what sealed
the deal for us in taking this particular cruise. I had been dreaming
about going to the Atlantis resort for years, all the way back to our
honeymoon. Each year when we started thinking about where to go on
vacation, I would pull up their website and check prices, and each year,
I would be reminded that a vacation at Atlantis was way out of our
price range.
So the chance to experience Atlantis, particularly the waterpark for a day without totally breaking the bank was enticing for me, and I couldn't wait to get there. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't on our side for the day. It was raining as we stepped off the ship and we stood in line and walked to the bus in the rain. It continued to rain when we got to the resort. We received instructions from the guides, rented a locker and proceeded to sit and wait for about 45 more minutes, until the weather cleared and the park opened.
As soon as the rides opened, Matt and I got busy. After all, we only had
one day to experience all the Aquaventure park had to offer, and we
never knew if it would start raining again, so we hustled to the first
slide we saw that happened to be the Abyss and the most thrilling ride
at the park. There was no line at all when we got to the slide, so I had
no time to talk myself out of it, and before I knew it, I was sitting in
the slide and pushing myself off. The Abyss was a steep water slide
completely enclosed in the dark that emptied into a secluded little pool in a cave. The slide was thrilling and turned out to be our
favorite of the day. We shot down that slide so fast, it was crazy! There were a few other tube slides in that same area, so we grabbed a tube and rode each of those. They reminded me of one of our favorites rides at Disney world in that they were water coasters, so jets of water propelled us up and then we'd drop. They were really fun! Another thing I liked was that each of the slides emptied out into the lazy river, so we slid down and then rode in our tube through the river until we got back to the Power Tower where the other rides were.
After we explored that side of the park, we headed over to the Mayan
temple. Again we were unsure of the weather, so we wanted to make sure
we got to ride everything at least once in case rain came and closed the
park again. On the Mayan temple we rode the racing slides, and then the Serpent slide which was an enclosed tube ride that took us straight through the shark tank. We'd be sliding along and all the sudden we end up surrounded by sharks. One time when we were riding it, Matt told me to look up because there were two sharks lying right on the glass directly above my head. It was freaky.
We could not
go to Atlantis and not ride the Leap of Faith. Normally I'm not a big steep water slide person. I prefer the flumes, but that Leap of Faith slide is shown on every Atlantis advertisement I have seen, and the odds that we will ever make it back to Atlantis are low, and I was not leaving without experiencing it. The cool part about the slide is that it's another slide where you slide into a shark tank. However with this one, you slide so fast and there is water shooting up all around, so I never saw any sharks. This slide wasn't all that impressive. It was very steep, but also short and it went by so fast that I didn't really have time to get scared. I'm glad I did it though, and you can bet that the next time I'm at home and I see an Atlantis commercial, I will proudly exclaim, "Hey I rode that"
Side note: Just the other day I saw an article on Yahoo about the world's most thrilling water slides, and the Leap of Faith was on there along with Summit Plummet at Disney World. Matt and I were pretty proud that we have ridden two of the five most thrilling water slides in the world. I think that's quite an accomplishment :).
The other great part about the park was the Lazy River which isn't really "lazy." It has attractions all throughout it including steamy caves, rapids, and gigantic waves. We never knew what was coming. It was fun and I really liked the whole atmosphere of the park. It was so different than a standard water park. The scenery, ambiance and decor helped us feel like we had been transported to some tropical destination and were swimming in a natural river. That really is what makes a theme park for me (Hence my love affair with Disney World)
We grabbed a quick lunch and then went off at full speed again. We were able to ride all the rides a second time before another storm blew in. They closed the park again about 2:30 that afternoon. We contemplated waiting it out and hoping they would reopen, but ultimately decided that since we had ridden everything multiple times, we should call it a day. The rain only slightly hampered our plans. It was nice because I think it kept the crowds away. We almost never had to wait in line at all for any slides, so I'll take a little rain in place of a long line. It would have been nice to have a little more time at the park, but that could have included more crowds and longer lines so who knows if we would have gotten to do much else anyway.
After the water park closed for the rain, we still had a couple of hours before we needed to be back at the ship, so we explored the resort a little bit. It is definitely a high end resort, and it was fun to see it all close up.
We saw a school of sting rays as we were walking around:
The resort has a big aquarium and it was fun to walk around and see all the sea creatures.
We walked all through the resort and casino and browsed a few shops before heading back to the ship.
We snapped a few pictures as we were leaving Nassau. See you later Atlantis.
I thought visiting Atlantis for the day would leave us dying to go back and since we knew how wonderful it was, we could justify saving our pennies until we could afford it. In reality though, I think a one day tour and trip to the water park was the perfect way to experience Atlantis. I'm so glad we did it, and I had a fabulous time at the water park, but since I saw everything I wanted to while we were there for the day and also caught a glimpse of everything else you have to pay for during a stay there outside of a hotel room and access to the resort, I don't think it will ever be worth the money for us, and I don't have a real desire to go back anytime soon, which is the best case scenario I guess. I know my husband thinks it is. Instead I think we'll save our pennies for a Disney cruise :).
