Nashville & the Frist

Fall Break at the Zoo

Over fall break, it was Stephen's turn to bring home the class giraffe, Gerald. Stephen's assignment was to take Gerald fun places and record their story in the class Gerald Journal.  First, Stephen wanted to review Gerald's story with him.

Stephen helped Gerald find some lunch in the front yard... and tried to pinch a ladybug along the way. Stephen says that Gerald liked the hosta leaves best.

But he also tried the Southern magnolia, the redbud and the silver maple.

 After Gerald was full from his leaf lunch, Daddy took Stephen and Gerald kite flying across the street at St. John United Methodist Church. They have a nice big grassy area.

 The highlight of fall break was a trip to the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere. Gerald helped Stephen navigate.

Stephen and Rockam loved the funny noises that the Gibbons made. They were a lot crazier than Curious George.

  They also spent a good bit of time watching the Meerkat exhibit. The meerkats spent a good deal of time watching us too.

 Stephen and Rockam both took a turn in the tunnel to get a feel for what its like to be a meerkat.

 Gerald's highlight of the trip was meeting his own kind.

The fun day ended with a ride on the carousel. Stephen chose the giraffe in honor of Gerald, who was too little to ride.

Munchie, Mantarays and other Mystical Creatures

Saturday, we headed down to Nashville's Opry Mills Mall to eat dinner at the Aquarium Restaurant and to dip Munchie in the "Stingray Reef" petting zoo across the corridor. They also have a carosel, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Last little bits of 2009

We're all hunkered down at home on New Years Eve... Stephen and I have the stomach flu, which has been going around at church and among our friends for several weeks now. But on a happier note, I've got some great photos from the holidays, which were happy and healthy:

Reading stories with Gramps.
Going for a Christmas Eve spin in the ole Tune Coupe.
Daddy! Why are you putting blocks down my shirt?
Taking in the lights and sights at Opryland.

Field trip to Trader Joe's

After picking my mom up from the airport in Nashville on Monday morning, we hit Trader Joe's... one of the happiest places in foodland.
Stephen had all kinds of fun with his red balloon, running down the aisles and pushing the shopping cart.
We gathered lots of goodies for our Christmas Eve meal of munchies.

Nashville Science Center

Last Wednesday, we had a family day in Nashville. We took Stephen to the Adventure Science Center, where he ran through the galaxy, operated a digger in a ball pit, watched choo-choo trains, and climbed the tallest playground equipment Joe or I had ever seen. Here's some photos and videos of our adventure.

The altitude was making this kid crazy.


Steve can use a wheelchair!


Watching Daddy- aka "the drunken marionette!"

It's a tristairatops, Dad

Guest post from Joe: This one is for Poppa and he knows why.

Opry Mills Mall

Last week we took Stephen with us to Nashville for some noshing, shopping and sightseeing. Here's some of the videos Joe took in Old Navy:





I was especially pleased to find Stephen a winter coat at 50% off, some clearance corduroys and a pair of tennis shoes for $1.97 :-)