Nashville weekend

I think 99 percent of this blog is pictures of our kids but occasionally I get away for a weekend kid-free...and by occasionally I mean like once a  year. I realized that it has been a full year since I spent a night away from the kids! Nate was a trooper last weekend though, and I got a full weekend of friend time in Nashville with Erin, Mary and Amanda. We realized that we need to do this more often!

 Amanda sent me many of these pictures of the 4 of us...we were trying not to laugh in these as Amanda's mom was attempting to figure out just how to push the button on the camera...it took about 15 tries and 10 minutes to get this!

 Erin and me in her new backyard...She and Mark has just moved like a week ago so we got to see her new house and help her plan out all of the fun decorating and details that come with moving.

 And Leena is going to have a baby sister this December!

 Amanda brought Emmylou with her since Matt couldn't get off work but it turned out to be so fun because these 2 played and played together.

 Amanda's parents did drive up from Louisville to take Emmylou all day Saturday so we could have some kid-free time. We had brunch at Marche, walked around East Nashville (Erin and Mark live so close to everything) and went to dinner at Eastland Cafe. The weather was beautiful and it was so fun to just be outside with no agenda!

We finished the evening at Jeni's ice cream...so good!

 Mary and I headed out for a run Sunday morning...

 Saturday night we went out to Tenn 16 to eat, a fun southern restaurant that we walked up to.

 Heather met us there too and we had so much fun catching up.  Such a fun weekend and Nate survived being a single dad for a few days:)

Growing up!

 Finally, these 2 can play pretty well together. Until Harper takes one of Andrew's trucks...then not so much. But it's cute to watch when they are getting along:)

 A little wagon ride on a beautiful day!

 Beautiful morning at Deem Lake in Indiana. We went here on one of Nate's Friday's off and pretty much had the place to ourselves.

 Andrew kept saying "This sand is brown!" He's used to the Gulf Coast of Florida...spoiled!

 3 cousins in the tub!

 Bike ride on the pedestrian bridge over the river

 Friday evening out on the town...we went to the Flea off Market (flea market with food trucks and music) and then walked around NuLu. Andrew needed a picture in front of the Why Louisville Store.

 Hiking in Oldham County.

 Evening at the Pie Kitchen with Granna and Grandpop.

 I haven't attempted the splash park at the zoo by myself with 2 kids because the place can be wild but Nate came with us last Friday and Andrew and  Harper had so much fun!

 They wore us out, clearly:) I think we've been reading "Hop on Pop" a few too many times to Andrew...

 I will never understand why this old safari truck at the zoo is so much more thrilling than the actual animals. Harper seemed to love it too and I had to pry them both out of it!

 Hanging out with friends at Cherokee Park.

 Someone got a haircut and aged a couple years in a matter of minutes.  He starts preschool next week!

 Harper is now officially a walker! Here's a little example of how it usually goes down:

summertime Ohio visit

We packed a lot into our 3 days in Ohio this past weekend!

 We started with a train ride with just Nate, me, Drew and Opaw. Thanks to Omi for staying home to watch Harper:) We took our bikes and put them on the train one way and biked about 13 miles back to our car. Ohio has a great "rails to trails" bike system and Andrew had so  much fun on the train and on his bikeride.

 I got to take a few pictures of this adorable little guy...we hadn't seen Beau in over a month and he's already growing up so fast!

 It's always a treat to take a ride on the mower with Opaw:)

 I'm not sure why Harper wasn't wearing any clothes here...she was happy hanging out with Omi!

                            He loves his mama;)

 We got out the pool and Drew and  Harper had a ball!

 On Sunday, we headed to a fun little park with kids' rides and a carousel. Andrew had so much fun and I think we'll take them back next year when Harper can ride as well.

 Riding the train with Opaw

I should call this next series of pictures "Fear turned joy on the carousel" because that's exactly what happened when Nate forced him to get on a  horse (not the little sleigh he wanted to sit in).  He screamed, he cried and then he loved it. I stood by trying not to laugh:)

 After the carousel incident he was ready to take on anything including the cars and the airplanes!

 Back at the house, we forced the cousins to take a group photo. Beau is new to this concept but he'll soon get used to it:)

And on our drive back to KY we were thankful for a stop at Diddy's house as always!