January 2010

After a busy Christmas season, January was kind of quiet! We celebrated a 2nd birthday -- choo-choo style!
And visited the aquarium with our annual passes -- always a favorite for the TWO year old!! He loves trains and fish!

A McCreary First. . .

Following in the footsteps of our friends, we have taken our inaugural "Take-Off Tuesday!" Each Tuesday that we are not in school, the goal is to go somewhere. . . do something fun - field trip style. Now, we still have a one year old toddler in our house, so take-off Tuesday might have to be Field Trip Friday every now and then . . . or Way Cool Wednesday. . . but we plan to go and do more. . . regardless of if it's always Tuesday.

Our first Take-Off Tuesday was to the Georgia Aquarium. We visited with friends over Memorial Day weekend and bought a membership. . . so we decided to make the first Take-Off a very fun one, even for Camden. Our Memorial Day visit was a debaucle (oh, did i say that?. . . i meant -so much fun), because we spent it with approximately 9 billion of our closest friends! What a riot. Take-Off Tuesday was MUCH different. We saw and did IT ALL - with no one in the way!

Our visit was brief because the kids had been at VBS all morning, so we grabbed lunch on the road and headed downtown, with a goal of leaving downtown before 3:55 so we wouldn't get stuck in too much traffic.

Here's a recap of our day!

Camden's enjoyment. . .

All 3 upon entering. Camden loves this because he is truly obsessed with fish. . .

The big rock . . . amazing!

Everyone enjoying the beluga whales. . .

Molly LOVED just watching. . .

Griffin loved the touch tanks
And the touch tanks. . .
And more touch tank time . . .
I really think Griffin would have spent the entire trip at the touch tanks. Molly wouldn't touch a thing. Admittedly, i was a little frustrated. I wanted her to TRY it. She finally confessed under pressure - "I don't like the SMELL of the tanks!!"

So she just watched some more! That's my little observer. She's a LOT like i was at that age . . .

With the HAMMERHEAD overhead!

And. . . the whale shark that "the aquarium" makes such a big ta-do about. . . We had a great visit and a terrific first adventure for Take-Off Tuesday! Thanks to the Braun's for always sharing their great ideas. We plan to steal a few take-off Tuesday ideas from them to keep us busy this summer!

Spring Break . . . the First 3 Days!

Here's my attempt to chronicle a little of what we did . . .Beware, there are lots of pictures and lots to read, but if you're interested, here's our online and only scrapbook . . .

Saturday, April 3, 2009

Breakfast with the Easter Bunny and an Easter Egg Hunt at the Club at Deaton Creek.They hunted until the very end . . . determined to find the deeply hidden eggs. Their persistence paid off - Molly found the "silver" egg - with a dollar inside. They both left with a basket full of goodies.After touring the model homes, Camden was taking in the scenery. On Saturday, he was just starting to walk and definitely wanted a hand to hold on to.

Saturday night we loaded up with Duncan and tennis racquets and headed to the Club again. We taught Molly and Grif a little about tennis, played with Duncan at the dog park, and played on the playground. They were exausted at bedtime!

Molly learning a little. . . she loved it!Griffin after about 45 minutes on the court. Like the stroller?

SUNDAY, APRIL 5th, 2009

We packed up the car and headed to Chattanooga for an overnight. For those of you that haven't known us long, Molly had severe carsickness from the age of 18 months until her ear tubes fell out when she was 4. We re-lived the "good old days" on the way to Chattanooga. Jeff and I don't like Burger King, but decided we'd let the kids indulge since we were "on vacation." When the car stopped for the first time since leaving home at the Calhoun Burger King, Molly proceeded to puke ALL OVER her handmade Elmo Blanket that she was curled up in. Actually, i was thankful she had the blanket, can you imagine what the car would have looked like if we wouldn't have had the blanket?? Sorry, i had to post this . . . POOR ELMO!!!

Molly immediately after vomiting!!!
Who looks this pretty after being sick?

Posting this one because when Jeff saw it, he said, "Holy Crap!" It startled me he said it so loud and i wasn't sure what was wrong. . . was there a ding in the bumper i had never seen?? Was the door sprung?? NOPE! Jeff saw the top of his head for the first time in a long time, and saw a LOT of SCALP!! Rogaine, anyone??When we arrived in Chattanooga, we checked in to the hotel and picked up our tickets for the children's museum, aquarium and IMAX (we had a package deal). Well, if you know Camden at all, you know that he can not sit through an entire movie. So, we took turns going to the movie . . .Griffin and Jeff went to the first showing at 4, Molly and Heather went to the 5pm show. When we weren't watching the movie, we walked down to the river and just walked around.
Here's Molly wearing her 3D glasses. . .After the IMAX, we went back to the hotel so the kids could go for a quick swim at the indoor pool. Then headed off to dinner. They have a Cheeburger Cheeburger in Chattanooga. . . a favorite burger-joint from our Auburn days! So, we took the kids there. They loved the diner-like feel of the restaurant, and the kids meals were served in little boxes that were cardboard replicas of "oldie" cars. But their favorite part was getting to drink 3 sodas at one time! Wait - - - as i type that, i realize it makes it sound like they each HAD 3 sodas of their own. Not so. Jeff ordered a "chocolate soda" (don't ask, he's nasty like that) and the kids each had rootbeer, me too. They thought it would be cool (wrong again, GRIFFIN thought it would be cool) to drink 3 at one time, so Molly had to try it too! Oh, also just noticed, if you look closely at the bottom left of this picture, you can see a part of molly's "car" that her food was served in.

This looks like he's practicing for a talent show or something! HA!
Monday, April 6th, 2009

Monday morning we started our day at the Chattanooga Children's Discovery Museum! It is really a neat place. The first part you enter is an entire section of water-play. Building dams and levies and letting boats pass thru whatever you create. They provide water-proof aprons if you choose to wear one. It was so cool, even the adults were taking part. The rest was an array of musical/arts department, archaeology (dinosaurs), sound, art/drawing, housing around the world, and then on the roof they had pulleys and levers . . . really cool stuff. The kids had a great time.

Griffin attempting to build a dam to see if he let the water rise enough if it would overflow. Thankfully, the museum had prepared for children like Griffin and had created secret little "drains" that allowed the water to pass and not overflow!

On the top of the building in the "crows nest" - this overlooks all of Chattanooga. It was a spiraling staircase all the way up . . . kind of like the Statue of Liberty, just shorter. BUT, my thighs were still shaking when we go to the top! Three picture of this, and in every one, SOMEONE had their eyes closed. This is the best of the 3.

Griffin on the rooftop, pulling himself up in a pulley-seat.Molly inspecting some bugs in the bug/dinosaur area. Even though they were tightly caged with no way to escape, she was a little timid to stick her face up to the window and really look.Even our sweet Camden managed to have a little fun!After the children's museum, we headed over to the aquarium for a tour. . .

There are now 2 parts to the aquarium, the first side focusing on the tennessee river aquatic life -
River's Journey:
Touch tank of Sturgeon Fish
Notice what rule-followers i have . . . the sign said to ONLY touch with two fingers, look closely below at how prepared they were. . .

Molly with Scuba Steve

Freshwater Stingrays. . . who knew there was such a thing?
Camden LOVED the fish . . . ask him next time you see him, "what does a fish say?"

After the river's journey, we crossed the street for lunch at Mellow Mushroom, then headed back to go to
Ocean's Journey:

First stop: a Stingray Touch Tank
Then, a Butterfly Garden

Poor Camden just couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. A belly full of pizza and a warm butterfly garden. . . who wouldn't want to take a nap?
After the butterflies, we headed to another floor to see penguins, sharks and fish, fish, fish. Camden was asleep, so we poked around until he woke up and did it all over again. We were so glad we waited, because he LOVED the penguins!

Molly "kissing" a penguin
Molly and Grif "swimming with the sharks"
I told you they were "with the sharks"
A HUGE fish with beautiful colors. He was almost glowing.
And would you believe, that the camera battery died as we tried to take pictures of Camden with the penguins. Jeff was able to capture one with my cell phone, but this is as good as it gets -

Camden brought home a stuffed penguin, and to this day, hugs it like it's his favorite. It is absolutely precious. Guess we'll talk about this trip for years to come!

That's it. We had the car packed up from earlier in the morning when we checked out and we strolled through town and climbed aboard the McCreary express to head back to Atlanta. Home just in time for bedtime.

Are you tired yet? This was just the first 3 days of spring break! I'll add the rest soon. But Chattanooga is a great little getaway from Atlanta! It was a super-fun trip. We stayed at a great hotel, so if you ever plan to go, ask us for our recommendation!