Birthday Trip to Disney World

Spence LOVED his 5th birthday trip to Disney World. Jeremy's parents took Spence for a week. And the highlight of the week was the day they spent at Star Wars Weekend at Hollywood Studios. Spence was selected to fight Darth Vadar. He had been looking forward to this day for six months. Poppa and Deedee were thrilled that Spence was chosen from among the crowd of kids on their first day to the parks so they didn't have to spend every day in line trying to be selected bc Spence would not have come home without getting to fight Darth Vader. I think it was the happiest day of his life.



Here he has just been chosen for Jedi Training Academy and given a cloak. He looks a bit nervous as he contemplates the coming training and fight against his nemesis, Darth Vader.















Poppa is so happy that Spence's dream came true at Jedi Training Academy. And Spence received a really cool tooth brush that plays Star Wars music and quotes as he brushes.

Memorial Day

We did the ultimate "staycation" for Memorial Day Weekend and we camped out in our backyard. The kids were thrilled to have a campfire, roast hot dogs, and spend the night in our tent.

Glad to have Daddy Home

Here we are showing off our gifts from Jeremy's trip. We are so happy to have him home again. He gave the kids and himself soccer jerseys and soccer hats. And he gave me a sweater from undyed or untreated sheep's wool and a wrap made from alpaca wool.

Best helpers ever. Ryan and Lindsay took the kids out for 4 hours one day while Jeremy was in Chile. They went to a park and picnic lunch at campus. I was able to clean the entire house. What a wonderful gift!! And the kids love playing with Lindsay and Ryan. As you can see in the photo, they were ready to wrestle Ryan as they were missing their wrestle time with daddy.

horseback riding in Andes

lodge where they ate lunch. And a wrap that Jeremy bought from this girl as a gift for Marsha.

more Chile

If you have visited us since we moved to Tennessee then you know that we love to watch Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern on the Travel channel. Somehow watching him eat his way across the world always makes us hungry. When Jeremy learned he would be attending a grad class in Chile he thought of the Chile episode of Bizarre Foods. He was determined to visit a restaurant that Andrew loved in Santiago. So once in Santiago Jeremy discussed with his tour guides a possibility of him going to Ana Marie's Restaurant. The guides hadn't been there. But they decided it sounded fun. Fortunately his class's original activities for Friday were cancelled and the entire class decided to eat at Ana Marie's.

The restaurant is only marked on the outside of building by a tiny little tile. So here is photo of Jeremy with his guides in doorway.



























Ana Marie came out and met the group.

Valpraiso for Mother's Day

Jeremy toured Valpraiso today. For those of you on Facebook, he is dumping all of his photos there. But i know some of you, like me, are holding out of Facebook so I'm pulling some of his photos onto our family website so everyone can keep up with Jeremy on his journey. He enjoyed the day. Valpraiso is a port city. Jeremy says it reminds him of the coast of Italy. People are friendly. His class also toured a vineyard. He has skyped us both nights. Tonight i kept the kids up late so they could talk to him too. So far Jeremy's favorite food there was a dulce de leche crepe.

Chile trip

Jeremy arrived in Chile this morning, after a long overnight flight. He left Atlanta at 9:00 and arrived in Chile at 6:30. Both cities are in same time zone so that made his morning go well. He had a plane row of seats to himself so he was able to sleep some. Here are some photos he sent from his tour of Santiago today.

View from his hotel.

Big Boy

Our little man is becoming a big boy. At 21 months he got his new big boy bed. It is pretty high off the ground so we borrowed some bed rails for him. He still has a crib in his room but he prefers the new bed for bedtime and naptime. We switched Preston's room with Spence's room so that our guests can use Preston's new bed and have a bathroom off the bedroom. As you can see the kids like to play underneath Preston's new bed. It has three storage cubbies that the kids use for their adventures.



See Preston??

paxton and Vader

paxton and Vader, originally uploaded by asjdkgl.

knight spencer

knight spencer, originally uploaded by asjdkgl.