We had three wonderful days in Jonesborough before we had to say our goodbyes and head west.
Friday was Ren's birthday. We went to the farmers market in the morning for some fresh strawberries and awesome amish cheese and then she had to go on to work. After the farmers market I rushed home and grabbed some kids to go get some birthday presents. Sierra and Jalen were so sweet picking things for their mother; they knew exactly what she would want and were so proud. Jalen picked a stuffed toy skunk and then decided that he wanted it instead. I had to explain to him that it was a day to buy things for mom and he says, "Okay, she can have it." I told Ren she might not be hanging on to it :). After shopping I met her at her work so we could go to dinner, along with Mary and Mary's sister, Ann. We went to Ruby Tuesdays, in the mall, and then did a little shopping afterwards. Then I rushed home to whip up some strawberry trifle with those fresh strawberries. We turned all the lights off and waited for her arrival and jumped out screaming an awful version of happy birthday.
After she opened her gifts and things had calmed down a little some of them went out to jump on the trampoline. I heard some commotion and went out to see what it was all about and got a BIG surprise!!! The yard was twinkling with green lights from the fireflies. We have never seen fireflies so we were in awe of the magic. The kids were out catching them in jars and Calista had accidentally smooshed one in the lid. She stood there with alligator tears streaming down her face crying, "I don't like hurting things." It made me sad for her but it also made my heart swell up to see how much my kids value life, of all living things.
We had to say goodbye on Monday morning and it wasn't easy, knowing that we won't be back for a while. We spent 5 1/2 weeks there before we went to DC and it felt weird leaving, like we lived there.
We made it to Nashville the first night and spent part of the next day at the Opryland hotel. I was there with my mother almost eight years ago so I was feeling a little sadness that day. I was remembering sitting by the fountain eating beignets from the beignet shop with her, Ren, and the kids and I was 7 months pregnant with Calista. I was looking forward to having those again but the beignet shop closed down, bummer!!!
Yesterday we drove to St.Louis and had dinner with Ken and Cherry and her two girls. After dinner they came to the motorhome and shared a glass of wine with us while the kids rollerbladed and rode their bikes around the park.
So today we drove ALL day!!!! We made it to Wakeeney, Kansas. We are out in the middle of nowhere! The last 50-100 miles there were no curves in the road and flat, flat, flat! We will be in Denver tomorow.
1 comment:
alligatot tears?? we call our daughters tears: crocodile tears...when they are just so big and precious....we just can't come up with any other way to describe them. how did you come up with alligator tears??
sarah (who is just randomly looking at different unschooling things and fell upon your blog.i couldn't *not* try to find out about the alligator tear comment)
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