Visiting North Cacalacky (aka North Carolina)

We left for Union Mills on Friday afternoon once Travis got home from work. What's in Union Mills? My mother's grave. And my Papa's grave too. Dad, Eddie, Nana, Kevin & family, & Harry & family were all there Friday afternoon to remember Mama, but we were all able to stay in the same hotel that night, so we were able to visit. It took us right at 6 hours to make the trip. We made one stop the whole way, which was amazing. Tyler slept for the most part. We stopped outside of Greensboro and fed ourselves and the little one too. Tyler decided to make the trip more interesting at this point by producing a poop like we had never seen before. Seriously, it was so bad that after I changed his outfit, we made the executive decision that we were moving him to the next size up in diapers upon our return home. (And we did.) Anyway, once we got checked into the hotel and got the boy fed, we were greeted by our family. All of the above mentioned individuals came by our room to visit or meet Tyler. Tyler did a pretty good job when you consider that he was in a new place and it was his first hotel visit.

Saturday morning, we had breakfast with the family and then the 3 of us made our way up the mountain to Round Hill Baptist Church in Union Mills. Travis strapped Tyler into his stroller and we walked around the cemetery and spent some much-needed time at Mama's site. I hadn't been there since my Papa passed away in late September. It was a beautiful day in the mountains of NC. We also stopped by the old Homeplace, as we call it, the house where my Papa grew up and where my Mama spent many weekends as a girl. The picture at the top of this post is from that house. The land is about to be sold finally so Travis thought it would be a good idea to get one last picture, especially one with Tyler in it. What a wonderful idea!!!!!Once we were ready to go, we made the 2 1/2 hour trip to Lexington & High Rock Lake, where we spent the night with my Uncle Kevin & Aunt Debi. Tyler got his first glimpse of the lake, and even had his first boat ride.

Note: Well, it was more like a "boat tease" as Kevin called it. The boat kind of crapped out on us a few hundred feet from the dock. Poor Kevin rowed us back. But it was still fun and Tyler still had his first boat ride......and we think he LOVED it!

Travis got to fish for crappie for a while and I got a little break to just enjoy the nice lake weather while Debi & Amy watched Tyler. Again, though he was fussy at times, we think that Tyler did pretty well, considering that he was once again in a strange place with new people.

Sunday morning, we had some breakfast with the family, fed Little One, and got in the car to make our trip home. Since we decided to make the stop in Lexington the day before, we shortened our car ride home to just 4 hours. And once again, our Little Man did a great job. We made just one stop to feed the adults and baby. However, we knew that the weekend away was going to wreak havoc on the next couple of days in the Snead household.

As I type this, I can hear my precious little boy screaming at the top of his lungs as his poor, defenseless father tries to calm him down to go to sleep. Travis has been working on this for a while now.....only 30 minutes or so after he got home from work. Tyler has decided that he does not want to go to sleep when we think that he needs to (and believe me, he needs to....he's fighting sleep like you wouldn't believe). In addition, he has decided that he no longer wants to take a bottle with the ease that he has been taking it for WEEKS. Go figure.....2 weeks before "Day Care Doom Day" and he won't take a bottle anymore. Not from me, not from Travis, not from anyone. Change the nipples, change the temperature of the bottle, change it all. It doesn't matter. We really thought that we had missed a huge hurdle with the fact that Tyler had been taking bottles since he was only hours old. Not the case. 2 freakin' weeks before he enters day care. Go figure.

Tyler has his 2 month appointment in the morning. I am not looking forward to that. To those of you that have children, you know the worry that accompanies the 2 month visit. To those of you without, the 2 month visit is when your little one receives his first big round of shots. He'll be getting about 4 shots tomorrow. Ugh. So I have asked (make that DEMANDED) that Travis take some time off of work tomorrow to be with me, um I mean US. I suspect that Daddy will be the "holder" while Mommy will be the "comforter". I'm taking the Tylenol just in case........On a more positive note, I can't wait to see how much Tyler weighs and how tall he is. I know he's becoming such a big boy.