First Road Trip...

So let me start off by saying before we had any children Cole and I stayed on the road, then Meg slowed us down but not too much. But, this weekend, 2 months after Mary Clark was born was the first time we braved the trip to West TN. Also, we stayed around for all of July, so we have set a Hodges family record by staying home for 3 consecutive months. But, one thing has not changed which is the amount of visitors we have. I am certain that since Mary Clark has been born we have not been 7 consecutive days without a visitor, and if we did it might have been 10 once. But, never fear we made up for it with double visitors immediately following. I do not say this to complain, we have LOVED having all the company and are excited about of future visitors as well.

Now back to the Road Trip...

We left Friday around 5 pm, stopping at Chick fil A on the way out. The ride there was very uneventful. meg watched the Little Mermaid and Mary Clark slept or was definitely quiet 90% of the ride. Then we arrived in Jackson and a BANG followed. Luckily it did not directly involve and of the Hodges family. My dad had moved his truck to the street so that all the cars could fit in garage/drive way. With 2 grown sisters home, and dad having 2 vehicles, it would have been a mess otherwise. As we are unloading the car we hear the loudest sound I have heard in awhile. A teenage girl, coming home from college, was not paying attention in her BMW and rammed right into my dad's truck. So for the next 1.5 hours mom and Cole were in and out handling the situation with the girl and her family and the police. Dad and Anna had gone to the East Gibson Football Game (Anna teaches Spanish there). The only humor in the night was when Kara and I told Meg that the Police were there to take Lele to jail...when Meg pointed at the Police Car and asked "what's that?". She repeated, Lele go to jail for the rest of the weekend. What's that is one of Meg's favorite phrases. She could be talking about a person or a thing though, so she is definitely not always grammatically correct. But, who's counting at 22 months?

On Saturday, my extended family, none of which had met Mary Clark were all invited over to the house. I just could not stomach running all over West TN this weekend. It worked out quite well and everyone also got to sing Kara "Happy Birthday" and share some cake. Meg and Mary Clark were both very well behaved. This was one of the first times my grandparents and aunts and uncles really got to see Meg's beaming personality. She was definitely more herself because she was somewhere she was comfortable (my parents house) and a little older. They were all amazed at her vocabulary and how funny she was. Hopefully, this will bode well for Thanksgiving.

Saturday after they left, we watched football, the girls napped, we played outside, went to sonic (3 different trips...another story for another day) and then Cole and Mom cooked a big dinner. Barrett, Kara's boyfriend also joined us that afternoon. So we had a full house for the afternoon and evening.

Meg and Kara had an adventure of their own this weekend. Meg slept in a big bed for the first time, and both nights she slept with Kara. Overall I would say it was a success. Thanks KK for helping us out there. I just did not think we would all 4 survive in one room. Even though Mary Clark slept very well to be away from home. But, we did have to let her fuss a bit to get her to go down both nights.

On Sunday we played around the house and then went to the mall. Then came back and watched a little more football and visited with Kara's best friend Catherine before leaving. On our way out of town we stopped by a church picnic to return the swing we borrowed from the Naffziger family. Mama picked it up on Friday, and we definitely would not have survived the weekend with out it. Mary Clark LOVES to swing.

There a couple of final hiccups of the trip, first we almost left Hurley there. We were literally pulling out of the driveway and my family comes running out with her...not sure how that happened. Also, when we got home we realized we had left Meg's Pig Pillow and Blanket in Kara's room. But, last night she went to bed fine and hopefully we will make it to Thursday evening when Kara gets up here with it. If not, we will be running to the kiosk in the mall to pick up a new pillow.