Sunday, August 1, 2010

Best Mom Tip #97: Take the self-guided tour

We took our three kids (ages 5, nearly 2, and 5 weeks) on a little road trip this week. It was not relaxing, but they seemed to have fun. What I learned on this trip is that we are those people who ruin vacation for others.

Griffin, the nearly-two-year-old one, yelled like an angry Cookie Monster throughout our underground tour of Ruby Falls. Through a series of shrieks that reverberated off the cave walls he demanded to be held my Mommy, who was also carrying Harry, the new baby. I only bumped my head once, though.

Then there was the tour of the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN. Griffin decided that he needed to sing "Mary" by the Zack Brown Band actually ON the stage at the site of the original Grand Ole Opry. He needed to stand in the footsteps of Johnny and June and Minnie Pearl. That is, unfortunately, not part of the tour of the theater and I spent a lot of time trying to haul him back behind the ropes.

Charlotte had a meltdown because she lost her place in the song SHE was singing and Harry just began crying--probably from embarrassment at being a part of our loud, off-key group.

We also ate bar-b-que in the live music district, listened to a little bluegrass (much loved by Griffin), and climbed all over every playground we could find. The kids seemed to enjoy sharing a sofabed about as much as anything else on the trip.

Oddly enough, I had a pretty good time even though I kept thinking that Jay and I used to go on spur of the moment trips to Paris, not Chattanooga. We'll save that for next year.

2 comments:

  1. We went to Nashville when Kira was 4 weeks, and the drive was ROUGH. It sounds like y'all did pretty well! I'm impressed!

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  2. Fortunately, Griffin and Harry can sleep through each other's crying jags. Unfortunately, that means that there is usually at least one person crying while in the car. I spent a lot of time turned around backwards trying to put the paci back in Harry's mouth.

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