Sunday, February 28, 2010

Mardi Gras in the Snow

I decided, since Page was not here with me to go to the Mardi Gras parades, the girls and I would take a trip. I have some very dear friends, the Littletons, that I met in Rome, GA while in college. I babysat for their son, Caleb, who was 1 at the time. He is now 13.

Anyway, they are now living in Sevierville, TN. Eric, Julie, and Caleb had not met Thia yet, so I decided this would be a great opportunity for us to go see them and for them to meet Thia. The girls did great! We split up the trip by spending the night in Montgomery with Page's parents which is almost exactly half way. We left on Thursday, before Mardi Gras and got to Montgomery that night. As we were going to bed, the weather reports were predicting that we would wake up to several inches of snow. I was a little nervous about that and decided to wait to see what the next day would bring. When we woke up there was no snow, but as we were leaving it had just started snowing. I was so excited that the snow had held off until I could get out of town. Little did I know that it would snow on me the entire way up to TN. I decided that I would much rather drive through snow than rain any day. The snow kept the girls entertained as we drove.

As soon as we got to Sevierville, the girls climbed up in Julie's lap and made themselves at home. Julie has already planned for grandchildren by thinking to keep the toys Caleb had when he was little. The girls thought they were great!
The girls had some really fun opportunities while in TN. They got to see some snow. They were able to go sledding, which I did not get any pics of because I was taking a shower at the time. They were trying to get in the sledding before the snow melted and apparently Grandma Julie used it as a distraction while I was taking a shower. I do have pictures of them getting ready to go sledding.
After the sledding craziness, we realized that the girls do not have any clothes warm enough for this type of weather. So we decided to try to find them some in expensive snow gear. We were very blessed to find this outlet with really cute clothes having a HUGE sale on their winter gear. We got the girls snow suits which will last them this season and next (we got them a little too big). Karis was very excited about her suit because it had gloves and a hat that matched. I thought I had a picture of these suits, but I couldn't find it. If I do, I will put it up later.

The girls loved getting to spend time with the Littletons and their dogs, Hobbs and Louise. This is Hobbs in this picture laying on the kitchen floor next to Karis.
Grandma Julie gave Karis her first Oreo and taught her how to twist it and lick out the middle. No one realized that since Karis does not get much sugar that we were in for a real treat later that night as the sugar kicked in.

Julie also made her famous chocolate chip cookies with Karis, which EVERYONE enjoyed too many of.

Caleb enjoyed playing with the girls too. I think he enjoyed Thia the most though. She attached herself to him and forced him to walk her around the house a number of times. She started standing up by herself for the first time while we were there. She has not started walking yet, but I am expecting it any day.

We had a wonderful time renewing friendships and watching the girls get loved on by this sweet family that I love very much.

1 comment:

Katie Nalls said...

Loved seeing these pics and hearing about your visit, Ashley. You are an awesome, brave mama to take the girls places by yourselves. So glad you guys can spend time with people you love so much. Praying for you!
Katie