sightseeing in music city

while our nashville nights were filled with hot tubbing, cooking, eating, and of course, playing more games back at the cabin, our days were spent hoofing it around music city. here are a few highlights:

visiting the grand ole opry house.

sadly, the backstage portion of the tour was unavailable.

which according to the opry hostesses (and the new york times), is the only reason to come.
thanks for making us feel better about ourselves, hostesses.

the nashville zoo.

zoos have a long and illustrious history in young family lore,

so we thought it only fitting to visit one during our reunion.

while the animals were all remarkably well behaved,

it was summer that treated us all (and by "all" i mean the entire zoo)
to a 15 minute five-alarm tantrum (where, for the first time ever,
she literally pulled out her hair) during lunch.

 

apparently dormant during her first trip to a petting zoo,

summer discovers a hidden love for goats.

 

 

enjoying super yummy treats at las paletas.
sample popsicle flavors: avocado, peanut butter banana, hot chocolate with peppers, hibiscus, rose petal, butter pecan, mexican caramel, and cucumbers with chiles.

a nashville thanksgiving

for this year's thanksgiving celebration, the young family -- in its entirety for the first time in two years -- rented a cabin in the sticks of tennessee, ate turkey, played games, watched football, and argued about the significance of jim bowie and davy crockett.

'twas as if we'd never been apart.

young family photo: the evolution

happy thanksgiving!

twelfth flight

just me. a two year old. and a four month old baby.

five hours from seattle to atlanta. a three hour layover. and another hour on to huntsville.

this was summer’s twelfth flight.

and with a big thanks to curious george, candy, and crayons, we made it through the ordeal fairly unscathed.

luckily, the worst of summer’s fits occurred not while in the air, but in the security line when first she spotted a starbucks she wanted to go into – can’t live without those lattes, you know – and then when the TSA folks had the audacity to confiscate and inspect her milk.

yes, there was almost a standing ovation (and for sure i heard a collective sigh of relief) from nearby passengers as we finally landed in atlanta.

here’s crossing our fingers *and toes* for flight thirteen…

ps – i’m going to write a letter to alaska airlines thank, thank, THANKING them for having diaper changing stations in the lavatories. how it lifted my burden (no joke, i nearly cried) those engineers at boeing may never know.

return of the schmatt

my youngest brother, matto, returned triumphant on wednesday, november 11 from a two-year mission of service to the people of novosibirsk, russia.

here he is stepping off the plane in all his russian winter glory.

sadly, i don't think the ushanka will get much use in alabama.

welcome home, elder matt.

loves me, loves me not

so for those of you who may be unawares, bryan and i have quite a unique love story. in fact, it’s so unique that i think taylor swift may be penning something about it at this very moment…

anyway, as i was going through the garage this weekend, i happed upon a box of old journals. now, i may not be on top of a lot of things in life, but i have always managed to diligently (and dramatically) record my personal history. that way, when we all sit down to “remember” things, we have a source (a *neutral* source).

so last night, bryan and i very much enjoyed reading through some of the things i had written about him – things he was hearing for the first time. and then, of course, we thought our readership at large might also like to take a trip down memory lane. so here are a few of our favorite excerpts from the stage in our relationship i refer to as “round one”:

**NOTE: bryan is also widely known as “danger” in fact, i didn’t even find out bryan was his real name until maybe after we were married..)

unsurprisingly, these are the first words i wrote about my dearest husband-to-be:

September 23, 2001
“Danger is a jerk.”

followed two months later by further elucidation:

November 25, 2001
“Danger talked to me a lot about his dating philosophies. Psycho dating philosophies. He made it seem like he was only looking for the epitome of perfection and no one could even come close…I was disturbed.”

**NOTE: for the record, bryan was reading an article aloud to me the other day, and he had no idea how to correctly pronounce the word “epitome.” not so perfect now, huh?

and then the culmination of my frustration:

December 12, 2001
“I still like Danger. Very much. But I feel complicated. I went to his circuits class on Tuesday and then to a movie with Owen’s friends. I sat by [Danger]. Did a little more flirting. But he’s not responsive in situations like that. Liking Danger is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. He’s crazy. He’s emotionally unavailable, uninvolved or uninterested in dating…or maybe in girls altogether. And if he was [interested in girls],I just get the impression that it wouldn’t be me. Which is giving me some self-esteem issues. I feel belittled. I can’t believe I’m belittled by the mere act of liking someone. Only Danger could do that to me.”

how we ever ended up happily hitched (in april 2004) and the parents of two beautiful baby girls…

well, i suppose only jane austen truly knows.

sleep tight

one of summer's presents for her birthday was a new big girl room!

she slept in it for the first time friday night. we were prepared for the worst (after all, working with summer in the past has taught us to expect as much...),

but lo and behold, she made it from 8:30pm to 8:30am with only one little hiccup.

i had bryan stand guard and sleep on the floor outside her room (i know, i'm a great wife), and his report is that she woke up at three in the morning and knocked quietly on her door. he just escorted her back to her bed, and that was that. next we heard from her, she was playing with her blocks (she insists on sleeping with her blocks), and it was time for breakfast.

hooray for turning two!

party on

happy birthday, summer!

thanks to everyone who made her day so special!

Two Tomorrow

in style