From DC to Memphis and back!

My sons, my Mother and I all recently took a road trip from Washington, DC to Memphis, TN. My Great Uncle had passed away and we decided driving with the boys was better than flying.

My Great Uncle George and his wife Frances (who passed away a few years ago) were (are) pillars of the family. All of my cousins and I have fond memories of family functions always occurring in their home. There's not a single Christmas that wasn't spent at their house during my childhood - no small affair! We are a huge family!! Here's one of my favorite photos of Uncle George and Aunt Frances.

The trip as a whole had it's ups and downs. Like checking into a Howard Johnson's at 3:00am in Knoxville that was old, musty, smokey, had FILTHY shag carpets in the room and, I noticed as we were walking out (no we did NOT sleep there!), dried blood splattered on the hallway walls! We moved to a Best Western in another part of town where all was normal. The boys did pretty well on the trip. Peter had fun yelling out TRUCK!! every time one drove by or "cy-cycle!" every time a motorcycle went past.

Peter's vocabulary really seemed to blossom during the week we stayed at my Uncle Mike and Aunt Gail's house in Memphis. He also had tons of fun! Uncle Mike has an awesome train set with a wood mill that cuts logs and produces slats of wood, the set has smoke that comes out of the train engine, and a firehouse where the engines come out of the garage with bells and sirens going. Peter LOVES it!!

Peter met his cousin Linley who is a bit younger than him and then met his cousin James who is almost exactly the same age. They had a blast playing together.

Bath time at GiGi's house - Gigi is Aunt Gail. All of my Aunt Gail's grand kids call her Gee, Peter kept hearing Gee and for some reason it came out Gigi. So she's Gigi and we, apparently, were staying at Gigi's house! He was constantly saying go home to Gigi's? Anyway, bath time at Gigi's house was pretty much the same as at home except in the basket of bath toys that Gigi keeps for her grand kids were two action figures. Every night Peter would get each toy out and put it in the bathtub, but when he got to these two figures he would put them on the toilet and say "no men!" Every time he did it, it made me think of my cousin's blog post about her son James evicting a gazelle from playtime at home. Must be a two-year-old thing to do.

We made the required trip to the Peabody Hotel to see the ducks parading out to the fountain in the lobby. I got to catch up with some old grade school friends. Soon, all too soon, it was time to go home. Here are a few photos of our trip. ALL of the photos we took, including several Peter took, are on my Shutterfly page ~here~ I forgot to say, if you are a friend or family member - basically if I know you IRL and you don't have access to my Shutterfly photos, just sign up on the page that comes up to join and view and I'll approve it or email me and I'll add you. If you are a blogger friend and we haven't met - sorry... I won't approve it...nothing personal, I just dont know you that well! :) Here are few:

Peter, Gigi and his cousin James playing with the marble toy:

The boys watching Gigi going to get the mail:

Peter played with bubbles every morning: