Monday, August 30, 2010

The Chattanooga Trip

On Saturday morning, I got home from running some errands and Justin said we needed to get out of town. I immediately said "Chattanooga?" and Justin said "Sure!" So I got on Trip Advisor and looked up cheap places to stay. I called and booked a room at a super cute and reasonable B&B called Sky Harbor, and we packed and left. All of this took about an hour... I think we have just been stir crazy. We had such a great little getaway, and it honestly felt much longer than one afternoon and part of the next day. We got up there around 3, and after checking in, we headed to the Incline Railroad. It was cheesy, but fun. Lots of lovely views. After that, we wandered for a while, then headed downtown to find something cheap for dinner. We ended up at a little restaurant in a super cute part of town called (I think) the North Shore. It's just a small street that we were on, but it was right by the river, and we found an adorable little restaurant that makes quirky hot dogs. And yummy salads. After that, we all had frozen yogurt at another shop before heading back to our room for some swimming. The pool was teensy, but it overlooked the river and Chattanooga itself, since the B&B was at the lower part of Lookout Mountain and had a lovely lovely view. In the morning, we headed out for breakfast, followed by check-out, Ruby Falls and Rock City. We left around 3pm, and we were home by around 6 (with a dinner stop at Bojangles. High class). Restful and lovely! So here are some photos from our "vacation."
Roxanne napped on the ride down. With her new Wonder Pets "flyboat" in her lap the whole way. I found this for her for $2.50 at a consignment sale before we left. She loves Wonder Pets.
The sign for the B&B we stayed in. Although, honestly, it wasn't really much like a B&B in terms of the breakfast. They put out some horrific donut holes and coffee in the morning. No worries. It was still a cute little place with a gorgeous view, and the price was right. :) Oh, and there was a litter of kittens for me and Roxanne to stare at. Sadly, they weren't very people-friendly, but we had fun looking at them.
The view between two of the B&B buildings.
Roxanne liked running laps up and down the room. The wood paneling lent itself well to echoes.
Our little back porch had amazing views. And rocking chairs!
Family portrait on the Incline Railroad.
I took this as we were going back up.
That's the glass ceiling. Not as cool as a Wonka elevator, but still pretty neat for Roxanne to stare up at.
As Justin was putting Roxanne to bed, I was reading for school out on the porch. I thought I heard thunder and then realized that the baseball stadium across town was shooting off fireworks. We could see them from our porch, so Roxanne and Justin came out to watch. They were far enough out that the booms were very distant and infrequent, but we felt special to get to watch them.
We forgot to pack a bedtime story for Roxanne. Fortunately, Justin's iPad came with a Winnie the Pooh story on it. She seemed to get a kick out of reading her story on there. He let her "turn the pages," which she definitely enjoyed. I'm getting a Kindle sometime in the next couple of weeks courtesy of Josh's parents' parting gift (how lucky I am!) so I might try and get some kid's books on mine.

Ruby Falls!
Down in the cave. It was quite a walk from the elevator to the actual Falls. Roxanne insisted on being carried the whole way there, because Hello Kitty was scared. P.S. Don't let your toddler bring their Hello Kitty stuffed animal into cave tours. She's a fraidy cat.
Ruby Falls. They really were beautiful. The colored lights were a little cheesy, but they were pretty.
Trying to get a shot of Roxanne's reaction to the Falls. She went from "wow!" to crying because she was getting dripped on.
In order to get her to walk on the way out of the Falls (as she is officially too heavy for me and Justin to carry for extended periods like that) I bribed her with candy. Yeah, I know. But seriously, shouldn't all kids get Rock Candy while in Chattanooga? Isn't it like a law or something?
Here she is at Rock City. I swear there are photos of me and my sister on this same stone bench here. And I'm about Roxanne's age. Can you see how deliriously tired she is? Whew.
Taking a pause at Rock City. These swings were so beautiful. Someone build us one!
Lover's Leap.
Yeah, I was having trouble photographing anything up here because I was busy having mini panic attacks every four seconds. I never realized how much of a non-fan I am of heights. Ugh.
One view of the "seven states." It was stunning.
I liked this sign. Everything at Rock City is so charmingly touristy and fairy-taled out. So many gnomes...
Another angle of the view. This is making me dizzy just looking at it. Yikes.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Photo Post!

Pink poodle costume from Nana! So cute!
She folded herself up into her easel box. Cozy.
I love the ears. :)
Don't you love the pink sheen?
She loves this outfit. She kept acting like a puppy. Adorable.
Look at the tail!
I think her posing here makes her look really old. She's really getting hammy.
The cousins. Roxanne adores them.
She's in heaven. :)
She picked out this headband from Baby Gap. She's been asking me to get her a flower for her hair, but I totally didn't think she'd actually wear one. I figured it was just a by-product of Kai Lan and Hello Kitty. But I couldn't resist this one. :)
She is not a fan of dirty hands...
Oh, right! She got a haircut last weekend with Miss Lisa. Justin took her without me, and I'm so sad I missed it. He said she loved every second of it. He told her we wanted to try and grow it out, but that it wouldn't work in the bob shape. This is adorable.
Roxanne and BooBoo. A one-sided love affair. :)
She's a patient kitty.
Again with the dirty hands...
The flower is felt. So cute!
On a mission...
Here's the fake smile. She calls it her "happy face." Haha.
She loves Hello Kitty right now. Scratch that, she's OBSESSED with Hello Kitty right now. I got her this necklace at Urban Outfitters, and she loves it.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Music Time Video



These were both taken in Roxanne's room, in her "big girl bed." We took the side off altogether so she can get in and out. Scary, but after about a week of her getting up fifty times in the hour or two after bedtime, she has settled in nicely. It's still funny to hear her get up in the morning and open her own door and see her pad down the hall in her nightgown. She's really really into closing herself in her room, or any room for that matter. I'm not sure what the fascination is, but she apparently needs privacy these days. It made me very nervous at first, but she isn't doing anything bad with the door closed (yeah, so maybe I stand at the door with my ear jammed to it sometimes), usually reading or singing. She is still very much in love with books (yay!) and spends a lot of time reading to herself. She has some favorites that are more or less memorized, and it's fun to listen to her "read" them to herself. I think my very favorite part is that Justin always tells her the name of the author when he reads her a book so she always says the title of the book and "by [insert author name]" when she's reading to herself. So you'll hear "Skippy Jon Jones in Mummy Trouble by Judith Shachner" coming from her room, although it's a little more muddled. And adorable. We hope she'll continue to be a reader. She certainly loves it for now.