We had a big weekend...

Ben was called away to work one of the medic stations at the Marine Corps Marathon (ooh-rah!) this weekend. He left on Thursday and was so sad to leave because it was the first time he's EVER spent the night away from Declan. He was heartbroken to leave us and we were as equally sad to see him go. Thursday night it was just Declan and me and the girls all by ourselves. We did alright, I think.

Friday, my dear friend Jan came up for a visit and she brought Declan SUNGLASSES!!! Woohoo! Jan stayed until this morning. We went hiking on the trails at Ijams on friday afternoon and then the three of us went to dinner.

Saturday we decided to make an early start of it and drive up to the aquarium in Gatlinburg. Well, early starts don't exactly happen as planned with a little 2 month old snuggle bug so we didn't get out of the house until 11:30. And we made the mistake of taking the interstate instead of Chapman Hwy. Sad day! 4 HOURS LATER we were barely past the visitors center in Gatlinburg . We decided that we'd rather outlet shop than drive the 45 minutes it would take us to get to stoplight five in G'burg only to spend $20 a head to get us in to see the aquarium (which was likely just as overcrowded as the traffic). So we turned it around and headed back to the outlets. We did a little shopping. Declan was a total trooper up until we went into the maidenform outlet. In typical male fashion, he got overwhelmed and flustered surrounded by all of those mysterious female underthings and had a total meltdown. We got out of there pronto and packed ourselves and our goodies up in the beetle and headed back to the house where we unloaded, fed and changed the baby in the quiet of his own room and felt settled enough to pack it all back up and go get Mexican for dinner...ARRIBA!

It's Sunday now and Jan has left after a fun filled weekend and Declan is sleeping in his crib. There is a load of diapers running in the wash and Daddy is still in DC until the marathon is over and he can come home (a LOOOOOONG 8 hour drive) to us. We had a great weekend but we are both tired and cranky and Declan needs some man time with the Daddy.