Road Trips to Biloxi, New Orleans and Indianapolis.

It is amazing to see how much Hudson has changed in only three months.  He looks more and more like James every day.  I am amazed at his level of interaction with people.  He is constantly smiling and laughing when he is talked or sang to.  I just love listening to his little coos and watching him hold his bobbly little head up.  Many other parents told me of the amazement you feel when you see your own child do these things and now I am getting to experience these surreal feeling first hand .  I am still shocked that James and I made this little creature.  It's been three months and I'm not sure that I will ever stop looking at Hudson in wonder.

Hudson has experienced a lot his first few months of life.

When Hudson was five weeks old, James headed down to Biloxi for military training.  I decided that we should go down to visit him, so Hudson, James's mom and I drove down to Mississippi right in the middle of James's time away.  We took his two month photo on the beach.  The beach photos were much more exciting for James, Tammy and me than they were for Hudson.  :-) We spent a week down south visiting James.

  

While we were down there, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to visit New Orleans since it was so close.  James and I had both been there before but separately.  He went to the Sugar Bowl and I visited while on a business trip.  While we were there we went on a tour of the French Quarter with Free Tours By Foot.  The tour was great and I would recommend the company to anyone.  Free Tours By Foot does not have a specified price for their tours.  At the end of the tour, you give the tour guide whatever you feel they deserve.  The company operates in several different cities.  I will definitely be looking into tours with the same company when we travel to other cities throughout the United States.

James is so wonderful.  He was even brave enough to wear the Moby wrap.

While in New Orleans we visited the National WWII Museum.

While James was at work, Tammy and I drove to Gulfport via Beach Boulevard.  On the way back we stopped to eat at the Love Shack for lunch.  It was delicious.  Thank you Urban Spoon!  We decided to take James there later that week for dinner.  The next day Tammy, Hudson and I started our trek home.

Grandma and Meemaw had some fun with Hudson while we waited for James to get home.

Once James got back, it was time for some Bumbo time.

We took Hudson to our pool and he loved the water.

Supporting the Cincinnati Reds...

James surprised me with an anniversary trip last weekend.  On June 21st we headed to Indianapolis (those advertisements on Hulu got us!) for the weekend to celebrate 5 years of marriage and 10 years together.  We had a precious little third wheel.  I had only been to Indianapolis for a business trip and we didn't have time to venture out into the city so I didn't know how amazing the city is.  There are tons of restaurants and sites to see.  I even felt safe walking around downtown alone (with Hudson) while James worked out.  It was the perfect place for a weekend getaway.

We went to Dicks Last Resort for our anniversary dinner.  Romantic right?  It wasn't what most women might want to do for their anniversary but ever since I saw a feature on Dicks Last Resort on the Food Network, I've wanted to go.  For those of you that don't know, the waitresses and waiters there are rude to you.  If you ask for a refill, they will tell you to get it yourself.  You can basically expect rude remarks in response to anything you say or ask.  Also, the waitress makes a paper hat and writes mean things on them.  James tried to prepare me before we went in there by saying that they will probably tell us that our child is the ugliest they have seen, and other things of the sort.  I'm not a violent person but I think I might become one if I heard someone talking trash about Hudson.  :-)  Lucky for the the waitresses face, she only said nice things about our son.  :-)

James and I have talked about going to a children's museum for a few years.  We didn't want to appear creepy and show up without children so we waited until we had one of our own.  We visited the Children's Museum in Indianapolis and it was wonderful.  They even had an Avatar exhibit that opened the day we went.  The Avatar exhibit was interesting.  It explained a lot about the making of the movie.  

This was a water clock that absolutely fascinated me!

They had a doll house exhibit and these are two of the rooms I thought were really cool.

Family Photo with Bumblebee.

They had these cool miniature statues right outside the museum.  Of course we took advantage of them!

This one below is my favorite.  I love his facial expression.

Off to the many war memorials in Indianapolis.  They are all right in the middle of the city.  We went inside the enormous memorial that housed a small Civil War Museum.  You had the option to either walk up the 34 flights of stairs to the top or take the elevator.  James and I, being the extremely competitive people that we are, decided we wanted to take the stairs. 34 flights didn't really sound that bad.  I mean we walked up the stairs in the Eiffel Tower and the Cologne Dome in 2009 so we weren't worried.  Anyway, we couldn't take Hudson with us because we had the stroller so James went first.  When he made it back down, he looked hot and exhausted.  I was next in line.  As I was about to go up, I noticed a sign that said, "Please do not attempt the stairs if you are afraid of heights or claustrophobic".  Lucky for me, I am both of these things, plus my only option was to go alone.  I tried to go up as fast as I could so James wouldn't think I was weak.    :-)  I would realize later, that was a bad choice.  I observed the beautiful view at the top then enjoyed the much easier 34 flight descent.  Afterwards our legs felt like noodles.  One day post stair climb my legs were sore.  Two days post stair climb, I tried to stand up out of bed in the morning and collapsed!  I told James that if I were able to go up and down 34 flights of stairs daily, I think natural birth with our second baby will be a piece of cake.  The only thing I feel could have made labor easier was some decent leg muscles.  Anyway,  more war memorials.

Happy Summer!