Mississippi Trip: Part 1

Well we made it!  The trip was a mixture of awesome/horrible/sweaty and a lot in between.  I have so much to share that I'm breaking this up into 2 posts.  I'm still trying to get back in the swing of things/still trying to catch up on sleep so forgive me if this post is all over the place.  And off we go to a magical land that is Columbus, Mississippi:

*I should preface this trip by saying that the last time we were in MS was 3.5 years ago for pilot training. We had Rascal, I was 33 weeks pregnant, and traveling from there to here wasn't too big of a hassle.*  Ok....so last Tuesday at 12:00 pm we hit the road!  The car was packed, kids were fed, sanity pills were taken (ok not really, but if they existed, I would have taken them), and we were off!

Even the driver got in on the 'start of the vacation' picture taking.  We may also have been driving through Iowa which is pretty thrilling.

We did a lot of this on the ride down there. *Brag moment: Brady didn't have ANY potty accidents on the drive there or back!!*

Yeah and a lot of this too.

And a ton of this.

We made it to our destination for the night, Springfield, Missouri without too much trouble. It was about a 5.5 hour drive there from Omaha. We stayed in a cheap Econo Lodge hotel and my kids seriously thought we were in a palace. I think I need to take them on more vacations because this hotel room absolutely thrilled them.  Oh my goodness, it goes from carpet to tile! And they have cups we can put our snacks in! Oooh and beds! And a tv!  It thrilled them so much that they were up until 11:00 pm (oh and did I mention that child #1 did not nap in the car?) so that made for a good start.

We had to get up bright and early the next day to pick up Nana (whom I will refer to from now on as saint Nana) from the airport in Memphis by 1:15. There was lots of screaming from children (who we pretended weren't ours) as we got packed up and out.  I'm pretty sure the kids fell asleep the minute we got in the car though, screaming is tiring.  We drove through the Ozarks and saw some pretty interesting people and things, watched a lot of movies, had many more potty breaks, did some more screaming, and 6 hours later we were in Memphis.  The kids needed to stretch their legs so we found a park outside of Memphis in Olive Branch, MS.

The first thing we saw in Mississippi was fried chicken on the ground. I can't say I was surprised.

We got out and the humidity hit us like a brick wall. The kids were all about the playground but their poor Scandinavian/Midwestern selves were hot messes after about 5 minutes.

So fun....but so hot

Finally after 3 more hours in the car we made it to Columbus!  The kids got out and were ready to check in to the hotel.  Layla was ready to show all of the pilots her goods.

"Come on Layla, let's find our room."

Getting our stuff into our TLF (temporary living facility).  It was 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and the best part was the AC. Even my camera can't handle the humidity.  We kept it pretty low key that evening. The kids were just happy to not be in carseats and had fun running around the TLF.

The next morning (Thursday) we got up early and headed to the park to play.  No, it wasn't hot at all. Only a heat index of 108.

Columbus had a pretty awesome playground. If it hadn't been so warm we could have enjoyed it more!

Brian enjoyed it too.

In the afternoon Brian had groomsmen golfing at the country club in West Point, MS so I dropped him off, met another spouse who's husband was in the wedding, and then headed back to the TLF to hang out with the kiddos.

After golfing we got some good 'ol Southern BBQ.  The kids were thrilled.

That night was the combined bachelor/bachelorette party. They had this pretty awesome party bus they rented from the base that took us all around.  Excuse the blurry picture. 

Apparently my phone had had a few drinks as well. This was Dom (one of the groomsmen that Brian went to the Academy with), Brian, myself, and Steve, the groom.

We had a great time! Too good of a time out. We paid for it the next day when the kids got up nice and early.  

Saint Nana and Layla just hanging out at the TLF.  Seriously can't thank her enough for watching our kiddos while we were out and about at wedding activities. We had 3 date nights in a row. It was crazy awesome. And the best part was knowing that the kids were in good hands, and were having a good time. 

Brian had a tux fitting Friday morning and we went out to lunch with Dom and his wife, Mary.  It was kind of a zombie morning but it was fun eating at a restaurant I had loved while we were there!

We took the kids to the base pool in the afternoon and they had a blast.

This was about 1 minute before Layla pooped her swimsuit. 

What??

That evening was the rehearsal and groom's dinner at the country club in West Point, MS

This is at the groom's dinner. Brian  was being introduced by the groom (Academy buddy) and he got a super cool engraved Louisville Slugger bat! Brian and the groom share a love of baseball so that was really neat!

The next morning (Saturday morning) we went to Bean's and Cream which was the coffee shop I used to work at.  It was crazy being back here. This was the place I found out I was pregnant (yeah I took a pregnancy test in the bathroom at work, don't judge me!) and worked at while I was pregnant. We kept telling Brady that he'd been there and was in Mommy's tummy here. He was super confused!

Brady enjoying Beans and Cream

Layla and Nana had fun too!

Trying to get a family picture..this one's a framer for sure!

Brady took a picture of us too..such a great picture of us

We ended the morning with a trip past the Falcon Lair Apartments where we used to live. It looked a lot like it used to (just missing an L now). 

Coming in Part 2: The wedding, the trip home, and the summary of things I learned on this trip!  Till then I'm going to catch up on some sleep! Later y'all.