Adventure Science Center

Once we were done at the zoo, we moved over to the Adventure Science Center. It was MUCH cooler inside than it was outside at the zoo, so it was a nice change of pace. Ruston decided it was naptime, and THANK YOU to Dayna for having her Ergo so I didn't have to lug him around. He was so peaceful in the Ergo, which just strapped to my front and I didn't have a hurting back at the end of the day!

There were a ton of different exhibits at the ASC, I would liken it to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. Anyway, one of them was letting you feel what is was like for someone in a wheelchair, so here is Jason practicing his wheelchair skills.
Thea practiced this too, and did pretty well for her little size! Dayna followed and supervised behind her.
Once Ruston woke up from his nap, he found this large keyboard. Danelle was also in the back pushing the keys.
Ruston enjoyed making music with this.
Thea and Ruston also go a kick out of the rolling chairs... who cares about the wheels and buttons on the wall?!?!
While the littler ones were pushing chairs around, the older ones were getting ready for something major.
A trip to the moon! This simulator hooks you up to assist in changing gravity for you (basically), so you can feel what it's like to be on the moon and jump really high without much effort. Danelle and Shane are below...
Danelle and Jason...

I think they enjoyed that, although I hear the harnesses weren't the most comfortable!

Once again, Ruston found the strangest thing to be the most interesting: a ramp. Since he hasn't been walking for but a couple of months, he decided to practice his walking on uneven ground... up and down... up and down...
...up and down... up and down...
I also think Jason had as much, if not more, fun than the kids did. He LOVED the ball pit and the huge crane to practice picking up the balls. :)

Either way, at the end of the day, we were all exhausted!!!!!

Nashville Zoo

My sister's family (The Halls) came to visit us, and we had a bunch of fun! Dayna, Shane, Danelle, and Thea had never been to Tennessee, so we tried to introduce them to a couple of places.

We took a day to visit the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere as well as the Adventure Science Center (in another post). The kids had TONS of fun, although it was a very hot day! Ruston enjoyed some stairs he found at the zoo, and yes, his head is shiny and his hair is messed up because he has sunscreen in it.

We visited the petting zoo where there were goats throughout. Ruston didn't really want to touch them, but he was willing to sit next to them.
I think he had some sunscreen in his eye here, but like I said, he sat by them, and that's about it. Haha.
Danelle and Thea took turns brushing them too.
We also saw flamingoes...
...zebras...
...more zebras...
... and Dayna and Thea! Oh wait, those were the meerkats!
Ruston, however, was not very interested in the animals, but rather enjoyed climbing on this alligator. Don't worry, it's not real. :) Danelle and Thea were running around in the rest of the large play area that was nearby.
Proud of himself... king of the alligator!

George Strait, Reba, and LeeAnn Womack!

On September 11th, Jason and I went to see George Strait and Reba at the Bridgestone Arena. What a great evening together. Here is a view of Nashville going over the walking bridge to the arena. Just to think that in May the water was up over those stairs and into those buildings several blocks in... WOW.
And LP Field where the Titans play. All that greenery was also under water in May.
The stage before the beginning of the show.
LeeAnn Womack was the opening. She was awesome.

Then REBA!!

That woman sure has some pipes for her age!
LeeAnn and Reba even did a duet together... ask Jason what the song was because I can't remember. haha
Ronnie Dunn made an appearance for Cowgirls Don't Cry too.
It's amazing who will show up when you go to a concert in Nashville. Reba lastly came in her little yellow taxi to sing FANCY!

Finally to Sir George!


This last picture is George singing Wayne's song, The Fireman. It was pretty neat to hear a song being sung by a family member.

The concert was awesome... and LONG. We waited a long time to see this concert due to it being rescheduled once, so it was nice to finally see them, and the concert lasted until around 11pm, starting at 7. Awesome show, glad we went! And the best part was that Jason and I got out of the house and a night to ourselves while Ruston spent the night at Cindy's house. :)

Tennessee Nature

Tennessee has some of the most beautiful sunsets, sunrises, and nature scenes in general. Driving home one night, this was the sunset, and I just happened to have my camera in the car with me, so I pulled over (safety first!) and took a picture. It reminds me of the birds of paradise flower.

Then we have the sunset from our deck. I can never get enough of this view.
Living in the woods, we have a lot of little friends... hummingbirds included. I tried my darnedest to get a good picture of him, but he wouldn't hold still long enough! You get the idea, at least.
He has a habit of flying RIGHT by our heads when we're out on the deck. It's surprising how loud a hummingbird can be when they fly by your head and almost hit you!
And one more sunset picture from our deck. Anyone still wondering why we moved here?

The rains came down, and the floods came up!

I know... I;m WAY behind in blog updates!! Maybe I will catch up this weekend!!

Well, in one of the last posts I mentioned that Ruston's grammie (Rachel's mom) got to come visit for a week. She actually extended her visit about a day and a half due to the great Nashville flood of 2010!! May 1st and 2nd we got A TON of rain... about 13 inches in 2 days. The Cumberland River flooded something ugly, into Nashville and everything, but the dams along the river were also about to overflow, so they had to release some waters out of those. When they did this in order to prevent the dams from breaking, it caused worse flooding, including flooding Johnny and Cindy's house (Jason's aunt and our babysitter!). After the water receded, I went with Johnny and Cindy to assess the damage and take pictures (since I happened to have my camera and they didn't).
You can see the water line in these pictures. It got about 6 inches into most of the house, except down in the den, which got about 3-4 feet. You can see on the left in the picture above where the window is in the den.
Below is the dining room. That is MUD after the water had receded. There was mud EVERYWHERE.
Their laundry room also got about 3-4 feet of water. You can tell that the box freezer (full of meat and everything) had been floating, and this is how it was left.
Cindy pointing out the water line on the tv in the den.
And you can see the water line below which was in the dining room... like I said, about 6 inches.
More mud...

This is the backyard. We were surprised that all the toys were still there, although very muddy. In the back you can see some puddles that shouldn't be there.
This is another den picture. Apparently the blue tub used to be along the wall with that computer monitor sitting on top of it. That just tells you how much things were floating!
Down the road... that water is usually not there at all... and there is a road underneath that.
Yes, that's a school bus, and yes, that's a house. That school bus is parked in his driveway. At first we thought the bus had been carried there by the river (which normally is just beyond this house, not IN it), but later we found out he had parked that school bus there beforehand.
Another road covered by water that usually doesn't exist there at all.

This is the home of another relative of Jason's. The water was about half way to 3/4 the way up the walls in their home. They rented the house, and got lots of money from FEMA to replace their belongings (thank goodness!).
This is a picture of an outbuilding of a house that's along the river. Usually the river is at least 10-15 feet away from this building... and as you can see here, the building is almost fully submerged. If you look REALLY closely, you can see the mudline on the roof of the building... it really was almost completely under water. Another interesting fact: we thought about buying this house (which you notice is still for sale), but were told that the river floods every once in awhile. Good thing we didn't buy it!!
SO... since Cindy's house was flooded and they had to find places to live, Brooklyn came to live with us for about 3 weeks (until the end of school, then she wanted to be closer to her friends to hang out with them for the summer). Taco got completely spoiled during this time since she fed him A LOT. :)

I will also say that it was completely different to have to adjust to having an 11 year old living with us. Not only did I have another person to feed, but I had to make sure she got her homework done, and get up and to school on time each day! Eyes into the future....

Anyway, luckily the waters have receded, and the rebuilding has begun. It's amazing to see how quickly people have worked toward rebuilding things, and the charity around here is also amazing. Benefit concerts and whatnot... Nashville and Tennesseans really know how to help themselves instead of waiting for everyone else to help them! It seems like it was WAY longer than 6 weeks ago that this all happened!