Chillin' at the TN Aquarium

Woo-hoo

12 Months of Gus!

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Happy Birthday, Gus! It has been a great 12 months!

Good Times

We're so far behind on our posts, that we'll just have to post a lot of pictures to help tell the story. Briefly, we enjoyed our little trip to Atlanta. Finished our time there with a trip to the GA Aquarium and some greasy food at The Varsity (the shakes we had were bigger than Gus). We didn't make it to the zoo or the botanical gardens, so we'll add those two venues to the list for our next trip down.

A few days after our return, Scott's mom, sister and niece came down from St. Louis for a five-day visit. It's been a while since we've seen them and we really enjoyed our time together. We went to Unclaimed Baggage (if you live near Chattanooga, it's really worth a look!), the Chattanooga Zoo and the TN Aquarium...along with just hanging out around the house. It was so fun to watch Gus interact with his cousin, Elizabeth Ann. He really likes her! Love you, gals! Thanks for coming!!!!!

On Tuesday, Amy's parents came to visit. They planned their last trip of the summer in such a way that it brought them through Chattanooga and here in time for Gus's first birthday. We usually work on a project or two while they are here. During this visit, Gus's high chair topped the list. It was a special project because Chris, Amy's dad, used that same chair when he was a child. It was great to get it sanded down, glued back together, stained and varnished in time for Gus's birthday party (one day early).

We had a great party with neighbors, other friends and the Deterdings, complete with carrot cake for Gus. Chris and Patti head out tomorow. They've got to get back to meet Gus's newest cousin, Leah, who was born late last night (CONGRATS, Steve and Heather!) Thanks for coming, Chris and Patti! Enjoyed our visit together.

GA Aquarium

Taking a break in front of the jellyfish exhibit.

Tagged

My friend Sarah has tagged me to do this, and proper blog etiquette requires that I comply.

Here are the rules:1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well
as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here are my facts:

1. I literally almost punched Scott when he was teaching me how to drive stick-shift. But learning it was one of my life goals, so we kept at it. Now whenever I drive our zippy little manual car, I get such a sense of satisfaction!

2. One of my favorite college memories (besides hauling peoples' mattresses around campus in the middle of the night and rearing baby fruit flies--this was for a grade, I swear!) was having class in the middle of a field at Mt. St. Helens when I took Environmental Biology classes through Au Sable Institute in Washington state.

3. I am a very schedule oriented person--so much so, that I actually delivered Gus ON his due date without being induced.

4. I was voted most likely to succeed in high school. I wonder what the definition of that is??

5. One of my goals is to visit all the U.S. National Parks. So far I've been to the Great Smoky Mountains, Shenandoah, the Grand Canyon, the Badlands, Crater Lake, Olympic, the Petrified Forest, and Redwoods. 8 down, 48 to go.

6. One of my favorite ways to relax at night is to watch ESPN's Sportscenter. Scott got me into it, but now I sometimes watch it even on nights when he isn't home.

7. If you know me, you'll know that I really don't like to break the rules. Unfortunately, my only very close friend with an official blog is the one who sent this to me. So, my last fact is that most of my friends are behind the times....which is just fine with me! So, I'm going to have to end the tagging here. Sorry!

GO CARDS!!

Scott's birthday gift from me this year was a trip to Atlanta to see the Cardinals play. We got some SWEET seats 5 rows off the field just past the dugout.

Scott snapped these sports magazine-worthy pictures before the camera battery died (he knows letting his battery die was NOT sports magazine-worthy).

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Gus definitely enjoyed his first Cards game, although he doesn't really look like it in this picture. He took a power nap on the drive over to the stadium and then stayed up for the entire game...4.5 hours past his bedtime! That's our boy!