Spring Break!

YAY! Blessed Spring Break! As BYU students, we never had a spring break (something about being able to fit all the semesters into the calendar year...some silly nonsense). Our winter semesters were long, cold and absolutely sucked dry of any opportunities to forget school and travel somewhere warm and forget you practically live in the North Pole.

So, you can imagine our excitement when we realized that UK Law students are given five whole days to forget words like "de minimus" and "constitutional interpretation" and actually spend time with their families! Our original plan was to fly to Oregon to visit with Jeff and Ashlee and their adorable boys, but unfortunately I would have had to sell my right arm (we considered it). So, instead, we went to visit my mom and Sarah and Perryn in South Carolina!

The weather was INCREDIBLE. Sunny and warm everyday. I'm just thrilled to be back in Kentucky, where it's frigid. At the end of March. And snowed on the first day of Spring. Woot.

But, let's get to the point. The photos.

The first Saturday was Greenville Zoo day! Jackson was an all star. Not only did he have a blast, he only cried when we made him leave the elephants and he fell asleep in his stroller (with a pretzel in one hand and his snack cup in the other).

He would have walked right in there if he could have.

Checking out the farm animals with Grandma.

This is his "cheese" face. I crack up every time.

Walking with Grandma - she is the perfect height for little man :)

Checking out the alligators and snapping turtles.

Lion! Don't worry, Jackson roared at him the entire time.

Giraffes!

 The Zoo is inside a giant park area that has an incredible playground, a bike path and shelters with picnic tables. It's pretty sweet. So, we grabbed a bite to eat while little man napped and then PLAYED. This little guy had a blast. This playground is the king of all playgrounds. It had three separate areas (one for younger kids, one for older kids and a giant area of just swings), had the awesome rubber floors (is it just me or do wood chips drive everyone nuts?), had shades over two of the areas, had seating all around it, and had the COOLEST playground equipment I've ever seen. I guess what I'm saying is, if you are ever in Greenville, I'm pretty sure your children will worship the ground you walk on if you take them here.

Slide addict!

Just in case those pictures weren't enough, here's a video of him going down the slide too. (Are we those crazy parents who take pictures of everything?)

AND Just in case you didn't believe me about the playground, here's a video that sort of shows how awesome it is. It's kind of long, so unless you seriously doubt my judgement in playgrounds, I wouldn't recommend it :)

During the week mom was at work so we did lots of little random things like:

1. Sew my first skirt! I almost tore it to shreds and threw my machine out the window at one point, but it turned out decent enough :)

2. RUN! It was sooo awesome to run outside and to be able to take Jackson. (Okay, to be honest, it isn't that awesome to take Jackson. He gets bored and cold and throws things out of the stroller.)

3. Visit Apple Dumpling. My all-time favorite antiques mall.

4. Visit the Anderson museum. There was an awesome miniature circus and train that Jackson loved. Also, a model of a fancy home in Anderson where you could press buttons and turn on the different lights and see the different rooms. He was pretty excited about the buttons.

5. PLAY! We went to lots of different playgrounds because it was so warm outside.

6. Watch home movies.

We went to a playground a little past Greenville one afternoon before we met Cam and Em O'Sullivan for dinner (SO good to see them!). It was pretty awesome too, but after the park at the Zoo, I'm pretty skeptical :) Although, I will say there were a lot more cool slides at this park, so Jackson was a pretty happy camper.

He was really excited about being a lion, can you tell?

Note to self: Don't let Jackson eat snacks while playing at the park. He came home with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. 

On Friday, we drove to Asheville, NC to spend the day checking out galleries and exploring. We originally planned on going to check out the Biltmore home but it was FORTY-FIVE dollars per adult. WHAT? $90 dollars for our family - that's like our electricity bill. I was pretty bummed. So we opted to walk around the cool shops and galleries instead.Mom met up with us for dinner at Tupelo Honey (delectable.) and then we headed back to the hotel.

Side note: Finding a hotel that has pack and plays (not actual cribs) and bathrooms big enough for said pack and plays to fit inside them is no easy task my friends. (Yes we called hotels and asked them if their cribs fit in their bathrooms. This is serious business). But alas, my extremely talented and patient husband did just that. Thank you, Sleep Inn.

Jackson went to sleep like a champ even though the toilet was protruding into the mesh of his pack and play. And then we proceeded to watch a miserable UK basketball game. Bummer.

Saturday, we had an awesome morning strolling around Grove Arcade and other shops. Unfortunately, my only photos from our time in Asheville are these ones. But, they are stellar.

Jackson's "cheese" face. He had a whole crowd of elderly people laughing at this one :)

Our last stop was the River Arts District (a few blocks crammed with artist studios that is open to the public on weekends). This was my favorite stop. We met some awesome artists, saw some awesome work and I coveted their work spaces. It was a marvelous time.

Thanks for letting us come and play! We had a blast.

February Fun :)

I just realized that I hadn't blogged for a whole month. Whoops. We haven't been doing anything too exciting, so I guess I haven't felt the need to update. But, I suppose I can think of a FEW cool things :)

1. Crafting update.

I've been a little bit of a lame-o with my crafting adventures, but I promise I have a good reason. All my nap times have been spent working on my newest passion: reclaimed wood creations. I'm getting closer and closer to opening up my Etsy shop and when I do, I promise to post pictures of my creations. Although, here is a little sneak peak of what I've been up to:

2. Play dough.

Jackson and I made some play dough this month! It was super easy to make ( I can't find the recipe that I used, but this one looks pretty close: homemade play dough) and Jackson had a blast! Although the amount of play dough that got ground into the seat of the chair has discouraged me from doing it every day.

3. Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day was pretty awesome! Chuck surprised me on the 13th and took me out to dinner at one of my favorite places in Lexington, Bella Note (absolutely delicious Italian food). We were going to go to a movie, but by the time we pulled into the movie theatre it was 10:00pm and we were too tired! Does that make us sad old fogies?  I think so. But at least we had an awesome night out! There is nothing like some good one-on-one adult conversation with the hubs to make a girl happier than a clam. Thanks, Mom and Dad Krebs for watching the little man for us :)

4. Library Activities.

We've started to go the library every week for the weekly story times. Jackson LOVES the library. I'm not sure what his favorite part is: all the books, the train table, the puzzles, listening to stories, the music time or playing with all the toys at the end of the class. It's a blast for both of us :)

5. Waiting for good weather to show up.

This little guy is dying to get outside more! The few days we get out to the park are good ones.

6. Cooking, of course.

Every. single. day. Jackson wakes up and runs into the kitchen, pulls his chair out, climbs in and starts cooking away. Recently he has been methodically scooping flour from one bowl and placing it into another. It gets pretty messy, but he can play there for hours so it makes doing dishes, cleaning the kitchen (minus his little corner) and cooking dinner a breeze (mostly).

7. Weight lifting.

You know, just a little light exercise. Sometimes I do work out videos during Jackson's nap and forget to put the weights away. This is what happens.

And I do promise that I am working on my great grandma's dresser like I said in my last post (I've got the handles changed and removed the mirror, but I'm still working on fixing up the scratches). February has been a great month for us and we are getting SUPER excited about summer and warm weather :)