Last Summer Vacation--Jake

Hey everybody, hope you haven't forgotten about us.  Had a busy week last week, got to take a Labor Day weekend trip to Pensacola Beach Florida just in time for Tropical Storm Lee!

How exciting was that? Not very, constant winds and rain, but at least we got out of town for a few days, ate great food (mostly), and had wonderful company. And Tuesday, the day we were headed back for Memphis, it was beautiful of course. 

Friday through Monday night:


Tuesday Morning:

We did get a chance to go to the Naval Aviation Museum which was nice.  I suggest it to anyone who makes it to Pensacola and has to deal with rain or sun, it's free and can kill some long afternoon hours. 

On our way back from the museum we stopped at an old lighthouse that was built in 1859.  The sun popped out for a second so we had to move quickly to get any pictures! Melissa took this while her cousin and I went up the 177 steps to the top, it was quite the workout, and when we got to the top the workout wasn't over, we had to fight the winds that had been hounding us for our entire trip! Supposedly it's haunted, but we encountered no ghosts on this day.

Before I forget, the wind was so bad it blew up quite the jellyfish crowd, which luckily, none in our party got stung.

I know everyone is asking what does this have to do with All Things Daddy?  I'm getting to that.  On the day we were about to leave I got an idea, and I 'm glad Melissa decided to go along with this thought that I had.  I know everyone is familiar with traveling gnomes, but for those that aren't, I'll give a brief explaination.  You find someone's garden gnome, steal it (borrow) for a trip and just take photos of it at the different places you went to, returning gnome at the end with no harm done.  Well I'm applying this idea to Melissa's baby bump, without all the stealing. I have a small window of time to get this in, but here's the first, with many to follow hopefully.

Following up that weirdness, I'm going to end this blog on an awesomely high note.  First of all, I was supposed to do this earlier, when I got off work, but I procastinate with the best of 'em (thanks Pop). I feel I have a great excuse though, I just worked 1st shift after finishing up second shift from Friday night.  So, that means Friday I worked 4:00 to 12:30 am, and got into bed about 2 this morning.  Then had to be up and back at work at or around 10:00 am.  It just so happened Melissa had to go in today for on-call training so she was getting up early, and we all know when the spouse gets up, we aren't usually far behind(doesn't help the dogs wake up and proceed to lick my face too).  So instead of getting up at 9:00, like the plan was, I was wide awake at 7:00! These are good times though, we get to lay together and chat and check ipod/iphone news.  This morning was especially special though.  I got to feel the baby move for the first time.  Melissa told me Ethan was moving around, so I placed my hand, minus the Vulcan salute(see previous blog title There's a Baby in There), on her tummy and felt the little guy kick, or punch, or headbutt, it doesn't matter which.  It was just so awesome to feel him move!  I've said it before, but just like seeing him on the ultrasound, feeling him move makes it all the more real.  I love him so much and I don't even know him yet.