Fall foliage tour PLUS bonus trip to Children's hospital in Tennessee!

This past weekend Avery and I went with my parents to see the fall foliage in the Smoky Mountains. My Dad was doing some business there, so he invited us to fly out with my Mom to North Carolina to enjoy the mountains for the weekend. Boy was it an eventful weekend! Not only did Avery have her first plane ride and travel to 3 different states in 4 days, she also had her first visit to the ER! More on that later. We arrived in Charlotte, NC late Thursday night and spent the night there. Then around noon on Friday when my Dad finished his meetings, we drove to Asheville and then on to Waynesville, NC to spend the night after a shopping and dinner break in Asheville. Our hotel in Waynesville was nestled on a mountainside and had a really pretty view. Saturday we took our time driving through the Smoky Mountains and enjoying the beautiful scenery. Along the way we stopped at a pioneer farmstead, which was an outdoor, walk-through exhibit. Avery really enjoyed seeing and listening to the chickens and roosters in the barn, seeing the hogs, and playing with sticks and leaves! Saturday evening we drove on to Pigeon Forge, TN to spend the night. If you've never heard of it or been there, it's a very touristy, small town that's similar to Branson, Missouri. They've got lots of shows and outlet malls. After doing some shopping Sunday morning at the outlets, we headed to a place called Applewood farm where they have an orchard, a restaurant, and sell apple products. Right when we got there, Avery got sick--yuck! After she got sick again while we were waiting at the restaurant, we decided to leave and just grab some fast food and head to our next destination, which was Chatanooga, TN. Unfotunately, she continued throwing up every 15-30 minutes all afternoon and into the evening. Around 7:00 we decided to take her to an urgent care clinic. They advised us that she needed IV fluids and bloodwork and sent us on the Children's Hospital. So we get to Children's around 9:00 or 10:00 and we begin the grueling process of urine cultures, blood tests, and getting an IV started on a sick baby. I have to say that it was pretty torturous as a mother to have to help restrain her and try to comfort her while all this was going on. But I knew it was for the best and I knew firsthand how much more quickly you recover when you do get the IV meds and fluids. So around 11:30 after listening to her beg for a drink for an hour, she had finally had over half of her IV fluids and they started letting her have a 1 oz. cup of gatorade every 10 minutes. She managed to stay awake for 5 cupfuls of Gatorade and then promptly conked out after saying "Avery go night-night". So we finally returned to our hotel room around 1:00 AM mentally and physically exhausted. Luckily, she did feel better yesterday and we were able to easily make the 1 1/2 hr drive to Atlanta to catch our flight back home. What a weekend! Although we did have a lot of fun, I think it would be an understatement to say that we now need a vacation from our vacation!

view from our hotel balcony in Waynesville, NC

crunching the leaves outside hotel in Waynesville

pioneer farmstead in the Smoky Mountains

pioneer farmstead

State Fair of Texas

Instead of going to the Oklahoma State Fair as we have in the past several years, this year it was the State Fair of Texas. Essentially, we traded in Indian Tacos and Cinnamon Rolls for Corn Dogs (actually sausage on a stick because Kendall and I got too hungry to keep looking for a corn dog stand) and Ice Cream. Avery's favorite parts were the Children's barnyard and a walk-through, hands-on exhibit called Little Hands on the Farm. The Children's barnyard was pretty standard, except they did have some baby zebras, ostriches and a couple kangaroos. But the Little Hands on the Farm thing was really neat. As you can see in the pictures, each kid got to wear a little apron and carry a basket through the exhibit, which had different little buildings and stops where they had to do farm chores like feed animals, plant seeds, gather eggs, drive a tractor, etc. It was really cute and Avery did a great job of following directions and performing her "chores". It was well worth the 10-15 minute wait. After working so hard at her "chores", Avery was exhausted and fell asleep in her stroller before we even got to the car. It was a fun day though, topped off by our Sooners winning another game! We may go to the State Fair of Texas now, but we still say Boomer Sooner! Scooping out her bag of feed for the animals

Feeding the hens and gathering eggs

Checking out the little piglets at the Children's barnyard

#2 has a name!

20 weeks

We officially decided on a name for little girl #2-- Kendall Brooke Bedichek. Even I am impressed with the speed with which we decided. Our list was pretty much the same as with Avery, except Scott added the name Kendall to it. I thought I was kind of set on something else already, but once I started trying the names out, Kendall just felt right and kind of stuck. So Kendall it is! Everything is going well with my pregnancy and I am feeling good. Much to my delight, I have had a lot less hip and lower back pain during the night this time around. Unfortunately, I'm sure it's just because my pelvis and hips are not so resistant to spreading now-- been there, done that. Kendall should weigh about 10 oz. now and be about 7 inches long. I am getting anxious now to start dragging out the tiny clothes and to get the room fixed up especially for her.


Belly rivals-- whose belly is bigger, mine or Avery's?