SHE'S B-A-A-C-K!!!!

SIGH....Ashlynn had been gone for a WHOLE week and
I was missing her so very, very much...
everything was so quiet...

so still...

so neat & tidy...


But happy days are HERE again! SHE'S BACK!!! YAY!! WHOO-HOO!!
She had a GREAT time in Mississippi visiting McCain Daddy and Grandma, but goodness we were glad to have her home. The house was much more normal...
more lively...

more fun...

and just a tad messier...


Looks like Gary and I weren't the only ones
happy about her being home:



WELCOME HOME ASHLYNN!!
We REALLY missed you! :)

TRUCKER TUCKER

While Tucker and tractors will almost certainly always be a winning combination, three of the Freeman Four recently realized just how much Tucker enjoys the rumble and rolling of big rigs. Recently during a trip to Tuscaloosa, AL, Tucker broke down into quite a fancy alternative to his "Tractor Dance," when a few 18-wheelers breezed by on the highway next to Captain D's. When one of the big rigs blew their horn (thanks to big sis Ashlynn's understanding of trucker sign language), Tucker exploded into a frenzy of toe-tapping, leg bopping, head banging, arm waving dance moves.

Too bad we didn't have our camera at the moment...

BUT...

we DID have the camera ready
when much to Tucker's DELIGHT,
one of those metal stallions of the road
arrived in our driveway
for Gary to weld.

• Tucker not only danced, he clapped and squealed at such a sight and he could not WAIT to test out that massive engine power.

• Being the kind-hearted son that he is, Tucker knew he couldn't hog all the fun for himself, so he graciously allowed Gary to try out the driver's seat.

It was an exciting day in the Freeman household...at least for one small member of our humble home.

dogs, river water, and tractors...

• Ahh...the river at Pickensville...with Ashlynn gone to Mississippi to visit her McCain family and the house lonely (and unusually quiet), we decided to jaunt down to Pickensville and join the elder Freemans for some peaceful grillin' on the river.

• Here is the "Head Grill Master of the Lamar County School of Technology" at work. No, really, Gary honest-to-goodness owns that title, courtesy of Coach Moss and the crew at the Vo-Tech. We know why too - boy can he grill a mean burger!

• Tucker kept his grandpa busy while picking up tips on "Da-Da's" method of grilling.

• Of course, the Freeman Canine Crew was in attendance. This is Mitzi...she's the smallest Feist dog I have ever seen. I promise you, her little leg bones are no bigger than a pencil!

• Lil'Bit spent much of her time hiding from the camera. Unlike her sister Mitzi (who hammed it up every chance she got), Lil'Bit was less enthusiastic about her photo-op.
  

• Tucker and his Grandma (and Lil'Bit) goin' on a walk. Wonder what they might find on their mini-adventure?

• HOLY MOLY!!! IS THAT A TRACTOR????!!!

• Why I believe it IS a tractor! This definately calls for Tucker's tractor expertise and the owners should not be shortchanged out of his careful inspection!

• After stuffing ourselves with too much burger, family fun, and tractor-inspecting, we admired the setting sun as it dipped below the river's horizon and cruised toward home.
  

Back to Reality...

• After a WONDERFUL few days in God's backyard, it was back to reality for the Fabulous Freeman Four:

• Messes to clean...

Don't 'cha just love how everyone "unpacks" by simply lugging their
stuff from the car to the house and then dropping it wherever it lands...
I assume in the hopes that the "After Vacation Fairy" will pay
them a visit...and she always does...ahem...
no need to thank me...excuse me while I
adjust my fairy wings... *wink*wink

• Beds to make (see opening photo)

• Laundry to do...ahh...the Laundry Fairy...another of my aliases

• Grass to cut...okay, there's "Chore Fairy Junior" workin' her magic

• Children to bathe...

• Check off "children to bathe" - that's been taken care of.
  

What? It's better than a baby-wipe wipedown bath!!

• Veggies to tend.

• Dogs to love (they REALLY missed us).

• And for some of us....

...naps to take.

Another tractor spotting

• After our fun filled time at the children's museum, we decided to go to Olive Garden and enjoy a nice meal, just us girls...well, and Tucker. Tucker enjoyed himself quite a bit, flirting with any girl he could find and playing with his Elvis and Prisilla rubber duckies we'd bought earlier in the week at a cute candle shop. For some reason, the men in our family (and in a few others we know) simply don't care for Olive Garden, but every woman I know seems to love it. Anyway, we decided to take advantage of the absence of men and Tucker's inability to express his opinion verbally, and fill up on breadsticks, salad, and pasta.
  

• We made a quick stop by the Lifeway Christian Store and Petco (where Tucker LOVED the fish and Ashlynn, Mom, and I loved the dogs), we went back to the playground behind the children's museum for some outdoor play.

• We were having a grand old time playing when all of a sudden, HOLY MOLY! IS THAT A TRACTOR??!!

• Well I believe it IS! Just butter me and call me a biscuit! This calls for a rousing rendition of the "Tractor Dance!"

• After our exhausting day, we retreated to our cabins where the men cooked for us...no, not fish...

...some of the BEST cheeseburgers we'd eaten in a LONG time. Yeah, the men caught quite a few fish on this trip, but they threw 95% of them back...or so they said.

Please play with EVERYTHING!

• After spending most of the trip thus far doing fun grown-up things like shopping, Mom and I decided to take the kids over to Florence, AL, for some fun at the Children of the Shoals Hands-On Museum. It was a GREAT amount of fun!

• We started in the music room. There were tons of things to do in there, but the big attraction for Tucker was the HUGE kettle drum...more specifically, he enjoyed hitting everything...and everyone, with the oversized drumsticks.

• 

• Remember the movie "Big"?

• In the construction area, Ashlynn and Mom got busy with the hammer and nails, while Tucker "plumbed" his little heart out with the PVC pipes.

• Tucker and I enjoyed playing with the puppets. Okay, I guess I enjoyed it even more than Tucker. :)
  

• Upstairs there was even more fun to be had, beginning with the dress-up and dance area. Well, the dance area really was dubbed that due to Tucker's sudden inexplicable need to break out in the "Tractor Dance," despite the absence of all things "tractor."

• After admiring Ashlynn in her "hippie gear" (isn't she beautiful?), we had some fun with the woodland puppets (still upstairs).

• Speaking of beautiful...I can't believe this is my daughter!! When did she grow up??!

• Here's a little segment I like to call "Pimp My Child," LOL.
  

• The Colonial Room was next. As you can see, Ashlynn enjoyed tricking Tucker into thinking she was from the past.

• Then she felt he should get into the spirit of things. I only wish we could have known his thoughts on the matter...

• Here is Mom and Tucker in a quiet moment enjoying some art. I wonder if Tucker thinks that cat in the picture is J.W. back at the cabin?

More time at the Tennessee River

• Here is a photo of Papa David and Ashlynn trying to convince Tucker that he really is a great guy. Back story: Earlier this summer, Ashlynn and David were playing around, roughly, and it freaked Tucker out. He thought David was hurting his sister and he did not like it one bit. Ever since then, he's been rather leery of Papa David. How many years of therapy are we up to now, I wonder?

• Do you think it's working?

• After a relaxing dinner of wrestling Tucker at the table, "shhing" Tucker at the table, taking Tucker outside where he did NOT burn his little finger on a spotlight, and then following Tucker around the restaurant as he practiced his possible career as a greeter, we went to the overlook at the dam.

• HOLY MOLY! IS THAT A TRACTOR???!!!
  

• Ah, yes. A tractor at the dam. Of course, it was the highlight of the overlook for Tucker. And of course, we did have to get a little closer to inspect it. Just another day with Tractor-crazy Tucker