Sunday, May 10, 2009

Trip to Georgia

The trip started out by meeting up with my family (Mom, Dad, Robin, Macie, Raina, Ster, Lisa, Owen, Emily, and Ellis Barlow). Yeah, just a few of us. They picked me up in Tremonton, and then we headed down to SLC airport. Our flight didn't leave until 3, and we got there at 12. If any of you know my family... yes we were early to something! So needless to say that we had a little time to spare. I was quite nervous about Preston flying because he was just getting over having an awful cold. He ended up doing really well. He definitely had his times, but for the most part he did really well. We flew from SLC to Atlanta and then to Birmingham, Alabama. Our final destination was Atlanta but the tickets were a fourth of the cost to fly into Birmingham, which is about three hours from Atlanta.

This is Preston rolling on the yucky airport carpet. :)
Preston and Macie giving each other loves.
Preston was amazed at the city lights as we were landing into Birmingham. And yes, he loves his mommies hair!
This is an awful picture, but I couldn't miss the opportunity of how Johnston's 'dine in'. On our way to Atlanta from Birmingham we stopped at a Wendys and all got something to eat and ate it in our cars. Mind you it was at midnight. And as you can see we rented rent three cars for all of us to fit... comfortably. We finally arrived to Trica's parents house at 3 am. They were so excited to see us. Even at 3 am! It felt like were staying at a hotel. We had our own bedrooms and bathrooms. Food was everywhere! It was great! It was so nice to reaffirm the type of person that Aden was marring. Tricia is a wonderful person- Aden is lucky to have her- and her family is just as great.

The day before the wedding we were able to go and sight see Atlanta. Tricia's sister, Kristen, and her husband were our tour guides. They were great. They were full of interesting facts and placed to see. We started out by going to the underground mall. I have to say that I have never felt like the minority before. We were the only white people there. After that we headed to the Capitol building. It was fun to see the history that is there. We also went to the CNN building, and a hotel that my dad wanted to see. I can't remember the name, but it was fun to go there. He said that when he was activated in the service he stayed there... years and years ago. It was amazing to see the memories of that time in his life come back.
After the sight seeing we went back to Tricia's sisters house and we all met for pizza. There are 10 kids in our family AND in Tricia's! And to make it even better, Tricia and Aden are both the youngest! All of our siblings were there. And I think that 9 of Tricia's siblings were there. It was crazy with people. It was fun because Aden introduced Tricia's family and Tricia introduced us.
After all the eating was done the shears came out and the haircuts began. Aden was definitely first. His hair was so crazy... as you can see from the above picture. I will be posting pictures of the wedding in my next post.
Blake wasn't able to come with Preston and I to Georgia. He was having a hard time letting us go. And by us, I mean Preston. Blake seriously considering asking his mom to take some vacation and keep Preston! I see where the love is. :) But as you can see Preston came with me. My family was so helpful with him. Blake is such an active parent that it was quite a shock to not have him around to help. It was really good for Preston to get to spend some time with my parents.
My dad was so good with Preston! It was fun to see them interact with each other. This is a great picture of the back of some strangers head... but in the background is my dad giving Preston a piggy back ride in the SLC airport. My dad is somewhat of a germa phobe. -I say that with love- and I set Preston down on the floor, the yucky airport floor, to give my arms a rest from holding him, and the next thing I know my dad is giving him a piggy back ride. He was so great to help with him. He is such a great Grandpa.
Here is Uncle Sterling holding Preston on the flight. At this point Preston was getting restless. It was the end of a 3 1/2 hour flight.
Any of you that know Preston know that he is an amazing eater. I have to say that that quality of Preston is my dad's favorite. When you feed Preston this is usually the sight that you see. Mouth wide open asking for more.
Emily helping with Preston. She was such a trooper. We traveled so much and she always had a smile on her face, even with being 8 months pregnant!
After the wedding Tricia's parents took us to Stone mountain for some more sight seeing. Stone mountain is a HUGE piece of granite. And they said that only a 1/3 of the stone is actually exposed. There is a carving in the mountain that measures to be an acre. I am totally making up these facts... but they sound good. They facts are, well I don't remember, but something like what I said. If you want the REAL facts you can google it. :)
We took a ride to the top of the mountain and this is a picture of the carving. It is of General Lee and a horse.
This is a picture of Atlanta's skylight from the top of the mountain.
Tricia's dad sharing his hat with Preston. He thought that was fun.

While we were on this trip Preston started getting really constipated. Poor little guy! We finally got that under control.

Preston's schedule was totally out the door while we were traveling. Poor little guy! Luckily we drove enough for him to get some sleep.
On our way back to SLC. Preston was amazed by my bubble gum bubbles.

On all of our flights the last one was the only one that I got to use Preston's car seat. It was really nice. We each were able to have our own row of seats.
On our way driving to Adrian, Preston was really thirsty! What a cutie pie!
This picture may look familiar to some of you, but for journaling purposes I am re posting it. This is when I started putting Preston on the toilet. This came about because he was constipated and I was running low on diapers, not because I am trying to potty train! Lisa suggested that I try it. It actually helped, because of the position that it put his legs.
While I was at my parents Preston started doing his army crawl thing.
Needless to say Preston really missed his daddy. He was very excited to see Blake after 7 days!