Convention Wrap-Up

We're back!

And to follow up my last post, I didn't get to go to either of the events I mentioned!

Still, the Opryland resort is a beautiful place - an indoor garden, but more. They have an indoor river, an island, and the most garden-y room is called a conservatory, like in Clue :)

Rob said there was a ballerina dressed in ivy who danced through the "town" (i.e. shopping area on the island) and wrapped her arms around lightpoles. He said when she was still she looked like a plant and if you didn't know she was a dancer, you wouldn't have known she was any different from the rest of the foilage.

We did not stay at the Opryland, we stayed across the street at the Radisson. The first night, we forgot to ask for a crib before bedtime was imminent, so Annalise bedded down in a dresser drawer!

Caleb slept on the floor the whole time.

Back to my last post - we WERE all planning to go to see the president speak, but to ensure a seat, you really needed to show up 3 hours early. I was trying to imagine how we would manage this with Caleb's intense need to climb things, so I backed out and my mom stayed back with me. But Rob and my Dad went. This is one of my Dad's pictures. He said that the secret service man in the picture made eye contact with him a couple of times!

Rob took this one. The two men President Bush is talking to are Tony Evans and James Dobson. In case you need further clarity, Dr. Evans is the black gentleman, and Dr. Dobson is the balding one nearer to the camera.

And we opted out of the Expelled preview - mostly because about the time it started, Caleb was melting down. So we found a quiet corner and had "tummytime".

Back at the Radisson, Caleb and Rob went swimming.

Fun!

I DID go to the closing banquet with Rob and Annalise. The original plan was for my parents to babysit Caleb and Annalise while Rob and I had a childless outing (otherwise known as a date). But I (groundlessly) expected that our hotel room would have a mini-fridge to store pumped milk. It didn't, so I didn't have anywhere to store milk.* So I figured I'd just strap on the Maya Wrap and take her along - which I did. And that would have been just fine except when I packed I didn't think she'd be coming to the banquet and packed a one piece dress. Yeah. Fortunately the Opryland is a very very nice hotel with very very nice, relatively private sitting areas in their ladies rooms.

So our adventure in the country music capital came to a close. Our flights today were on-time and uneventful. Now we just have to adjust to the time change and get back to normal.



*It is okay to leave expressed breastmilk at room temperature for about 3 hours, but I didn't know how long the banquet would be and wanted to leave enough for 2 bottles just in case. I knew I wouldn't be able to pump enough at the last minute for that.