Doug's bee-u-tee-ful birthday cake
Has anyone seen "O Brother Where Art Thou?"...
We're In the Jailhouse Now....
Monell's Restaurant, in what was once the Franklin, TN jail
Gomer Pyle, I mean Ava, Hanging-Out on Her Daddy's Back
Notice the drooly chin... We're teething these days!
Grandpa Dean and "Boo"
She's a Happy Girl with Her Grandpa!
Ava Entertained by Grandma Dolly :-)
Ava in the BIG Rocking Chair at "The Factory at Franklin"
Shelly, Doug and Ava at Monell's Restaurant in Franklin, TN
Doug turned 34 years-old on July 3rd! I like to tease him that he is now officially "older than Jesus." HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUGGERS!
He had a great birthday. On Saturday we woke up, packed our bags, and drove to my Great Aunt Anita and Uncle Donald Prince's house in Columbia, TN. The drive was only 3 1/2 hours from Atlanta. My Dad and Dolly were planning a visit to Donald and Anita's, also. So, we had a mini-family reunion!
DONALD AND ANITA'S
Donald and Anita have a beautiful house and welcomed us with open arms. They live in the COUNTRY. They, like us, used to live in the Detroit area (they lived in Fraser), but moved to TN about a year and a half ago. Somehow we weren't diligent about taking that many pictures this weekend (it was that relaxing)... I wish we had some pictures of Donald and Anita and family to post here...
It was a full house, but that made the trip even better! My cousin Tiffany lives with Donald and Anita. She is a year older than me, so we had some fun hanging-out when we were growing up. It was great to see her! Donald and Anita's middle son (Tim), his wife Sandy, and their sweet 17-month old daughter Halle are staying with them while their house is being built in Brentwood, TN. Tim and Sandy's house should be finished in August. Donald and Anita's 14 year-old grandson (Brian's son Donovan) is also staying with them for the summer. So, we crashed the (already big) party...
And the party continued to get bigger...Aunt Anita's youngest sister (Aunt Cheryl) also drove up from Harvest, AL on Monday after work, with her husband Michael. It was GREAT to see them, too!
Aunt Anita has some FANTASTIC books on the history of the Griffith family. (The Griffiths came from Llanddewi, Cardigan, Wales in 1715, settling in Chester County, PA - which I knew from previous geneology research). I was really enjoying looking at the books. She has quite the collection of family pictures, too. It was really cool to see a picture of my Grandma Nila in her school days. She was beautiful! Anita also confirmed that Mee-Maw wasn't quite 5 feet tall... I am still amazed Mee-Maw was able to successfully give birth to Pa (Fred Griffith), born weighing 13 lbs? How is this possible? :-) And he was the first of five kids. Oy, yoy, yoy!
BIG GRINS
Ava seemed to love seeing her Grandpa Dean and Grandma Dolly this weekend (especially when Ava wasn't in pain from her teeth). She reached for Grandpa Dean twice! She was all-smiles with BIG GRINS for both Grandma Dolly and Grandpa Dean. I hear she was laughing big laughs for Grandpa while the girls were shopping. She is quite the happy baby!
LUNCH ON DOUG'S BIRTHDAY
On Monday during the day, we drove to Franklin, TN to do some shopping and enjoy the local fare. We went to Monell's, a family-style restaurant in Franklin, which is located in an OLD JAIL! So, I guess you could say we celebrated part of Doug's birthday in jail??? :-) It was wonderful food, and we learned to always pass to the left... Fried chicken, meatloaf, chicken and "dumplins", potatoes, creamed corn, green beans, beets, cucumber salad, cole slaw, sweet tea, and cherry cobbler. Yum!
After lunch, Doug wanted to look for a book on the architecture of Franklin and the surrounding area, so we walked a block to a neat bookstore on Main St. I bought some old cookbooks, but Doug didn't find the specific kind of book he was looking for at that store. We drove past a really cool house called the "Carter House". I'm sure he'll want to see something more on that house...
While walking around town, Doug toted Ava in an REI backpack. We got a deal on the backpack at a consignment sale before Ava was born. She is ALMOST big enough to hang-out on Dad's back now... She is quite the trooper, I would say.
Dolly was sweet enough to make Doug's FAVORITE salad (Winter fruit salad with poppy-seed dressing) for his birthday. It has cashews, swiss cheese, dried cranberries, pears and apples in it. They also bought a birthday cake for Doug. He took full advantage of the fact that it was his birthday :-)
The next day, 4th of July, consisted of more shopping (sure, twist my arm!) at TJ Maxx, Ross, and Rack Room Shoes. Tim is a real estate agent/broker, so the guys went house-hunting near Franklin.
CUTTING TEETH?
Ava seems to be cutting teeth, I think, on the upper left front side of her mouth. She was crying for part of the weekend like she was in some SERIOUS pain. We used some Orajel swabs in hopes that she would find relief. It seemed to work after giving it a few minutes to get into her system. I cut my first tooth at 2 1/2 months, so it is likely Ava will also cut teeth early. Part of the ride home yesterday wasn't easy (from Chattanooga to Atlanta) with her crying, so we stopped at Wal-Mart and bought some Children's Motrin. It seemed to do the trick after a bit.
We really enjoyed ourselves. We hope we didn't crowd Donald and Anita too much!
We hope you enjoyed the fireworks in your area... Hopefully no "sparkler-burnt" fingers!
With love,
Shelly, Doug and Ava
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