Meet Barrett and Gary

These are pictures of Barrett and Gary. Barrett is my first cousin on my mom's side. She is originally from Atlanta, GA and attended school at UGA where she received her bachelor's in Special Education. After college, she moved to Reno, NV on a mission trip and decided to stay. She has been working on her Master's in Counseling from the University of Nevada at Reno. She has since decided that counseling is too depressing for her and will start nursing school in the Fall. Yes, Gary has tattoos all over his arms. He led a wild and exotic life before becoming a Christian and the tattoos are just a remnant of the life he once lived. They ARE pretty interesting, though! Gary is currently working on finishing up his degree in child/family services-- I think... I'm not sure. However, I do think Sam wants to be just like Gary when he grows up.... we'll see...
Barrett and Gary met at church a couple of years ago. They were engaged last Christmas and here we all are in Reno for their wedding. They will be married at Lake Tahoe on Saturday, I'm a bridesmaid and Sam is going to try to be the Ring Bearer.... yeah, right....He does have an awesome suit to wear so it's not all bad.
Barrett and Gary both enjoy the outdoors and "going green". They are vegetarians, have no TV and listen to music like Jack Johnson, Ben Folds, Iron and Wine, etc. They also have a chicken coop in their backyard but no chickens in it yet because the chickens are living in a cage in their house! The chicks are only a few weeks old. They wanted fresh eggs to eat so they bought 8 chicks. Classic hippies.

The Western Adventure

Our adventure to the West started Saturday with a plane trip from Nashville, TN to Reno, NV but not before stopping in L.A. to pick up a few more lonely people. Sam did great on the plane trip. He was awake for about an hour, then he had his "boisterous" moment before finally falling asleep on mommy. He slept the remainder of the flight until we got ready to land in L.A. Apparently the landing got him so excited that he peed his pants so much that it leaked out and looked like I had peed my pants, too! He stayed awake for the next leg of the trip to Reno and was so excited to get off the plane and see his Granna, Phee-Phee, Barrett and Gary.
Sunday Sam woke up bright and early ready to start his day. Barrett and Gary have a dog, Raburta, in the house and I'm extremely allergic to basically everything, especially dogs in houses. So I was doped up on benadryl and not really excited about Sam waking up at 5:30 in the morning. I sent him downstairs to play with the chickens that are also in a cage in the house.... redneck? maybe?
I finally woke up a couple of hours later, (Barrett was up taking care of Sam), and got ready for church. Barrett and Gary go to LivingStones church-- "a church without the religion"-- and Sam was entertained. So much so that he fell asleep halfway through. It was a great sermon on the comparisons of Abraham offering Isaac and how God offered Jesus. Maybe I'll post about that sometime later. After church we went to eat and then to the mall for Barrett to return a few things.
While at the mall, Sam fell back to sleep and I was VERY drowsy because of the benadryl. He woke up crying at one point, so I reached down, picked him up and then found a couch to go sit on. It was near the dressing rooms so I assumed Mom, Phee-Phee, and Barrett would see us. Well, I fell asleep with a heavy dozing child on my chest. I woke up a few minutes later feeling very well rested but a little concerned that I hadn't seen the Crew in a while. I got up and walked around the department store, but still didn't see the Crew. I headed down the escalator (Sam is still sleeping and getting VERY heavy), turned a corner and saw my mom walking quickly toward me without the stroller. I asked her, "Where have ya'll been? I've been looking everywhere for you!" to which she replied, "Where have we been? Where have you been? We've been looking for you two for an hour and a half! Mall security is looking for you!!!" There was also a search party following mom around. I was embarrassed and flabbergasted. I couldn't believe that it had been an hour and a half! It really was one of the most memorable naps I've had in a long time. Sam woke up and was just as happy to see everyone. I called my Barrett and Phee-Phee to bring the stroller and come pick us up. The search was over.
Other than that, not much else has happened. Sam is into Raburta's dog food and dog water all the time. He puts his arms around Raburta and they give each other kisses. It's semi-sweet, semi-disgusting!
I'll try to update again tomorrow and post some pics.

New Blog

This is Sam's new blog. We were tired of the old one and he wanted somewhere new to post about all of his adventures. So, we're going to try this.