Turner I haven’t been home to Mississippi since February, and it’s been even longer than that since Aaron has been home, so we decided that a trip to Mississippi was in order for this summer. It’s hard to see everyone that we want to see in just a weekend, so we opted to stay a little bit longer this time to pack in more fun.

We left Plano after rush hour last Thursday and drove half-way home. When we got to our hotel in Ruston, it was about 11:45 PM and Turner was WIDE AWAKE. He was so excited to be in a new place and it took us quite a while to get him to wind down. That was the first of many late nights for us!

On Friday, we had breakfast at the hotel and then headed out to Jackson to meet my dear friend, Alicia. We had lunch at a drugstore deli and enjoyed catching up. Our visits are never long enough, but I’m thankful that our friendship has endured all these years and we just pick up where we left off.

After lunch, Aaron and I took Turner to the Mississippi Children’s Museum. It was really fun! We spent a few hours there letting Turner explore. He enjoyed all of the exhibits, and we loved seeing him having such a great time. As we were leaving the museum, the splash pad was turned on, so we let Turner play in the water (fully clothed!) He had a blast until he ran head-first into another child and got a knot on his head. It was an abrupt end to an otherwise fun outing. We got Turner into some dry clothes, and he fell asleep shortly after we left the museum. We knew he needed some rest, so we drove over to the Trustmark park so Aaron could pre-purchase tickets for that night’s game.

We then drove over to a small restaurant in Jackson to meet Aaron’s mom and my friend Brittni for dinner.  (Not sure how we managed to NOT take a picture!!) Then we met a big group of family/friends for the ballgame and had a great night catching up. I spent a lot of time with Turner and Katie at the inflatable slides. They must have gone down the slide 20 times each! We left the game and made it to my sister’s house in Philadelphia around midnight. Late night #2 in the books.

On Saturday, we had breakfast at my sister’s house and then left Turner with my parents while Aaron and I made a quick trip to Kademi. We then picked Turner up and headed to Aaron’s mom’s house for a family cookout/birthday party for our niece. On the way there, we stopped to grab coffee in Meridian and ran into a close family friend.  It was really nice to catch up with her and with all of our family once we got to Aaron’s house.  Turner loved playing with his cousins. He was also so excited to play with a box of Aaron’s old toys from when he was a kid. We drove back to Philadelphia and got Turner to bed around 11 PM. Late night #3. I’m too old for this!

By Sunday morning, I was completely exhausted and spent some time being lazy on the couch. We headed to Geyser Falls waterpark around noon and spent a few hours there with lots of family before we got rained out. I loved seeing the excitement on Turner’s face when he swam in the lazy river by himself or went down the slides. On Sunday night, Aaron and I decided to divide and conquer so we could spend more time with both of our families. I went to church and out to eat with my family, while he took Turner back to Meridian to his sister’s house so Turner could play with his cousins. I think they got home around 10:30 PM. Late night #4!

Thank goodness that Monday was a lazy day! We went to my parent’s house and didn’t do much at all! Even though we didn’t have big plans, there is just something super special about taking my child to the house where I grew up. I’m thankful that he loves to go there and spend time with my parents. We sat on the front porch and watched the rain for a while. Turner and Katie made sprinkle cupcakes and biscuits with Papa and Lulu, and Aaron and I took naps to try to catch up on some of our missed sleep. We had a big family dinner that night. We got back to my sister’s house at a reasonable time and started working on packing up to leave the next day. Surprisingly, we were all asleep by 10:30 PM. Still late, but not terrible.

I guess all good things must come to an end, so we loaded up bright and early Tuesday morning and headed back to Texas. Turner slept from Philadelphia to Vicksburg, and then stayed awake until we got about 30 minutes away from home. He was such a trooper and did a great job being in the car for so long all day. We always enjoy our trips to Mississippi and can’t wait to go back!