Happy Birthday, Daddy!

As we celebrated my 40th birthday a few months ago, we celebrated Jeremy's last nite. All along, he's been VERY curious as to why his party was almost a month before his actual birthday. What he didn't know is that his former golf coach had agreed to fly in from Washington state for the big event, so as soon as Randy said, "Yes," I said, "We'll plan things around you." It turned out that a month before Jeremy's birthday worked best for him, so we made that work for us - mostly by giving Jeremy some line about how the venue was booked all of September with Pisgah High School class reunions.

It worked. 

Jeremy was completely surprised when Randy walked in and joined the receiving line that had informally taken shape. It was an amazing moment. In fact, when Jeremy realized who it was, he hugged him. Then, he backed away to talk and brought it in again for another hug. I saw the two of them talking all nite, which was exactly what I wanted to have happen. It was awesome.

So were all of the rest of the guests. It was so wonderful to see them all - and I have to brag on my boys a little bit. They were EXCEPTIONALLY well behaved while their Nana and I decorated the Milltown Place earlier in the day on Friday. For an hour or so, they both sat so quietly in their seats (they pretended they were their "desks"), playing with whatever was left in their backpacks from our Boston trip (this was their "work"). I'd dreaded having them there with us, assuming they'd be all over the place and into everything, but boy, did they prove me wrong - and, in so doing, they made me very, very proud. I took a video (so I could text it to Brooke) so I would never forget.

That nite, they had a ball - visiting with their cousins (Ellery and Evan were there, as were Bobo and DooDoo) and making new buddies. Walker and Jack Miller were fast friends with Freddie. When they left, Freddie asked if those "Choc-it Boys" (they both have brown hair) could come to our house. I told their mama, Maria, that the next day. She said her boys had been asking the same thing! Baxter and Asa Hood were also a ton of fun for the boys to get to know.

The next day, they got to know Mr. Randy. Jeremy and Randy spent the morning together and then came home to take the boys for their first official golf lesson. We all headed up to Springdale, where Mr. Randy gave Jones and Freddie the same sort of instruction he'd given their daddy a really, REALLY long time ago.  When we left, Freddie asked if we could go back again. I'm sure we can.

OH! And lest I forget - Mr. Randy gave ME one of the best presents I have ever gotten. He brought me a file from a circa 1992 news story about Jeremy. The file format couldn't be recognized by my computer, so I played it on Randy's laptop and recorded it on my camera. Let me just tell you: it is a TREASURE. 

So was this wonderful weekend with so many who mean so much to Jeremy - and to me and the boys, too! 

Happy birthday to the man who is finally as old as I am ... well, almost.

"Ohhhh! Boston."

When it comes too opportunities to travel, 2017 is going to be tough to beat.

Jeremy and I started off the year in New York City. Since then, we've been to Myrtle Beach, Pawleys Island, Marco Island, and, now, Boston. We've got trips to Disney World and the Eseeola Lodge already on the books, as well. Add to that several weekends spent in Lake Chatuge, and the Pressley family can consider itself SPOILED ROTTEN.

I am so, so grateful for all of these opportunities. Still, it'd be hard to imagine a trip any more awesome than the one we just took to Boston. To be honest, Boston wouldn't even have been on our radar as a place we'd like to visit, had Jeremy not qualified for Allstate's National Conference there this year.

I've been a handful of times and never been all that impressed with it. Not only was it not my favorite place, it wasn't even in my Top 20.

As it turns out, though, the years between now and my last visit have been "bery, bery" kind to Beantown. We all had an incredible time - and man, did we cover some territory. We toured Fenway Park and took a three-hour trolley ride all over town. We fulfilled the boys' dream of riding in a "maxi car" (before the trip, if you'd asked them what they were going to do in Boston, they'd tell you "ride in a maxi car"). We rode the Swan Boats, went to Cheers, and ate dinner at a Smith & Wollensky's housed in what the boys called "Pete's Castle." We got a rental car (another highlight for the boys) and drove to Thomas Land (Carver, Mass. Both boys completed the THOMAS LAND CHALLENGE!) and, then, all over Cape Cod, where we ate a delicious dinner on the water in Hyannis.

We toured on a Duck Boat, which both boys spent a few minutes driving. We went to Quincy Market and ate at the oldest restaurant in the country. We concluded our trip with a lot of dancing on a dinner cruise through Boston Harbor. If you ask the boys, though, the highlights of it all were probably our runs through the Skyway that connected our hotel (Marriott Copley) to the adjacent Prudential Center. Or maybe our many rides up and down the hotel escalators. Freddie'd tell whoever was holding his hand: "When I say, 'hop off,' you hop off ... HOP OFF!"

Truly, it was an amazing and incredible trip, and perhaps the most amazing and incredible part of it was the fact that Jones and Freddie are becoming such easy travelers. There are few things in this world that could thrill me more than that.

Here's a video made mostly of pictures and InstaStories that pretty perfectly sums up our terrific trip.

I've already told Jeremy he's never allowed to miss out on another Allstate reward trip. They are the BEST.

National Nite Out

I'll say this for the Town of Canton. When it comes to families with young children, it is stepping up its game in a MAJOR way, and I am so grateful. This was reiterated to me at tonite's fantastic "National Night Out" event.

For the second year in a row, we hauled the boys out, thinking they'd be beside themselves to get up close and personal with many of the town's vehicles and public servants. When we got there last year, Freddie was somewhat excited; Jones, on the other hand, was terrified. He'd get nowhere near any of the vehicles - or the jump houses, for that matter - and we ended up leaving not long after we'd gotten there, because of one of his atomic fits over something I can't quite recall. The fit, however, I remember VIVIDLY.  In fact, I partially dreaded tonite, knowing the potential for a reprise existed.

Jones very quickly proved me totally wrong, though. He still wanted nothing to do with the jump houses (neither did Freddie, though he loved them last year), but there wasn't anything else he didn't do - from climbing in cab of the street sweeper (probably the boys' favorite) to climbing on top of a ridable tiger.

Freddie, of course, was the first to jump in every driver's seat available to him. It was in a driver's seat that, while playing with the CB of a Canton police officer, Freddie laid on the horn of the police car, causing everyone in the area to look up, startled. Later, the Waynesville Police Chief, who's a friend of Jeremy's (of course), teased Freddie about it.

We may not have a Target, Y'all, but there are MANY benefits to small town life. I'm realizing that more and more every day.

When the time came to go, we all headed back to "Daddy's New Beeg Car" without so much as a whine or a whimper. It was a GREAT reminder that Jones has come a LONG, LONG way - and a GREAT encouragement that, maybe, our upcoming trips to Thomas Land and Disney World will be the spectacular successes that I'm dreaming they'll be.

Fingers crossed and all that.

I told Jones this was for when he runs for mayor. 

I told Freck this had better be the last time he's
in the back of a squad car. 

Both boys took off like rockets on
these things. We asked the owner to
put them in the slower gear, so they
didn't kill someone! Also, at one point,
Freddie said to me, "I can't back up."
Boy has gotten spoiled with the reverse
gear on his "Alligator."