Dinner with the Lindsays

We made it to Mississippi!!!

It's our first visit to the Lindsay's, even though they've been here for almost 2 1/2 years!

Our plane landed at 8am on saturday morning, and Denise was there waiting for us with a big poster saying "Welcome Biddles & Bacons!"

After taking a few minutes to track down our bags (we're used to baggage claim taking at least 30 minutes to start, not 15 minutes to finish!), we hopped in the car and got a quick tour of Jackson on our way to Vicksburg. Not too much to see. But it's absolutely gorgeous out here. The weather is perfect (overcast and only mildly chilly, just how we like it, and just like it was in the Bay). And it's so quiet you can actually hear yourself think.

We'll see how well that works out for us ...

We spent Saturday getting situated, meaning we took a good nap. Our flight was a Red Eye, so we were pretty tuckered out. After we woke up and got moving again, we all went out to dinner at the Ameristar Casino, a big showboat that's dry-docked on the Mississippi River. The food was great, especially the catfish, which Taryn and I were both surprised to find ourselves loving. But it's hard to go wrong when 2 thirds of the menu is either deep fried or smothered in honey butter.

After a good night's sleep, we woke up Sunday morning to a great home cooked breakfast. Jay & Denise are pretty handy in the kitchen. We also had plenty of coffee. I brought the gift of Starbucks VIA and changed Jay's life. We spent the day grabbing stuff from the grocery store to prepare for Thanksgiving, and to make sure we had everything we needed for the week. We also bought another Vicks Vaporizer for Eli - he's still struggling with mucus, but it's getting better. And we knew that Jay & Denise wouldn't mind having one around for James.

And I couldn't help but buy my Nephew a guitar. It's a little one, so he can start using it sooner than later. I figure I can teach him to play over Skype. I got it home and tuned it, then played a few chords for him. He's very interested.

Toward the end of the night, Taryn and I finally got around to getting Eli ready for some solid food. We'd been bad and skipped a couple meals, mainly because of the crazy travel schedule.

We put him in James' high chair and grabbed some of the baby yogurt that we'd just bought at the store. We hadn't tried it before, and were interested to see how he would take to it, especially since he hadn't been taking to much of anything for the past 2 months or so.

Surprisingly, it went as well as it could have. He started by making the same faces he does for everything solid that we put in his mouth. But his expressions evolved from the disgusted pucker, to the surprised mashing, then the excited salivating. We were so happy. We credit his cousin James for showing him how to do it right. James opens up like a little birdie for his solid food.

Here's a great picture progression that captures Eli's yogurt evolution ...

1st the initial aprehension and attempts at getaway.

Unhappily succumbing to the inevitable.

Horror and disgust.

How could we do this to him?

Feeling so wronged.

But wait a minute ...

That's not too bad ...

Yes Mommy, I will try some more ...

Hey Mikey, he likes it!!!

Cousin James was very proud to see his influence rub off for the better.

After dinner, we made our way into the family room and I grabbed the guitar to serenade the boys. Each took a turn at sitting with me to try their hands at strumming. Both did exceptionally well. Here's Eli working his magic.

The kid's a natural. And you can never start them too early.

Just ask Tiger Woods.