Trip to Baton Rouge

We went to Baton Rouge last week because Dean had a few days' worth of meetings, and Grant and I always love an excuse to go someplace new to explore! We got there on Monday night and had dinner with one of Dean's old friends from Alabama, Gabe, and his wife Diane. They had us over for pizza and we watched the national championship game. Gabe is the new bassoon teacher at LSU, so they've just moved there in the past few months. Grant of course wanted to explore everything, and he was particularly interested in their little kitten. He chased her all over the place! Diane is an amazing artist, and showed me some of her work. I never knew there were so many different ways to create art.....I guess I kinda just assumed it was all painting on canvas!

Anyway, we had a bad night that night at the hotel, as I had feared. Grant has just simply outgrown those pack n' plays, which is what they give you when you request a crib at a hotel. He woke up multiple times, and had to be rocked back to sleep each time. Dean hardly got any sleep, so the next morning, Grant and I explored around the city a little bit and then drove home! It was kind of a bummer, because it's a four-hour trip. But Grant did better than expected with the drive, so we just learned our lesson.....it's probably going to be best to avoid trips where he has to sleep in his pack n' play for multiple nights in a row.

One thing I learned, though.....even though we were only there for less than 24 hours, I was very pleasantly surprised by Baton Rouge. It's not a dirty industrial city like I had imagined. There were some really beautiful parts of it, and it seems like a really nice town! It's possible that Dean will be transferred there with work at some point, so at least now I'd be okay with moving there!

And something kinda fun....Dean was planning to rent a car and come home on Friday. Well, on Thursday afternoon, he called and we were talking for a while. Then the doorbell rang, and I told him to hang on a second. I looked out the door and could tell that it was a guy on a cell phone. Then it hit me that it was Dean! So he had come home early and surprised me....what a nice surprise, especially because it's a little hard being on your own with a toddler for a more than a few days in a row!