While March may have roared in with rain and snow, it has yielded to a mild and dry spring as it exits quietly. The middle and end of this month have flown by with some of the most fun that we’ve had so far this year. Who thought that a family with two injured adults could stay so busy?

We celebrated Saint Patty’s day early this year with a quick trip to our favorite stand by, Rock City –or in this case, Shamrock City. Green currently holds rank as Ian’s most favorite color. I think brand awareness has quite a bit to do with this. Thanks John Deere. So of course Shamrock City completely satisfies Ian’s green obsession with the green waterfall, green kettle-corn, and green shamrock beads given out. The absolute best part of our Rock City visit was spending it with Amy and Charlie! We got to see Charlie right before his big birthday. I can’t believe he is a big five-year-old now!

From Rock City, we slid on through the month and made it to a Saturday dinner with some of our favorite cousins, the Ziegler! Brent grilled the most amazing steaks, and Karen provided us with a beautiful salad with so many sides that I think I’m still full. They didn’t warn me in time that Emily was going to make a mouth-watering strawberry strudel that I had to eat despite coming close to exploding. They also didn’t warn us that we had walked into an active war zone. After arming a four-year-old with a Nerf gun and foam bullets, Emily explained that there was a closet dedicated to this sport, and the entire family participated in battle, cousins not exempt. As the acting field journalist, I managed to catch quite a bit of friendly fire, but I’m pretty sure Brinn spent the evening without thinking about his sore elbow at all. And Ian slept the entire drive home to Cookeville and well into the next morning. Thanks guys! We were happy to sleep in on Sunday!

Last weekend the Muddy River Festival took place on Spring Creek, our home creek that runs just a few miles past our house. A local festival meant lots of boaters around our parts! While the surgeon has told Brinn he could begin doing some light paddling, Brinn was ready to get back on the water. Terry rolled into town Thursday night, so he and Brinn were able to take Ian out for his first ducky trip down Clear Creek, then Ian was off to his Nana’s to spend the weekend on the sailboat. Ian also managed to get in a trip to the aquarium in Gatlinburg, and quite a bit of time at a park on the lake. I’d like to think that he missed his parents, but largely he was too busy having fun with his Nana to spend any time talking on the phone with us. After the departure of Ian, we spent Saturday hanging out with good friends around the creek, Brinn ran Spring Creek with a giant group of our friends, then many of those friends made their way back to our house for a very informal, loosely planned dinner. It was chaotic and disorganized, two conditions that typically make me insane, but actually we had the most amazing time. Wes and Rachel sautéed peppers, mushrooms, and onions in a ton of butter with Worcestershire to go on our sandwiches while Racheal and Wayne brought fresh deli rolls and so many chips (I may have eaten half a bag of black pepper chips by myself). I’d left a crockpot going all day while we were at the creek so we had warm shredded Italian Drip Beef to pack into the rolls and smoother with cheese. Alanna made three calorie loaded desserts, and darn if they weren’t all delicious! The last I’d heard, Todd had decided not to come to the festival, but then he magically showed up in the living room behind me. We ate in shifts as people arrived, and I’m pretty sure I ate with each new person that walked through the door. I’m sensing a theme with my food intake every weekend.

As the festival wound down, Brinn and I found ourselves faced with half of a Sunday with no child. While compulsion encouraged us to go pick up Ian early, we trespassed on Nana’s patience a little longer, and we went to lunch together to a restaurant with no children’s menu! Amazing how much fun two adults can have doing nothing but eating and talking when all they have to worry about is eating and talking. We look forward to be able revisit the Bull and Thistle again soon, and hopefully when one of our friends is playing there with his band.

Before March has totally disappeared for good, Ian managed to add a little more variety to our lives by bringing home two ducklings from Tractor Supply. Brinn swears that he had left Ian looking at the ducks while he went to find an item he needed to purchase. When he came back, Ian had talked someone into boxing up two of the baby birds for him to take to the front register. Angie, are you reading this? I suspect you may have had a hand in this adoption scheme 😉 So now Ian has two baby ducks he’s caring for…in my living room. I feel like we just got his last batch of chicks out of the living room, but now the heat lamp and water trough is back. Ian’s a little older and a little more careful this time around, so now he has birds that run to him instead of away from him. He’s been enjoying taking the ducks outside for walks and watching them waddle across the yard to catch up with him. Unfortunately Ian woke us up at 5:00 AM this morning to inform us that he’d been up to check on his babies and they were doing good. To be honest, at 5:00 AM I would not have been upset if they were not well.

So here’s hoping for an April that’s just as busy with friends and family, but maybe with fewer avians.