:: Hangin' with my Uncle G (Saturday, April 11, 2009)

On Friday, I got a voicemail from my brother, Greg, saying he and Tucker (his oldest child) were going to be in Knoxville for the weekend. Tucker's basketball travel team would be playing in a tournament. They didn't even find out about the tournament until the first part of the week. So it was a nice surprise to know we'd get a chance to hang out a little. They live in Birmingham and we don't see them nearly as often as we would like. Tucker's first game of the day was at Thompson-Boling Arena at 8:30 a.m. So Dan helped me get ready and then Fenn and I headed downtown to meet up with Greg. (Of course, by the time we got there, the first game was over.) When we got there, Uncle G met us in the parking lot and opened the back door to greet Fenn. Fenn immediately took to Greg, even though he hasn't seen him since December. He quickly learned who his Uncle G is. If you asked him, "Where is Uncle G?", he would tap his finger on Greg's chest. And he would even try to say Uncle G, mostly coming out as 'uh geeee'. The nice thing for me was that Greg took Fenn and entertained him while we were there... giving me a wonderful (and much appreciated) break! It has been really hard keeping up with Fenn since I'm almost 35 weeks pregnant now. Greg went up and down and up and down the arena steps with Fenn. I'll be glad when he's big enough to do steps on his own. When do you start feeling like they can handle it without falling and hurting themselves???At first, Tucker was across the arena with his team. But then he did get to come over for a while and visit with us. He gave me a big hug, which I thought was pretty cool that a 16 year old was comfortable doing that in front of his teammates. But Tucker has always been a great kid! So smart and so talented (in many ways)... and handsome, too! He looks SO much like his dad when his hair is cut short.

During the 2nd game, Fenn was snacking on some Goldfish crackers......and then he decided to share with his Uncle G. We were actually sitting at a table right there at courtside.We had to head home shortly after the 2nd game started so Fenn could take a nap. But we joined up with Greg later in the afternoon for a late lunch at Tomato Head on Market Square. Then we headed back to the house to hang out. Greg had to go back to another game at 8:30 that night. He had planned to go to church with us the following morning for Easter service, but then Tucker's team won again and he found out they had an early morning game. They made it to the semi-finals before getting knocked out of the tournament. Thanks, Greg, for giving us a call. We're glad you were able to stay with us on Saturday night.