Our Trip to Tennessee

What a fun weekend! I can't believe that it's all over. You wait and wait and wait for a vacation to come and then it always seems like it's over in the blink of an eye. We had a whirlwind trip and got to see a lot of our Tennessee folks. On Thursday morning, we flew to Birmingham and then drove to Chattanooga. We were originally scheduled to take the second leg of the Southwest flight on to Nashville, but Lee came up with the idea to deplane early in Birmingham and it saved us a few hours of travel time. Ellie was no problem on the plane at all *thankfully*. She was glued to the window of the plane for the first 20 minutes and then crawled back and forth between us in the seats. Thank goodness we had the DVD player because she spent the last 30 minutes of the flight watching Sesame Street. Elmo always calms her inner beast.





As soon as we arrived in Chattanooga, we met Lee's aunt Judy for lunch and then an outing at the Creative Discovery Museum, which is a children's museum - maybe one of the best I've ever been to. We have one in Dallas, but it's nowhere near as nice as this one. There was an area called "Riverplay" which was set up for kiddos to play in the water. I've never seen Ellie so excited about something. We stayed in that one area for about 45 minutes and when we left, she turned around and ran back in the room. Didn't want to leave. I took a ton of pictures and you can see all of them here. She also loved the player piano and all of the scorpions and millipedes they had in the "Excavation Station" area.


After the museum, we had a meeting with our financial advisor where he told us that he had not lost us as much money as the overall stock market had. Thank you? I did not like to see him pointing to a number and telling me we'd only lost "this much". But I guess everyone has, right? I think I'm going to start investing in telephone poles or marbles or something that is at least tangible. After the "you've only lost 10% of your net worth" pep talk, we headed to the big party... Lee's grandmother, Mimi, turned 90 on Thursday. When I planned the trip, I though that maybe she'd like it if we were there on her birthday. After seeing her with Ellie, I'm so glad I planned the trip around her birthday. Mimi lives in a retirement community on a mountain and it is beautiful. We ate in the dining room and then we were treated to a tour of the facility. Later that evening, Lee met up with his friend from high school, Ronnie, while I stayed with Ellie at the hotel.




When we woke up the next morning, Ellie looked like she'd been slapped in the face. I still haven't figure out just exactly what went on... I can't decide if it it was some sort of a respiratory thing, a reaction to the padding on the pack and play the hotel provided for us, or an outbreak of eczema. We'll never know. She was acting okay and eating fine so we took a trip to the Tennessee Aquarium. Again, Dallas has an aquarium... but it's nowhere near as nice. The great thing about our outings to the museum and aquarium was that we were there on school days so we practically had the whole place to ourselves. Ellie couldn't get enough of the penguins, butterfly garden, king crabs, river otters, and giant turtles. There's so many other fun things to do and see in Chattanooga. I would suggest a trip there for anyone - especially people with kids.




On Friday afternoon, we drive to Knoxville to meet up with Nicole, Wayne, Miles, and Audrey. For those of you who don't know, Nicole is my cousin, Wayne is Lee's friend from college, Lee and I were bridesmaid and groomsman at their wedding, and the rest is history. Audrey is 9 months younger than Ellie so they're not really hanging out too much yet. Miles is three and Ellie was more into playing with Miles and his toys, but Miles was not so much into having Ellie play with his toys. I warned him that in about 9 more months, he was going to be back in the position that he was with Ellie there, but for now, he's happy living in denial. Miles is really into his trains and all things power tools. He even has a jackhammer, drill, and welding equipment. I was half expecting him to show me his little Union badge. Audrey may be the best baby ever (well, second to Ellie). That sweet child was so quiet, I forgot that she was even there most of the time. We had dinner at a nearby Mexican food restaurant on Friday night and then put the kids to bed. One of Wayne and Lee's college buddies, Hunter, came over and the five of us proceeded to have way too much wine. Way. Too. Much.


Saturday was "The Big Game" between Tennessee and Florida. Nicole planned a fun football watching party and I got to meet fellow blogger Erin and her daughter Eileen. It's strange to read all about somebody's life (as many people do about mine on my blog) and then actually meet them. It sort of felt like stalker meeting stalkee. Too bad I couldn't meet Raven too! Tennessee could not pull out the game and they wound up loosing 30-6 so in the end, Lee and I were glad we weren't there to witness the butt whipping in live technicolor. Nicole was such a great hostess and made the best pork chalupa. Even Ellie was a fan.



Nicole was so nice to buy Ellie and Audrey matching UT pajama outfits. Those will be great pictures to bring back out when they're 30. On Sunday, we went to brunch with the Erwins and then headed to Nashville for our flight. When we got to Nashville, there was go gas anywhere so we couldn't fill up our rental car. It was weird. Apparently, Atlanta suffered the same fate this week. Now I hear rumors that it's headed to Dallas... anyway, the trip home was without incident except for the slight kicking and screaming breakdown that Ellie suffered going through security. I had three bottles of opened drinking water with me and the guards just waved me through. I guess they thought I did not look like I had it together enough to pull off a well-planned terrorist attack. So Monday, it was back to reality... back to work, back to daycare... thank you Erwins! We had so much fun!