It is 620 miles from my house to Knoxville, Tennessee - the city I call "home".
It takes about 12 hours to get there with an 11 year old, a 9 year old, and a 7 1/2 month old!
This trip, there was a lot of sleeping (thankfully!) on behalf of the 7 1/2 month old.
Although occasionally she was required to take the wheel! ;)
We had such a great time with my family:
(above: Andrew, Miriam, and Anna with my parents)
(above: Me and my girls with my parents)
(above: my kids and parents with my aunt & uncle)
On a side note, this is my Aunt Louise ... she was a Paula Deen BEFORE there was a Paula Deen. Her chicken divan has been tested & tried & loved by many!
I also got to see a lot of friends. Sadly, I did not get pictures with all the friends I was able to visit with - but the memories of our time together is sweet!
(above: reunion of a few "girls" from the Class of '88! )
We don't look too bad for a bunch of 40 and almost-40 year olds, do we??! ;)
That's me in the middle.
(above: my kids swimming at one of my friend's house)
It was so neat to see my kids interact with a few of my friends' children.
I was so encouraged to see my friends are raising their children well - and I got to see kids from age 16 all the way down to age 4 (Miriam was the youngest of the bunch!).
None of us have perfect kids - but we are trying our best to rear well-behaved, kind, respectful, godly, courteous, kind (etc!) kids - and my friends are succeeding!
We were also able to spend a lot of time with my cutie nephew (age 4) and my adorable niece (age 9 months) - and their parents, my brother David & his wife.
It was great to spend some one-on-one time with them as well and catch up.
It had been far too long since we last saw each other.
Because my parents were so anxious and willing to watch my children (what a treat for me!!), I was able to enjoy some adult-time with friends as well as some window-shopping trips by myself.
I was able to go downtown Knoxville and eat with 2 girlfriends (no pics) on Monday night at Cafe 4 where I enjoyed a "Tennessee Cheesesteak" that was INCREDIBLE!!!
I was also able to just take Andrew & Anna to the Aquarium in Gatlinburg with my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew while my parents watched the babies.
My parents sure spoiled us with good food and lots of attention!
On the way home, I also met up with some friends at our first "pit stop" near Nashville (again, no pics - my camera battery was dead by this time!) - where my sweet friend Amy, her husband, and son met us at Chick-Fil-A (which I was eating at - happily! - for the 3rd time on this Tennessee trip!!). Our husbands were deployed to Iraq together from 2003-04, and she was then and continues to be such a positive, encouraging friend! She is also one of my friends who is raising GREAT kids (though I'd say Emily, a college Sophomore, is probably not really a "kid" any more!?!) ... It was such a sweet visit "home" and I think I waited far too long to make the trip! Home is really where my husband and family is - but somehow I am just a little more "home sick" for Tennessee now!
1 comments:
It was so wonderful to see all of you...and my camera, with a fully-charged battery, was in my purse the entire time! Guess we were too busy talking and "eating more chikin" to think of photos!
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