The Children's Museum of Chattanooga

A few weeks after the Aquarium visit, we met up with my friend Kristin, her husband, Casey and their two children, Cooper and Kori. Kori and Taryne are 12 days apart in age and when we lived in Texas had a few opportunities to get together for some fun. They were in Alabama visiting Kristin's aunt and we decided that we needed to meet up for a day of visiting and time for the kids to play. So...we met up and took the kids to the Children's Museum in Chattanooga. It is one of the best Children's Museums I have been to and I hope we can go back soon.

Group picture!! Hayden, Cooper, Kori, Taryne

Water fun!

I think he could have played in the water the entire day!

Making a monster puppet

Stroller parking

Driving...sigh. She has already informed us she wants a purple minivan
with pink wheels when she is old enough to drive. I will remind her of that when she turns 16. :)

Making a giant bubble

Fun in the water outside the museum/aquarium

We stopped by the Moon Pie store on our way back to the car. This is where the Moon Pie originated.
There were lots of flavors I have never seen before.

Taryne's birthday part 2

So I was not happy with the cake I made, so I made a different one for her party...

Cake for her party

Painting!!

She decided she wanted to have her party at the pottery place (again). She had several friends from school at the party and everyone's pottery piece turned out great!

Texas, Part 2

After our trip to the grandparents and College Station, we spent a few days in Llano before our return trip to Tennessee. We were able to see our family, celebrate Charlotte's birthday and of course get a trip in to Mamacita's! Our trip also (as always) included drives through the pasture to see the cows and Taryne finally had an opportunity to go fishing. She has wanted a fishing "wand" for quite a while now. Every time we visit the Bass Pro Shop, she shows us the Princess fishing wand she wants.

Can you see the tiny fish?

Posing with the tiny fish...

Playing with the worms

The last two days in Llano, I attended a conference in Austin. The first conference day, Kyle and the kids spent the day with the Rode's and the second day we all went to Austin and then we began our trip back to Tennessee with a stop in Lufkin to see some great friends and take advantage of their hospitality and stay the night. After a little "warming up" Taryne, Hayden and Connor played pretty well together.

We left the next morning with the intent to drive ALL THE WAY home and not stay the night anywhere. West Monroe, LA was also on our agenda for the day. There is no way we were going to drive through West Monroe again without stopping by the Duck Commander warehouse. There were a ton of people there, but not Duck Dynasty guys. Taryne was a little disappointed, but it was a Saturday.

And then we are off again. We finally made it to Knoxville about 4 am...sounds bad, but because the time changes from Central to Eastern about 30 minutes west of Knoxville, we lost that hour right before we were home.

Thank goodness for the dual DVD player!

And we were SOOOO glad to be home! It was great seeing family and friends, but I was ready for my own bed!