The Dairy

For some reason, I have always had a fascination with dairies. I know they are loads of work and it is not something I would really want to deal with on a day to day basis, but I just love them. As we joke, I like the idea of a dairy more than the actual dairy itself. Some other type of farm would be better suited for the Rode family.

The are a few local dairies here in East TN, and we visited Sweetwater Valley Farms last winter. They do not do tours in the winter, but their shop and an educational area (The "Udder" Story) is open year round. We wanted to do the tour, so we went back in August.

Hayden kept "pulling" the cow's tail

Everyone had to wear booties during the tour....

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.

The Tennessee Aquarium

The weekend after the 4th, we decided to make the drive to Lynchburg and visit the Jack Daniels Distillery. It was to rain that day in Knoxville, but the forecast for Lynchburg was little to no rain during the time we would be there. On our way, it was POURING and when I checked the weather again, it had changed and was to rain all day. So we made a quick decision to go to Chattanooga instead. The Tennessee Aquarium was our new destination and was also the destination for all of Tennessee that day. It was PACKED! The place is huge and absolutely awesome. I hope we can go again soon. There were so many people it was hard to see it all.

Lunch at Sticky Fingers BBQ

These were the best corn muffins ever!

Tortoise Shell

Notice the alligator??

July 4th in Tennessee!

Red, White and Blue breakfast

Movies!! We saw Despicable Me 2

It was a rainy 4th. They LOVED playing in all the water puddles.

The last few months...

....have been hectic. I don't know how else to describe it. I have been surviving on 4-6 hours of sleep a night (I am a 8 hour per night kind of person) and we are all just going and going. Despite not posting, we have had tons of outings and had lots of fun as a family! We have also documented things along the way and our phones have TONS of pictures in them. :)