Pump it Up

Our last fun day with Gram and Papaw in Chattanooga was at Pump it Up.

Gavin's friend Asher got to tag along. I learned from Asher that we need to wear slick pants next time--he beat us down every time!

My first and only attempt going down with both kiddos...

This picture is blurry but hopefully you can tell that this girl loved it!!

Her very appropriate shirt for the day said, "I Love to Play."

She wanted to be with the big boys all day!

Gavin would only go down the slide if I went with him. It's a good thing I'm small so I could climb up the kid equipment! :)

We tried one time to send him down by himself...

...and you can see the terror on his face!

Such a fun place! Thanks for a fun week, Gram and Papaw!

Creative Discovery Museum

Because it was the moms Fall Break, we just decided to stay the week in Chattanooga with Ryan's parents. So we had a fun-filled week!

Normally it is my mom (who is partially retired) that gets to go to the Creative Discovery Museum with us on her days off. So it was such a treat that Gram and Papaw got to go this time!

Who is having more fun here??

I'm going to state the obvious that this girl is growing up!!

Mom and I generally don't venture up in the jungle gym with Gavin...

...but Papaw did!

I think Gavin rather enjoyed his grandfather being there!

Mom and I also avoid this room altogether. But of course this is where the boys wanted to go! Building and racing cars. Makes me think of Tim the Tool Man Taylor from "Home Improvement" that would grunt about manly things! :)

The Music Room with Music Teacher Mrs. Hughes!

This cracked me up!! The T-Rex going into the dinosaur room was dressed up as a ballerina for Halloween! My favorite is the ribbon going up her legs!

And of course we had to stop at Coolidge Park for a picnic lunch.

We love downtown Chattanooga!

Family

While we were in Chattanooga, the Great Grandparents came over to celebrate Henley's birthday.

Four Generations:

Jane and her Henley Jane

(The key to a smiling 1-year-old is her crazy mother doing jumping jacks in the background!)

The Birthday Girl:

Getaway

We were gone all last week and had a blast! Ryan planned an overnight getaway for us in downtown Chattanooga on Sunday night. It was the first night in over a year that I didn't put a kiddo to bed! So fun spending a whole day with my favorite person in such a fun city...

When Ryan is on a business trip, he always takes pictures or videos of Gavin's favorite trucks and texts them to me so Gavin can watch them. So even though we were away from our kiddos, we obviously thought of the Gavster when we saw this firetruck and of course sent him a picture!

We have a lack of pictures to document our day away, so here's a quick rundown:

We ate at Big River Grille which we hadn't eaten at since our Senior Prom! Man, it is so nice when you have to prepare 3 meals a day to get waited on! And funnily enough (is that a word?) saw some friends of ours also on a getaway!

Then we went to see a movie (with 2 kids you can guess that we NEVER get to go to the movies). We saw "The Big Year" with Steve Martin and Jack Black which was sooo good!

The next morning we slept in (*Hallelujah Chorus*) and walked around downtown Chattanooga. We walked down Frazier Ave and came to Cardboard Hill which I had heard of but never been to.

Oh. my.

It was so much fun!!

Then we ate lunch and Rembrandt's (*Hallelujah Chorus again*) and went back to Ryan's parents' house to see our kiddos! Amazing how I can miss them after just one day.

More blog posts of our week away to come!

(P.S. Thanks for planning a fun day away for us, darlin'! It was a much needed break!)

Pumpkin Patch

Oh, Fall, how I love you. Fall is by far my favorite season because of fun things like this that we get to do!! Last year, we went to Oakes Farm, so Ryan wanted to do a different Pumpkin Patch/Corn Maze this year. I actually really like the idea of doing a different one every year, so I wonder which one we'll do next year! Suggestions?

We went to Deep Well Farm on Saturday and had a blast!

This tractor lovin' boy was in heaven upon arriving...

No words...

Play area:

The main attraction: pumpkin patch!

The teacher in me gets giddy when we can see what we read about in books.

Gavin picked us all out a pumpkin.

The best part about a pumpkin patch: riding a tractor out there!

There were so many picture opportunities, and we have an awesome camera/lens, so I apologize for the overload of pictures to follow!

Forgot how much fun a tire swing is!!

Not sure what my look of concern is about, but Henley's face is priceless!

They had a kid-size maze in hay bales. This boy loved it!

Best.picture.ever.

Ryan is chasing Gavin through the maze on his hands and knees...

Gavin's hiding waiting for him...

Henley's new monkey face. She likes to blow raspberries like this, too:

Love these pictures!

Gavin stole the scarecrow's foot in the wagon.

"What? What did I do?"

Feeding the goats:

Gavin's favorite part (other than the tractors) was playing in the corn box!

Henley loved it, too.

You can see the kernels flying behind her as she dug like a dog!

Corn Angel

Henley loved it so much that she finally stuck her face in it...

...and came back up with pieces stuck on her face and in her nose!

She did this over and over.

Last thing of the evening: slide!

So thankful we can have fun family days like this. And living in Knoxville, we now know to go anywhere right before a home game and there will be nobody there! :)