Our 1st Trip to Tennessee

We took a drive over to Tennessee so we could attend Devin's law school graduation and Oliver's baby blessing. It's only a 7 1/2 hour drive and the girls did amazingly well. We had to stop a few times on the way there for potty breaks but other than that they were great. Anna took a couple short naps and Macy ate a lot of candy.

I made some special treat bags for Macy to open every hour of the trip. My grandma Seymour used to do something similar for us when we would take trips up to Utah. I had this idea the night before our trip and could only stop at the grocery store so the bags mostly contained food. I was able to find a few activities which she really liked so I'll put more of those in next time.

We drove on a Wednesday so Ja could interview a customer on Thursday in Chattanooga. So the girls and I hung out with Papa, Granny Dot, Devin, Dee, Oliver and Dee's mom until the afternoon. We had a nice lunch at Devin and Dee's then went to see the house they were thinking of buying. Homes are so cheap in Knoxville!

The rest of the family (Greg & Holly, Trevor & Heather, Tiffany & kids) got in that night. Macy was so excited to see Lily. We had a few hours to spare before Lily got in so I asked Macy what she wanted to do. She told me she wanted to stay at the hotel so she wouldn't miss Lily coming. They were very excited when they first saw each other. It was like they were instant best friends again.

Friday morning/afternoon we took a little hike by a lake. It was beautiful and nice warm weather too. Thankfully there were no bugs we had to worry about. I ended up carrying Macy piggy back up the big hill at the end. She said her legs were tired. At the end of the trail there was a play area for the kids. It's so fun to see cousins playing together.

Part of our hike next to the river

My hiking buddy

Macy and Mark

Walking to the graduation

Friday night was the University of Tennessee Law School graduation. When Macy realized she was allowed to clap she was very excited. She kept saying,  "I want to see Uncle Devin! I want to clap for Uncle Devin!" Once they finally started reading the names for the graduates to get their hoods Macy said, "Mommy hold my candy. I'm busy clapping for Uncle Devin." It was very cute. We enjoyed a delicious bbq dinner afterwards.

Saturday we ventured down to the Knoxville farmers market. There is a charming little downtown area with a very cute park. Ja made a paper boat and the kids had fun watching it trying to float down the river. It kept getting stuck under the bridge and once it finally made it to the tiny waterfall it was capsized. Oh well, it kept the kids entertained for a while.

The babies enjoying a stroller ride.

After cleaning up a poopy mess from Anna we took a drive to Pigeon Forge. It's a tourist trap with a road full of go cart places, mini golf, and museums every where you look. It was a really fun tourist trap though. We stopped and did a great go cart track with a roller coaster track. It spirals up and down with a big hill at the end. There was also a place with little rides for the kids which they loved.

She was very happy on these rides

Papa looked at a few houses while he was in Knoxville and the relator asked if he would be on the local news. She wanted to do a story about people moving into Tennessee. He was a local celebrity for a night.

Sunday was Oliver's blessing which was nice and he didn't cry at all. It was also Mother's day- my first one that Macy would go up with the primary to sing to me. I was sad we weren't in our own ward that day but she still went up with Mark in Devin's ward. The family couldn't believe that out of all the kids Macy was the one to go up! She was so cute up there and even sang a few words of the song. It was so cute and very memorable.

Two beauties ready for church

After church we enjoyed a Cracker Barrel brunch before driving back home. I wanted to get a picture of Anna and Ryan together to show their dramatically different body types.They are only one month apart but you'd never know because Anna is so much smaller. While trying to do so big sisters Macy and Lily come in and start to wrestle the babies. I thought it was perfect because that's how life usually is for little siblings. 

We drove home in only 7 hours with only one potty break! Macy and Anna both napped for a long time and were amazing! Macy did not want to leave the hotel and had a break down because of it. She cried saying she didn't want to go home. I felt her anguish. I had a great time too and didn't want to come back to real life. Although it would only be for 4 days since we were leaving for Williamsburg soon.