Chattanooga! Day 2 - Ruby Falls

A very important part of this whole adventure was the hotel.  We stayed in the Embassy Suites mainly because, well, its a suite.  It worked out well that we had 2 rooms for Mark and I to be up at night and the kids to be up in the morning.  They also had a great breakfast and an indoor pool.

For Day 2, we had a couple of options, but it was suppose to rain all day.  Suppose to.  I'm not so sure about the weather app on the iPhone.  At any rate, we decided to go to Ruby Falls since it was not out side.  Ruby Falls is a underground waterfall and you have to hike walk on a paved path through a cavern to get there.  After buying tickets you take an elevator down like 200 feet.  That is ~ 2 Tom Winkopp buildings!  That part did freak me out because you can see the rock sliding past.  But then you get to the cavern and its just fine.

Honestly, I didn't take many pictures because it was dark.  This was not like a government run park, this is a private business.  In some ways it was good because there was flat screen tv's down in the cavern for the history lessons, and lots of speakers.  In some ways it was bad because of the mood lighting and the cheesy music.  However, Ruby Falls was pretty cool and very dramatic how they did it.  They play cheesy music as you were walking up and just at the crescendo, the lights come on and there it is.  Very dramatic.

James loved it.  He loved all the rock formations and asked lots of questions about them.  Andy.  Not so much.  Why are we talking about more trips with him?

Outside the falls, there is a nice playground set up where I made the kids run around and play on and picnic tables.  You can kind of see it here.  

There was also an overlook to the valley below.

After we ate our go picnic lunch, we went back to the hotel.  Again, it was supposed to rain all day so we just planned on letting the kids swim and Mark and I worked out.  And we had plans for the afternoon.  We really did, but Andy, bless his heart, something happened to his eye and he was really inconsolable.  We gave up on doing anything else and just sat in the hotel room with Mellow Mushroom pizza and watched Shrek on tv.  Not really a bad way to end a night.  

It was a very nice venture into travel with the kids.  They are so easy and fun at this age (sorry Becky) and although Andy whined the whole time we were there, now he says he "wants to go back to Tennessee!"  Good times.

Chattanooga! Day 1 - Tenneesse Aquarium

Did I spell that right?  At any rate, in the fall Mark and I wanted to go to Chattanooga for a very important reason.  However, we didn't have a free weekend until recently and um, don't remember what that reason was.  But, we still went to Chattanooga.  It was a nice little vacation, especially now that the kids are old enough to really be fun.  It took us like 3.5 hours to get there and the first thing we did is drive downtown to go see the Aquarium.  The Aquarium is part of a large complex that is right by the river.  It has all these walkway bridges that go over these pretend river.  A great place to run around after being in the car for 3.5 hours.

The Aquarium is actually divided into 2 separate buildings with the Tennessee water life in one and ocean life in the other.  We started with the Tennessee one.

To get to the stop of the building you ride up a LONG escalator.

South Carolina does something similar where it teaches about the different types of water ways in the state.  Some of it is pretty like mountain streams, but some of it is swampy yucky water.  One of the exhibits was with sturgeons, I think, which are these huge ugly fish that are endangered.  They actually had a touch pool where you could touch on.  Yuck.

After the Tennesse theme one, we went to the ocean building which is more of what you would expect from an aquarium.

The coolest thing they had was a butterfly room.  Mark, James, and I were enchanted seeing all these beautiful butterflies up close.

Andy.  Not so much.

Andy's favorite part was the penguins.  He watched them for a long time!

James and I had fun in the shark cage!

After we were done, we walked along the river.  There is a very nice walking path and of course the boys found sticks.

Then we walked across a pedestrian bridge over the river.  This was probably my favorite thing we did.

Then we drove to our hotel and ate dinner at Abuelo's!!  Ahh, I remember when this was just a simple mom and pop restaurant in Lubbock.

Passport to the Arts

This was not my idea.  A couple of years ago, Becky and Juliet did this thing called passport to the arts and blah blah blah they had a great time.  They did invite me, but I didn't go.  Not sure if I was busy or just not interested.  Juliet tried to get me to go with her last year when Becky was in DC but again, I was probably busy or not interested.  However, this year, everyone was here and I agreed.  Or not busy.

What is passport to the arts?  It is like a progressive party going to areas around Clemson to showcase the different types of art.  For a small town, we do have a lot of art.  It ended up being a great time, although we were one of the youngest there.  We started in Patrick Square and food was catered by Rick Erwin.  Some old guy started telling us dirty jokes.  Luckily, the art was there to provide and escape.  

I wasn't sure if I was allowed to take pictures of the art, so I had to strategically pose Juliet.

Oh look.  Hair.  Huh.

It wasn't long before these girls got crazy.  Juliet started vandilizing by making a list to get mexican food.  

We got on the bus to the next stop and there was entertainment.  Don't let anyone tell you that you can't play guitar on a moving bus.

The next stop was the dessert stop.  Poor planning on our part.  But they had a painting cookies station!

Some of the dessert options.  YUM!

More art.

You can buy this picture of some chick doing laundry for $1200.  Dude.  My sister took pictures of her washer and drier, framed them and hung in her laundry room.  Is that art?  Its a lot cheaper.

It's Larry Abernathy!

Food at the next stop.  Nice.

And the art.  Hmmm.

Back on the bus!  This lighting is great!

But Becky is always radiant!

At the last stop, we had an assignment to describe the purpose of art.  My answer was to record a moment in time whether good, bad, or something.  Juliet gave me full credit.

Buzz kill.

And a picture of the three of us ladies finishing our night.  Oh wait.  Kids today.

There we are!

And this is a picture of everyone diving in at the chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-a that they just brought in.  I think they ran out of food.

A good time was had by all and I can't wait to do it again next year!

Basketball 2014

Last year, I noticed the kids, ok maybe just James really got interested in watching basketball.  We missed the signups to play, but it made me determined to sign them up this year.  Sign ups were right after soccer and we were still a little hung over from that.  We had a couple of options of what teams to put the kids on, but once we did the math we realized that both James and Andy could be on the SAME team and that league only played on Saturdays.  Its like a THREE POINTER!!

Actually it was a three pointer plus a foul cause Mark ended up volunteering to coach.  What's that called?  

Anyways, it started off typically.  Herding cats.  Andy didn't want to do it.  James was crazy.  But eventually things started to gel.  Andy actually started to try.

James started to focus.

There was strategy.

There was (some) dribbling.

There was LOTS of defense.

Some offense.  

Score!  Two points!

And smiles

And after every game/practice, Starbucks!!

Do you want to build a snowman?

We really should have known.  This year we have had SO MUCH rain and it has been SO COLD, it was really just a matter of chance that everything would happen again at the same time for another set of snow days.  This one was known well in advance and everyone was completely freaked out by the time it actually happened.  There was no school on Tuesday, and yes, there was snow, but it stayed about freezing all day and nothing really stuck.  It started snowing again Wednesday morning and basically snowed continuously for 36 hours.  The "new tradition" I started two weeks ago was done again...Chocolate Snow Waffles.

Speaking of HUGE treats, Grandma got James and Andy sleds!  They were very confused when they first saw them.  "what is that, a boat?"

The neighborhood kids were very thankful!  We had some snowball fights, but less this time.  I think it was because of all the sledding.

We were really like sledding locust.  We would sled a hill until it was destroyed and then move on to the next one.  This is Ms. Becky. (+1)

Kwist boys!  Turns out all the hills in our neighborhood are great for sledding!

I also have to say I think this was the first time that Mark and I have ever been on a sled.  We had a great time!  Much butter than cookie sheets.

Of course we had to build a snowman!

As it got warmer and the kids got tired of the snow, we had some scavenger hunts.

So, it was fun, the snow melted, and then there was ANOTHER snow day.