Easter in Tennessee - April 2013

Jed was scheduled to do a month-long Shock Trauma rotation in Baltimore, Maryland, during April. Pretty much they work him to the bone, 24/7, for a whole month, poor guy. I decided to drive the kids down to Chattanooga to spend Easter with my sister's family since Jed would be gone. So the day before he left, we packed up the car and I headed out on my first road trip alone! It was supposed to be 9 hours away, but I unwittingly left on Good Friday and the traffic was Horrendous! So it took us 12 hours instead. But my kids are AMAZING passengers and they watched movies and listened to books on tape and ate snacks happily the entire long drive. And, boy was it WORTH IT! We had so much fun with Melanie and Brad and their five boys. It had been a year and a half since we had last seen them. They had never met Charlotte. Connor, TJ, and Coleman were absolutely the sweetest with my kids, and totally doted on Charlotte. She got a lot of love during that trip! Well, all my kids did. My nephews are honestly the sweetest boys.

Easter morning! TJ has Charlotte in his lap; she got to wear cute bunnie ears! She is holding the Les Miserables movie that Jed bought me for my Easter basket. :)

Connor is letting Eliza show him the light-up flip flops that the Easter bunny brought her.

Coleman getting a turn with Charlotte. Seriously, it was like this the whole time - Charlotte was like two novelties in one: a BABY and a GIRL! No wonder she stole the show!

Ben got an awesome pop-up book about dinosaurs. Really, this is the king of all pop-up books.

On Saturday we went to the park and a policeman came over and told us the PD was doing an Easter candy hunt in the grassy lot next to the park.  That was fun to stumble upon the local Easter festivities!

When Ben saw the policemen driving their car to the Easter candy hunt, he asked if he could have a ride too. They were super nice and let him hop in with their own kids. Of course leave it to Ben to have the courage to go ask them!

Sam did the little kid's candy hunt,

 and the big kids got to do their own candy hunt.

 While we were in Tennessee we also went to the aquarium in Chattanooga. It was very impressive! There was a butterfly house, a penguin area, a place where you could touch stingrays, etc, etc... It was awesome!

My brave kiddos descended into the great unknown in a SHARK CAGE!
Aah! Watch out - behind you! :)

Those are real Japanese crabs walking around the bubble where they are standing. 

Sam was posing in front of the tank where fish and sharks were swimming, and when this huge shark passed right next to him, he made the cutest, "WOW!" face!

My kids liked the rock area surrounding the tanks as much as the fish swimming inside of them...

We went into an auditorium to watch a man give a presentation on snakes. Here is my sister Melanie holding cute Charlotte (11 months old).

On Easter Sunday morning we took a picture to send to Daddy who was working in Maryland. 

I snapped a picture of Connor teaching Eliza how to fold a paper airplane. Seriously, what 15 year old would do that?! He was SO CUTE with her.

TJ holding baby Charlotte. 

Bridger and Ben are the same age cousins. They had a lot of fun together.

Uncle Brad was tickling Charlotte's tummy and getting sweet smiles from her.

Connor is used to having little boys around, being the oldest of five boys. I thought it was cute that he let Sam and his little brother, Bridger, sit in his lap. 

One day Melanie took us to The Incline. It is the steepest train ride ever! We went straight up the side of the mountain.  Here's Aunt Melanie with Eliza.

 Of course Ben wasted no time in finding a friend. :)

We took a picture at the top of the mountain. And then we walked around the historical sites before heading back down the mountain again. 

 See how steep it is? You can see the city out the roof!

 

One afternoon TJ and Bridger took us to to the pond in the neighborhood and we fed the ducks.

Ben, me, Sam, Bridger, and Eliza:

I was nervous Sam would get attacked by the geese if he chased them too much...

 Brad and Melanie sweetly treated me to dinner at Taco Mamacita one night. It was delish!

We stayed for a whole week and had such a great time with them. I wish we lived closer to my sister and brother-in-law and their sweet boys. On our last night, Brad, Melanie, Connor and TJ took me out to their favorite icecream shop.
I had such a great week with them. I love them all so much!