Chattanooga

The kiddos and I made a little overnight trip to Chattanooga over fall break to meet up with my brother and his family.  Chattanooga is right about middle ground between our house in Georgia and their house in Nashville.  It wasn't a long trip, but it was a fun one.

The kids and I headed up to Chattanooga mid-morning and got there around lunchtime.  We had a few hours to kill before my brother would be arriving.  We decided to check out Rock City!  The last time I had been there, Sydney was maybe 3, Taylor was in a stroller, and Parker was probably the size of a lentil bean.

Taylor riding through Rock City in style.

Sydney in 2012!

Back to 2017... the kids really liked it!  It was a little pricey for not a super long entertainment length, but when in Rome, right?

Fat Man's Squeeze

After Rock City, we headed to our hotel to go ahead and check in.  We located our rooms, dumped our bags, and checked out the pool.

Bill was stuck in traffic, so they were running almost an hour behind.  We decided to hit up the nearby mall to fill the time.  Once they got to Chattanooga, they met us at the mall to play a bit, before heading to dinner.

The rest of the night was spent back at the hotel in the pool.  It didn't close until 10:00, and we closed it down.

Parker and Bill probably did this about 100 times.

We hung out in the hotel room, watching Willy Wonka and catching up until close to midnight.  I had some tired little ones on my hands!

The next morning, we woke up, ate the continental breakfast, and... you guessed it... hit up the pool again!  We spent a couple hours there before packing up, checking out, and grabbing lunch out before hitting the road back home.

It was a short trip but it was fun to get together.  (Now if only the drive home hadn't been an extra 1.5 hours long... stupid Atlanta Friday traffic at 1:30 PM.  Seriously?).

Fall Break!

Fall break came around last week... the kiddos had the whole week off of school.  I was looking forward to having a little break from the hustle and bustle!  I know they were, too.

Stephen has an annual work golf event on Columbus Day, which is typically our fall break week.  He was gone from Sunday to Wednesday out in Cali, doing the tourney and seeing customers.  Good timing, huh?? ;).  It rained all day Sunday and Monday, so there was a lot of indoor entertaining that had to be done.

Our week was fun- we didn't go far.  We did things like go to church, Six Flags, soccer practice, play with friends, go to Chattanooga to spend one night, soccer games, doctor's appointments, play at the bowling alley arcade, and go to the movies.  We also had some fun movie nights, did a lot of crafts, and played outside (when it wasn't pouring rain!).  Oh, and we had lice hit us again.  JOY!  (luckily, we tackled it pretty quickly.  We're becoming lice professionals).

Six Flags!

Stephen, Sydney and Taylor are on the Scream Machine here.

This. was. high.  Sydney and Taylor are up there.  I couldn't watch!

Ninjago movie!

Keeping sane... in the rain:

Parker looooves looking at all the baby books.

Soccer practice:

Parker and Jason playing soccer.

Arcade:

Annual check ups (for S & P):

Soccer Saturday:

Sydney!

Taylor has the ball towards the back of the pic.

Birthday party for Parker:

Sydney and Sadie, enjoying some cupcakes:

Date night with Taylor

I got to have an overnight date night last weekend with... Taylor!!

Long story short, (and 2 opinions later), Taylor was referred for a sleep study.  Poor girl was so anxious about it.  I tried to make the opportunity into as much a fun one as I could.  I scheduled the sleep study for a Saturday night and promised her a girls' night out ahead of time!

The evening did not disappoint.  After a Saturday of the annual cleaning day at the church, plus being at the soccer fields for 5 hours straight, Taylor and I showered, dressed, and headed for North Point Mall.  The main reason?  The American Girl Doll store.  I don't know why, I have told my girls I'm never buying them one of those... but I suppose it's a fun place to take a stroll.  We got there, grabbed some dinner at the food court, and walked around the mall!  We ended up actually getting her a Build-a-Bear (s-u-c-k-e-r is written on my forehead... but hey, she was a cute date) and we had a lot of laughs along the way.  I got to check out my old high school working grounds (American Eagle) even though it so isn't even close to how it was back then.  In (...gulp...) 20 years, that mall has changed a lot- stores, store locations, population, etc!

Her new pal, Fuzzy.

Anywho, back to our date.  After the mall, we headed to the sleep study place, which wasn't too far of a drive.  We went in, and it was just us and this one guy.  That's it.  We had our own little "hotel" room, with a shower and all.  There was a centralized room with computers where they track you all night long.  Taylor and I got settled, in our PJs, and then the guy started hooking Taylor up to wires.  Poor thing was nervous at first, but that girl was a TROOPER.  After a few whimpers, she put on a brave face the rest of the time.  (The guy was really good with her, asking her questions and to keep her talking).  We were asleep around 9:30.  There was one point in the middle of the night where I see the guy in our room with his flashlight on his head fixing a wire on Taylor (he had warned us that he'd have to do that if a wire came loose).  It's SO not the best thing to wake up to, I'll tell ya!  We got up around 5:45 AM and were out the door by 6.

She chose to watch football while getting wired.  Stephen would be so proud!

It was really fun spending some quality time with Taylor.  I sometimes feel like the middle child does get the short end of the stick- either it's just the oldest doing something, just the youngest, or she automatically gets included with Sydney or with Parker.

That Taylor- she has the best and funniest personality.  I hope these pictures make you smile- I promise I was laughing behind the camera for most of them!