Trip to Virginia

Pawpaw has had a hard summer with several surgeries.  We haven't seen him since last spring and were excited to finally be able to get up to see him and Memaw this weekend.  We had planned to go up Friday and come back Monday, but at the last minute Marc had a work trip out of state thrown at him for Monday and we had to make a game-day decision to go on up 1/2 way Halloween night.  It was either skip Halloween or cancel the trip so we decided to head on up.  The children were so good about it and recognized they'd had other chances to get candy and wear their costumes, and we hit the road Thursday night.  Since it was the vigil of All Saints day when we got into Chattanooga we stopped and went to mass at the beautiful Saints Peter and Paul Basilica.  



Afterwards we headed to Cheeburger Cheeburger in downtown Chattanooga where Julia said she had the "best peanut butter and jelly sandwich I've had in my life."  Then we drove on to Knoxville where we spent the night in the "hotayel" as Sissy says. :)  They love staying in a hotel and Marky is such a help with Charlie when we are trying to pack.



Books are our main way of distracting babies- and it almost always works-



Breakfast buffet time!


After breakfast we decided to take a little jaunt over to the UT campus and see the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture.  I'm so glad we went- it's small, but interesting.











Copy of the Rosetta stone-



They had a whole interesting section  on Indians that we loved.





When we got to Memaw and Pawpaws that afternoon the children jumped out of the car and started rolling down the hill.  The drive up and time there was PERFECT- the leaves were all turning and gorgeous!











Marc took the children hiking in the woods-





Playing after bath time-
















Saturday morning we got up and just played in the yard all morning.  We packed the scooters so they rode those all morning-


















Playing "Simon Says" with Daddy- Julia is shockingly good at this game-









I said to the children, "I see every color of the rainbow in these leaves- and we went and found them!"





Marky got a new gyroscope that he kept spinning for Charlie to see-









Then it was time to pack up and hit the road again-  Charlie helped us get things ready-





We were sad to go, but we had to get back and Memaw and Pawpaw can't rest when the whole circus is in town.  :)  It was still wonderful to see them and enjoy their beautiful fall days.

Overheard

Tucker was talking about "spooky Halloween animals" and classifying them....

Tucker:  Owls are birds.  Bats are mammals.  And ghosts are just rubbish.  :)

And here is the children's art from school: