Thanksgiving in Tennessee

I'm sorry it's taken so long to post about Thanksgiving.  Life's been pretty busy since we got back.

This year we went to Tennessee for Thanksgiving to spend the holidays with Ben's aunt, uncle and cousins.  We drove down on Wednesday and had a quite uneventful trip.  We made the mistake, though, of letting Paige and Virginia choose where we would eat breakfast and lunch and ended up at McDonald's for both meals.  After that we decided there would be no McDonald's on the trip home.

When we got to the hotel Mimi and Pops were there waiting for us.  We hung out with them for a bit and then we all went out to dinner.  After dinner we got settled back at the hotel and went to bed.  Sleep did not come easy while we were in Tennessee.  We had a hotel room with two double beds.  Ben and I slept in one and Paige and Virginia slept in the other.  But there were a lot of wake ups each night.  We survived, just not with much sleep.

Thursday morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel.  Mimi and Pops were doing a 2 mile walk at the University of Tennessee that morning so we were on our own.  We tried to come up with ideas of what to do and ended up deciding to go down to the University and walk around.  None of us had ever done that before.  We parked near the football stadium and wandered around from there.

Here are Paige, Virginia and I with Neyland Stadium in the background.

 Virginia and Paige in front of the building where Mimi spent a lot of time when she was in school.

 Paige and Virginia at the stadium gate trying to figure out why they can't get in.

Oh, and checking out all the "T"s for Mommy.

 Virginia and I in front of the sign with our letters on it.

 Paige and Virginia running across a pedestrian bridge on campus.

 After our adventures at the University of Tennessee we went back to the hotel to rest for a bit before we headed over to Ali and John's house.  It turned out to be another beautiful Thanksgiving day, so the kids spent a lot of time outside during the day.  Ali and John had once again rented a bounce house for the kids.  Really, we barely saw the girls because they were outside with their cousins all day.  They had a great time!

Here are all the kids in front of the bounce house.

 Virginia and Paige hanging out on the porch.

 Our family on Thanksgiving.

 Paige, Caleigh and Elizabeth on the bounce house's slide.

 Apparently their hours of playing outside caught up to them and this is how Paige and Virginia fell asleep Thursday night.  Too bad the sleeping didn't last.

 On Friday we went to the Fantasy of Trees at the Knoxville Convention Center.  It's a really neat event.  They have trees that were decorated by groups all over the city and they also have a bunch of different crafts for the kids to do, along with a couple of rides.  We had a great time walking around looking at the trees, riding the rides and letting the girls decorate bell ornaments.  We even managed to run into all of the cousins while we were there.

Virginia and Paige checking out the baby Jesus.

 Virginia and Daddy looking at all the presents under the tree.

 Paige and Virginia in front of a tree full of bears.

 The four of us on the carousel.

 Virginia loves riding the horse!

 Paige and Virginia decorating their bell ornaments.

 After the Fantasy of Trees we went to lunch and then back to the hotel for naps.  All four of us took naps that afternoon.  We went to dinner at Uncle Bob and Aunt Beth's house that night with all of the cousins.  It was really nice to all get to hang out without a bunch of other people around.  Paige and Virginia had a great time hanging out with all of their cousins, and Ben and I had a great time hanging out with his cousins and aunt and uncle. 

Here are several of the cousins together, with Aunt Beth's iPad:

Elizabeth, Justin, Paige and Carson.

It was a great trip and although Virginia came down with a cold Friday night we had a pretty uneventful trip back.  We stopped at Dee and Dude's house on the way back to pick up Jefferson and take a break from the car.  Paige and Virginia had fun there helping Dude with the leaves.  We went home, had dinner and got ready for bed.  We all slept well that night back in our own beds.