tennessee weekend

 After graduation Friday night we hopped in the car and drove to Knoxville, TN for a wedding.  Zach's cousin was getting married and he was the photographer.  Besides the fact that we were exhausted from the late night it was definitely nice having a quiet ride the whole time :)

Zach was out of the hotel by 9:30 for his picture taking duties which left me with a 5 year old, 3 year old and 6 month old in a 12x12 room.  Zach's parents were a HUGE help during Logan's naptime and when I had to go assist Zach by taking pictures of the bride and bridesmaids get ready.  They spent a lot of time at the pool and riding in the elevator! During the wedding Zach's aunt and uncle hired some babysitters for my three plus Leah, Eli, Elana, Elodie and Piper which was a huge help for us so that we could actually attend the wedding ceremony we all drove up for.

 Even with all the help it was downright busy and difficult to keep three boys entertained, pleasant and more importantly put to bed at the end of the day.  I called it a night around 7:30 which was only an hour into the reception but missing a party is way better than meltdowns!  Props to all you single mamas and/or mama's whose husbands are gone frequently.  Parenting alone is oh so hard!

As much as we enjoyed seeing our family on Saturday the best part of the weekend was Sunday.  A big reason was because there was no busy and stressful duties, but none the less our little family of 5 had a blast exploring Downtown Knoxville and eating yummy crepes at The French Market in the morning and then driving to Chattanooga for the afternoon.

We started our Chatty visit at the Tennessee Aquarium looking at all the cool fish, turtles, snakes and frogs that inhabit rivers all over the world but especially right outside the door in the Tennessee river.  The big boys really enjoyed it especially the 'river giants' which were these HUGE catfish and other weird fish I can't remember the names of.  The aquarium they were in was set up to look like they were swimming underneath a dock and it kind of freaked me out thinking I could be swimming with those huge things under me!

 I missed the last few exhibits because Logan was EXHAUSTED and not loving being in there anymore.  I pushed him around trying to get him to go to sleep but it wasn't until after when the boys were splashing in the water outside and I had taken two or three laps around the concourse area that he finally crashed.  Which was just in time for the thunderstorm!!!  Thankfully we made it to the restaurant for a late lunch right before the bottom dropped out.

After some yum-o pizza at Lupi's we let Micah and Connor play on the water stairs.  The water was freezing  but they pushed through it and had a ball.  I hadn't brought extra clothes since we were only going to be gone two days so I had to dig out some interesting outfits for the trip home and put up with the river water smell they were covered in but it was totally worth it.  Chattanooga is only two hours away from us.  I have no clue why we don't go more often.  Hopefully we'll remember in the future!

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