Summer Vacation

We took advantage of the 3-day weekend over July 4th and went to Chattanooga, TN for our family trip this year. We packed so much into two days and had a blast together. One of our first stops was at a quaint bookstore. Cole was excited to get a book on palindromes. (Look it up!)

We ate at Sticky Fingers which we discovered has the best children's activity booklet of any restaurant we've ever been to! The maze was quite difficult . . .

Then it was on to the aquarium. They had a fabulous seahorse exhibit. Did you know male seahorses carry and birth the babies? Up to 1,000 at a time! Wow. They also had a "Nemo" tank with several of the fish from the tank in the movie. Cole loved that.

We saw "Dolphins and Whales" at the IMAX. Not what we expected, but some cool footage.

Then we did the best thing of the trip:

The signs have beckoned us for years and we finally obeyed. It was really cool too! Great view, interesting rocks, and a fun fairy tale land. There is a great swinging bridge for the well-balanced . . .

There were several places to take pictures with your faces in signs. We stopped at every one!

We also went to the TN Valley Rail Museum and rode an old train to the East Chattanooga Station where we watched the engine rotate on the turntable in order to take us back to Grand Junction Station.

Brice loved it!!

We've created a tradition of taking our picture with name mugs at gift shops. This one didn't have Cole or Brice so we all did our middle names. (except Jeremy is actually Brice's 1st name)


We also visited Ruby Falls, saw a movie, and ate at a dinner theater - though it was a kids' show with a pizza lunch - before heading home Saturday night.

Sunday was our "staycation" which we themed Disney Day. We stayed home and watched Disney movies and played Disney games all day. What a great weekend! I love my family!