Gatlinburg Aquarium

On July 5th, we headed to the Gatlinburg Aquarium. This was our first trip to this aquarium. Jackson enjoys/ed the fish but I have to say the girls are still not real impressed. I guess they're just mammal type of gals. :) Here's my "happy" crew at the penguin exhibit. We had to work pretty hard to get this picture of all three of them. lol :)

 Once the other two left Missy K decided to cooperate...

 Both girls loved scooting under the tunnels to pop up surrounded by the penguins

 Grand-Dad captured this picture, apparently the penguins were feeling more cooperative than my children

 Everyone enjoyed getting the real fish experience

 The girls pretending to be deep sea divers

 You could open this barrel and things would pop up. Jackson thought this was hilarious! :)

 Daddy and Jackson checking out the sharks

 Reagan watching the fish in a large tank near the entrance/exit

 These jellyfish were so pretty and interesting to watch

 I don't know that any of the kids were ever brave enough to actually touch the horseshoe crabs, but they did like having the opportunity to stick their hands in the water.

 The highlight of the day for the girls was seeing and meeting a couple of mermaids. They caught the end of one show and we actually had to stay an extra hour just to see the entire mermaid show.

 Reagan and Kennedy with one of the mermaids

4th of July 2012

We headed back to Tennessee the first week of July to spend the 4th of July with Grammy and Grand-Dad in Gatlinburg. We had a fabulous time at the Wilderness Lodge Waterpark as well as fireworks and the aquarium. Here are the girls ready to head off to find a spot to watch the fireworks in Patriot Park.

 All three kids set up

 Thank goodness for iXL's and Explorers! :)

 Our crew chilling out in the park together waiting for fireworks

 Love my little "Weepublican"

 The kids had a fabulous time with some festive 4th of July stickers Grammy purchased

 I especially love Kennedy's "America the Beautiful" sticker stuck square on her "6 pack" as she refers to her "big belly"

 Grand-Dad working hard with his new camera to get some great pictures

 Grand-Dad took this picture of some of the lights setup in the park

Everyone thought I was crazy to try and get us down to the park as late as we went. I really have a thing about seeing fireworks and listening to music, however, so I was pretty insistent. Luckily I was able to locate a back way and then we stumbled upon someone letting people park in their yard just a couple of blocks from the park. It was perfect timing all the way around and worked out beautifully! Thanks to everyone for putting up with my silliness as I loved our 4th of July evening entertainment!

Tennessee Weekend Pictures

We traveled with Grammy straight from Wisconsin to Tennessee. The kids were very happy to wake up and find Daddy had come to Tennessee to spend the weekend with us as well. :)

 Kennedy was also very happy to wake up and discover Grammy had made an early morning donut run! :)

 Jackson decided he preferred the breakfast sandwhich. He can be a serious eater!

 We also decided it was time for Jackson to have another haircut. Since he's a boy and he was so difficult for his first haircut Grammy and I thought we might be able to handle it ourselves...

 As you can see, Jackson throughly enjoyed the experience...

 Obviously being turned upside down makes a boy much happier than getting a haircut.

The Kelly Farm

While in Tennessee we had a fun evening at the Kelly farm. We especially enjoyed their yummy blueberries and raspberries.

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Reagan and Kennedy both love and adore Beth!

 One happy boy eating blueberries as fast as he can find and pick them

 Missy K thought the blueberries were pretty delicious too

 A very happy girl showing off her blueberries

 There were sooooo many blueberries, it was incredible!

 The Kelly's have the coolest tire swings!

 Checking out the cats and dogs

 Onto the raspberry patch!

 Looks like their raspberries were as good as the blueberries! :)

 Beth is such a good sport! I don't know how long Reagan made her spin her but she had a wonderful time!!! :)

Thank you for having us over and sharing all the wonderful blueberries and raspberries! We throughly enjoyed everything we consumed there as well as what we took home. We look forward to coming and picking more next summer! :)

Anna's Brave Birthday Party

The end of June we went to Tennessee to celebrate Anna's 5th birthday. The girl's had a beauty makeover, followed by lunch and the movie Brave (it was the opening weekend). It was such a cute idea and the girls loved it!

 Ready for manicures and pedicures

 Hair up in rollers too

 Enjoying lunch after their beauty treatments

 Sweet and happy birthday girl

 The boys were slightly less refined while the girls were receiving their beauty treatments

 Here are our 4 beauties ready to head for the movies

 Beautiful birthday girl

 Posing with Merida at the theatre

Thank you for such a super fun day!!!