Tennessee Times

The question is what have we been up to lately? Not much just the standard shopping and cleaning. Rick has started doing P90X the exercise program and seems to enjoy it. Katie and I have hit the pool and last weekend we took Grandpa to check out the car show at the “white lightning” festival in Cumberland gap.

Grandpa was happy to check out the cars.

 

 

 

Shortly after arriving at the festival we ran into some friends the Sowby’s. Aren’t they so cute!Katie spun and won a prize at one of the booths. Her very own coloring book.  It was extremely hot and humid so we decided to step into the bicycle museum to cool off. It was pretty cool to see a bike that could fold in half and another bicycle built for 4. (I guess there were only 4 of these bikes made in the world. 2 are unaccounted for, 1 is at Disney world, and the last is right here in Cumberland Gap, TN. Who could have thunk?)

 

Katie also looking for fish in the water just outside the museum

I also put Rick to work fixing one of my chairs.

Today to kill some time we decided to join the Sowby’s yet again for some fun. The agenda today changed a few times but ended on a movie.

Katie went to see Toy Story 3 with us in the theater. It was her first movie in the theater and I didn’t know if she was going to be old enough for the experience. Toy Story is one of the few movies she would sit through at home so I was hopeful. I figured with 3 tickets, popcorn, and a drink for under $10 I could deal with missing part of the movie if the need arose.

Katie was fantastic though. Once the previews started she was happy. She did want a few snacks along the way but she didn’t get out of her seat the entire movie. She jumped up and down and laughed really hard. Some of her expressions were priceless. I’m so glad that Rick was out of school for this one. He misses out on so many of Katie’s first because he has class. It was nice for him to experience the milestone first hand instead of me telling him and showing pictures.

 

20 Weeks

Here is a picture of me at 20 weeks.

 

We had an ultrasound today. The ultrasound tech looked 3 times to find out the sex of the baby. All 3 times baby crossed legs and would not give us any sort of an idea. Near the end of the ultrasound, the tech said that she didn’t have a clue on the sex and was going to make sure she took pictures of everything else she needed before she ended our ultrasound. At that point I started freaking out. I did not want to go months again without knowing. I like to plan. I really wanted to know the sex of the baby. So there I was praying in the dark ultrasound room for my baby to move and uncross their legs. That is when the tech tried to take a picture of the baby’s toes only to have the baby kick a little and move enough to give us a great view……      

That’s right we are buying BLUE!!!

Baby boy here we come!

Last of Utah

The part of our family vacation to Utah was spent with our niece Mikayla and our nephew Josh. Their mom Sarah came too. She has a pass to Thanksgiving point and took us as her guest which got our little family into everything for half price. We spent the morning at the Farm adventure where the kids fed/petted/rode the animals. Katie was in heaven.

Then we headed to the Discover Children’s Garden where the kids played in the water at Noah’s Ark and then drifted boats down a stream and pretty much laughed and played for hours.

It was sad to leave Utah. Katie still wakes up and asks were Grandma is or if she can see the horses with Grandpa. She wanted to play with Aunt “Mamie” (Amy) just today. Poor girl. Good news is we already bought our plane tickets to come out in December. 6 months and a pregnancy later and we will be back so beware.

I couldn’t resist getting a snow cone from my favorite shaved ice stand. It was so yummy!

Camping! (Beware picture overload!!)

It is tradition that every year for Memorial Day weekend my dad’s side of the family goes camping. The location can change from year to year but the laughter and fun are always there. This year we chose to go out on the west desert between Delta UT and the Nevada Boarder. Pretty much we were in our own little world.

Katie was able to travel down in the motor home which made the trip a lot easier. This way she didn’t have to stay in her car seat. We turned off the paved road and that is when my nose started running.  It hasn’t stopped yet. I’ve never had allergies but I guess it is never too early to start. Katie’s nose ran like a faucet and we had to call for backup in getting her some Benadryl.

This campout was all about the wildlife. Driving in we saw cows out on the range. My cousin Mike ran into some wild horses while on a 4-wheeler ride. My sister came across a 3 foot snake while on a hike. We saw an antelope while out for a ride. The kids in camp dug up a tarantula. The adults played with scorpions

and Katie caught tadpoles.

Hey do you see the speck at the top of the mountain? What could that be?

  Oh yep that is my hubby and my child. Needless to say Katie did some hiking. Beyond that she got to ride her own 4-wheeler, drank from a spring, took a bath in a sink, and played in the dirt for 4 days straight. She was in heaven!

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Don’t worry I had a great time too! I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my time then with family!

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Don’t worry you can’t go to the desert without doing a little shooting

a little Dutch oven cooking

and of course some Trilobite hunting! They are fossils of marine life. Rick was the lucky man in the group and found large whole trilobites which is hard to do. All the kids, including Katie, had a great time digging and banging rocks together looking for bugs.

The last thing Katie did before we hit pavement was get her first driving lesson. Yes my child is sitting on her dad’s lap, hands on the steering wheel, and truck moving along a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Her smile could not have gotten any bigger!

It took 4 times shampooing my hair in order to get the dirt out. It was so nice to have a shower after such a fun filled weekend.

Just keep swimming!

One of the best things about being in Utah is family. Rick’s brother Steve drove 2 hours from Cedar City to spend 2 days with us and brought his girlfriend so we could meet her. We hung out at Rick’s other brother Chad’s house in Provo UT.

While Chad was at work we decided to go swimming as a group at the Lehi pool. Katie loved every minute of water time. She went down the slides and jumped and played until we finally pulled her out. Good times with family!