About: Southern Sight-Seeing

Sheesh I'm overdue for a post! We have been a *little* pre-occupied though... I have so many pictures between my phone and camera that this post would be forever long if I tried to merge them, so in typical lazy fashion I'll just do phone pics first and camera ones later... and maybe between two posts I'll remember everything that I wanted to write about!

The kids and I flew with Mom and Dad to Memphis and spent Friday and Saturday with GG & Aunt Tessa - a place the kids had never been to, and I hadn't been there in a decade! Carolina loved getting into GG's jewelry...

Liam loved playing with all of Poppa's old toys and exploring all of the great hiding places. Tessa spoiled us by taking us all to the Pink Palace - we saw a 3-D Imax movie, the planetarium, and basically checked out the whole museum. It was a fun way to get the kids out of the house for a while and also out of the heat - I enjoyed reliving a bit of my childhood.

It was a very quick visit, then we spent Sunday driving across Tennessee to Great Grandma and Grandpa's in North Carolina. 

Shortly after we arrived, some of my cousins did - it was the first time I've met their kids or they've met Carolina, or the kids had met each other. Carolina and Maggie immediately wandered off, deep in new friend conversation. Liam and Parker bonded over playing Lego and spies, Parker just cracked me up!

These three, we quickly realized, were like triplets - all 4 years old - all the same height - and all just acting very 4! The cousin triplets! They were too cute. I LOVED meeting my little cousins, they are so adorable and sweet and fun. It made us all very sad to say goodbye, but made us determined to see each other more often.

Carolina's favorite person, however, ended up being Uncle Terry - who she hadn't seen since she was an infant. It was really precious. She might have been his favorite too. 

It's always a treat being at Grandma & Grandpa's house - it was certainly beloved by all of us cousins, and it feels the same as a grown-up! We picked blueberries almost every day (most delicious blueberries ever ever ever), played pool/pinball/air hockey/bocci, took walks around the property and the "neighborhood", ate, looked at the view, and best of all watched the next generation fall in love with it all.

I mean - a brand new calf right there to see - how can you not love it?!

You just can't be bored here. 

One day we drove to Knoxville and had the great treat of getting to spend an extra day with our other cousins and live up life on the river at Uncle Gary's house - jet skiing, paddle boarding, and swimming. Both kids were nervous - but ended up loving all of it. It was a seriously fantastic day!

Jen and Grant, Todd and I were given a kid-free day which we spent exploring the Biltmore House and downtown Asheville. 

All owned by the Vanderbilts - I believe this is the Pisgah National Forest?

This is my absolute favorite picture I got on the whole trip - I already tried printing it, but it came out too dark... I am determined to keep trying until somebody can get it right, and then anybody in the family who wants one - I'll send it to you!

Almost a week and a half in the south and we were NOT ready to leave. I could've easily stayed another week. Jen, Grant, Whit and us had a long travel day coming home, 20 hours we determined. 

 From Greenville, to Chicago, to Denver, to Boise. We loved flying into Chicao, and we spent 8 hours in Denver so we took the train to downtown to celebrate Father's Day (where it was 100 degrees!) - but we made it. 

Now that we've had almost a week to recover, we are feeling normal again, but I'm still wishing we were there...