A Visit from the Mann clan

Chad, Julie, and Ally-cat made the long haul from Indy and visited good ol' Knoxville last weekend. Julie used to be our most frequent visitor. And then we started having babies which makes travelling A LITTLE more difficult! :) When we travel back to Indiana, we usually have our weekends packed with birthday parties, weddings, graduations, funerals, etc that tend to take up most of our time. Needless to say, Julie and I don't get to see each other very often anymore. So when she said they were coming for a visit, I did a little happy dance!!

Ally is 8 months older than Grace and was such a sweetheart to her! After they arrived in Tennessee, the girls put on their dress up clothes and the "night-o-fairy princesses" started!
They played so well together as long as Ally got to wear the green (Tinkerbell) dress and Grace got to wear the purple (Barbie) dress.......hey a girl has to know what color works best on her, right!?! :)

On Saturday, we sent the boys golfing and then took the girls to the aquarium in Gatlinburg. This was Grace's first trip to the aquarium so I was pumped. It's such a neat place to take the kiddos, and if you're ever in Gatlinburg, I highly recommend it. Inside there is a moving sidewalk and takes you underneath an enormous water tank filled with all kinds of sharks, turtles, etc. It's just like the scene in Jaws where the people are walking in the underwater tunnel. You know right before the dead body floats by the window and Jaws smashes into it!!!! Thankfully, we didn't have that SAME experience!! Whew I've watched one too many horror movies!



Once you pass all of the reminders of Jaws, there is a kids area with all kinds of fun things to look at and touch. The vibrating fish that you can stand on was a big hit as you can see in the pics above! Take a look at the picture of the treasure chest. You might notice a bright green button on the front. If you push that button, a big gust of air blows up from the what the kids are standing on. Now you might think this is a little cruel b/c it scared each and every kid that did it. On the other hand, I've never seen so many parents laughing SO hard!!!

Just like her mother, Grace was happy-go-lucky after we had our lunch!! We tend to get just a little irritable when we get hungry!! :)

We took the girls to the gift shop and let them each pick out a surprise. They had the cutest stuffed animals and little trinkets to choose from. For whatever reason, Grace picked out one of the ugliest things in the store......a purple mermaid. And what did Ally get......the same mermaid in pink!!!! Oh well they sure loved their "dollies!" It didn't take Grace long to start snoozing after we got on the road!!!

Saturday night Julie and I got a night out on the town! Ok so it was just dinner but enjoying a dinner out is a foreign concept to me these days! We got to enjoy A WHOLE meal without any interruptions AND the food was HOT when we ate it!! Ahhhhhh! I still slobber when I think about the white chocolate bread pudding a la mode!!! YUM!!! When we got home, we were pleasantly surprised to find the house picked up AND the dishes put IN the dishwasher. Matt and Chad are "brothers from another mother" and could sit and talk for hours like me and Julie so leaving them together all day is not a bit deal by any means. As a matter of fact, when we got home they were ready for us to leave again!

We had such a good visit with the Mann clan!! Come back anytime!!

We had beautiful weather all weekend, and decided Sunday night was a perfect night for a weenie roast before the big game. Here's a picture of Grace helping Matt with the hot dogs. She did a pretty good job. No eyes were poked out in the process so I'd consider that an overall success!!!