Thanksgiving in Tennessee

We were lucky enough to spend Thanksgiving with part of Peter's family in Tennessee. It was a great trip! Peter's parents rented a house that was perfect; it had 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms and a great kitchen with a large enough table for us to all eat together. We split the drive up between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning and it was beautiful! Peter and I especially enjoyed the drive because we did something we love- read a book together. Peter's boss loaned us the first book in the next Camp Half Blood (Percy Jackson) series. We have about 90 pages left and have not had time to read since getting home but guaranteed we will find some this weekend!

My pictures are not completely in order. We were smart enough to download pictures from each others' cameras before we left. Thanks for some great shots!

Lanell loved holding the babies (Ryker Wood on the left, Arabella in the middle, and Sophi Booth on the right).

Fun with cousins-Alexandra is on the right.

We took our Wii and there was a whole lot of playing that went on.

The leaves were beautiful! I wish I could have seen them about 2 weeks ago, the trees were probably full of leaves but the ones that were left were great colors.

We had enough time to hit the Chattanooga Zoo when we arrived on Wednesday. It was small but it was $1 Wednesday and I got a 50% discount with my Dallas Zoo Pass=$2.00 for the whole family. There alot of monkeys and they were quite active.

A dracula deer- fitting for Jon to pose by since he has been a dracula for 3 years for Halloween.

We were by the ponies and Arabella thought that was great!

Grandpa, Anthony and Alexandra met us at the zoo.

Making pies the night before Thanksgiving. It made for a perfect time to visit and catch up with one another.

The kids were a little too full of energy Thurdsy morning and so we had played with them in our room for a bit and when they had wound down some they caught a ride out.

Getting ready to ride out.

Then some of our group went on a little hike.

They were throwing rocks into a little pond until Jon dropped a fairly large one on Peter's head from up above. Peter had a headache for awhile after.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast with tons of food but we forgot to take any pictures. We played a lot of games (board, card, dice, etc) as well. So fun!

Friday we went for a train ride to a train yard and there was a museum where this old poster was displayed. Yes, his leg is missing.

Peter and I had been trying to catch each other making silly faces with the camera but this one is just a classic Peter. There are some "nice"shots of me but since Peter never posts you won't be seeing them. :)

Family picture in front of a train.

This was on Satruday morning- a little card making.

Back to the trian. Look at those cute babies all bundled up!

After the train we ate turkey sandwiches and then went to the Children's Museum, the kids only had 90 minutes until it closed and I forgot my camera. It was a fun museum with some great permanent exhibits. Then we had dinner and watched a boat parade on the river. The boats had Christmas lights on them. It really was cool!

This is how Jon spent about 90% of his time at the house. Anthony was often on the other side of Jon. He loved having someone to play with him and help him through the games.

Saturday morning, Grandma & Grandpa took Alexandra and Joey to Ringgold which is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the battle there during the civil war.

Then we all met up at Chickamauga to see the visitor's center. It was really interesting but Arabella has a short attention span so I did not quite get to read all of the plaques I would have liked to.

Part of the battlefield. It was the 2nd bloodiest battle of the Civil War.

Saturday after the battle field we went to the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel and saw their model train exhibit. It was impressive. They had tried to replicate as much of Chattanooga and the surrounding area as possible. The details were impressive!

Arabella posing with some "neighs" in the display cabinet that told about how they make models.

Joey could not get enough.

The actualy Chattanooga Choo Choo- it does not run anymore.

We spent all of Sunday driving home and the drive went really well. The kids were great! Thank you to all of the Rabner Family that worked to make the trip so fabulous!