Category: Tennessee Trip

I don’t have a lot of energy to write a lot about the trip tonight but I wanted to post the fun pictures we took as a family–and then the individual family pictures.

My favorite family picture! (yes I know I already posted this a few days ago, but I like it THAT much)

Our Silly faces!

Surprised! (and no, we didn’t coach Josiah to do that… haha!)

Luke & Krista (& Mae)

Nathan & Amy (& Isaac & Audrey & Ethan)

Kylene & Justin

Nana & Bumpa

Me and the kiddos!

If you remember, I left off on our recap (Part 1) just arriving at the cabin where the rest of my family had already gathered and meeting the annoying raccoon who would eat our garbage each night.   The cabin was perched on the edge of a wooded area and had three levels, each with a balcony.  If you stood on the third floor balcony you were looking out into the tree tops which is such an unusual view–it felt almost like a tree house!  It was fun.

The view from the top balcony–I really should have taken a shot looking down to give you an idea of how high it was… oh, well

We arrived at the cabin just after suppertime on Thursday, so after unpacking the van we had a little time to socialize and then went to bed.  The next day was pretty low key–I had a blast just hanging out and going to the pool, and catching up with my family.  Chloe was a bit nervous to see all of her cousins and Aunts and Uncles that she hasn’t seen in a while, but she warmed up pretty quickly the next day.

This was the pool area–if you look in the far upper left corner there is a small triangular wading pool that Josiah LOVED. I spent all of my time in there with him. 🙂

We found a tube to play with at the pool!

And Bumpa found a long pole (for saving people? or maybe for grabbing the tube?) that he had fun with!

See–he had fun with it!

That night we all loaded in our cars and went out to eat at The Golden Corral.  I had never been to one before, but it’s a buffet, much like Old Country Buffet.  But they had cotton candy in the dessert section!

Josiah had a good time following around the kids everywhere.  Mae (Luke & Krista’s girl) was such a little cutie and at such a delightful age.

She really like to suck her thumb and touch her hair (or in this case, Luke’s hair, haha!) when she was nervous.

Kylene had the brilliant idea to embroider all of the cousin’s first initial on a handkerchief and the kids LOVED it.  She’s been getting into hand embroidery lately, so she wanted to give them something special.  They got to choose the color of hankie and color of thread.

Baby Mae stylin’ in her bandana

Chloe showing off her “C” hankie

Showing Nana the new hankie!

Fun for everyone!

A very special Happy Birthday to my wonderful Mom!

(I feel bad–I saw you on Sunday, Mom, and I completely spaced wishing you an early Happy Birthday then… whooops!  Things have been a bit crazy and chaotic lately. But I hope you have a fantastic day today!)

Nana surrounded by kids and Grandkids at the cabin. 🙂

I realized I also completely spaced actually talking or posting anything about our TN trip in the mess of getting back and moving and starting teaching… so here is a recap (part 1) of our TN adventure!

The kids and I left on Wednesday morning and met my parents in Eau Claire where we picked up our rental van (which, by the way was AMAZING).  After loading all our stuff in the van (and some creative loading/packing to get everything to fit) we were back on the road.

Here’s our wonderful van that we rented–it was a 2013 Toyota Sienna. It made traveling soooooooo relaxing!

We stopped at a cheese/fudge shop on our way through WI. Yuuummmmmmm!

The kids thought the giant mouse inside the cheese shop was funny. 😉

We made it to Bloomington, IL the first night.  The hotel had a pool that we played in late after we arrived to let the kids burn off some energy.  The next morning we had a delicious breakfast provided by the hotel and then loaded the van back up–through the window.  🙂  It was closer than walking around to the door, and there wasn’t a screen to it was easy!

Our clever loading idea, through the window…

After loading everything back in again (minus the nightlight that I accidentally forgot… 🙁  oops!) we were back on the road headed to TN.  It was a rather uneventful day, filled with movies, naps, snacks, potty breaks and lots of driving through beautiful scenery.  When we finally arrived everyone else was already there:  Here’s our entire group!

Fritz Family Reunion 2013

The cabin that we rented was AWESOME:  6 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms and a nice big area to cook, eat & socialize.  It was up a rather steep hill, which was a bit scary, but it also had a pool within walking distance which was great.

Not so great was the raccoon that kept digging in our garbage cans every night and decorating our decks with piles of garbage… I captured him the next morning wandering around looking for more tasty morsels.

The culprit of the mess!

Then I captured all of the family mesmerized by the raccoon–we were all excited to see him so close to the house!

We were all protected by the safety of the railing as we watched the little guy