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
Thank you for the birthday wishes. I know it is hard to remember mine is coming when we are celebrating Chloe’s – I forgot all about it, too.
Thanks for posting the great trip pictures for all to enjoy!