Knoxville

 We had many place and people to see in Knoxville.  First stop...snow cones!

 We had dinner with a Sheddan family friend.  It was my first time to meet them. They had a nice house by the lake.

 Dinner was delicious. I was the kids' first time to eat at a formal dining table.  Lauren leaned over and asked, "Which plate am I supposed to use?" :)

 Lasagna, salad, bread, and fruit (bread not pictured)

 Benjamin finally got to run a race with Emily.  The last race was a girls only race, so it was his turn.

 Jonathan

 Papaw

 The finish line.  It was a color run in case you were wondering ;)

 After the race Benjamin just wanted WATER. More water.

 After water....the smiles return!

 Benjamin's friends came to cheer him on!

 Afterward, we ate at the Pancake Pantry in Gatlinburg (where the race was) The line was out the door.

 Emily and the kids snuck away to the lake while dinner was cooking :)

 Hudson loved coming to see Ma at her new place.  She looked great!

 WE went to Emily's house.  The kids found an elephant beach towel and HAD to get it for Emily's birthday (a little early).

 Regan and Papaw

 Mamaw cooking on the stove

 Chalk...it's a tradition.

 YUM! Look at these kabobs! Jonathan did an excellent job on the grill!

 He had a little helper for some.  Good job, Lauren!

 haha! Hudson being "picked up by his head" (at least that's what he thinks)

 S'mores...

 ...an American tradition

 This boy ate 4 and wanted more!!! Ummm, I think you have had enough. :)

 After S'mores, Katherine was making smoke signals with her stick.

Emily and Hudson

 Katherine and Regan

 Benjamin really got into this book series (thanks to his big sister) and couldn't put it down. He finally took a break and joined the fun!

 Braden kept following Katherine....so funny.

 All the kids playing a little football toss with Emily

 Nate's birthday!!!

 The girls (at the boy party)

 THE BOYS (and Sarah Ann)

 Happy Birthday, Nate!

 What's a party without a little friendly video game?

The boys went to an indoor race track.  This wasn't the kind of race track when I was growing up. Helmets required and no going over 80mph!!! They had a blast!

 More chalk

 Emily and Lauren

 Regan and Hudson and Mamaw

 The two that don't like pictures getting their picture made

 The girls did Emily's hair....very stylish :)

 Best friends

 Happy 4th birthday Sarah Ann!

 As we were leaving, I noticed that I had three stowaways!  Benjamin would have loved to back them in his suitcase!

Welcome Baby Zander!

 So glad we got to meet Zander before we headed back! I got first dibs to hold the baby.

 Katherine got to hold a hungry baby, but she enjoyed every second of it.

 Lauren just got to have a short turn because the paci was not quite as good as real food :)

 We were all getting hungry. Granddad grilled hamburgers. Yum!

 Regan, a real pro with kids of any age!

 Zander with his mom, Kelsey.

 Hudson didn't get a chance to hold the baby because Zander was all ready for bed.  He still got to be next to him though!

 Mammy fixed an early Thanksgiving dinner. YUM!

 One last goodbye for Murphy....he's taller than Lauren!

I think Murphy misses us! Come on, Granddad, let's go play fetch. :)

Total Solar Eclipse 2017

 We were excited that we were actually in an area that was going to have the complete solar eclipse.  We were actually right on the edge of it so we drove 20 minutes in so that we could experience the full effect.  I have to say, it did not disappoint!  We left that boring and basically tailgated in a strip mall parking lot while we waited.  It was quite enjoyable.  We killed the time by walking through the AIR-CONDITIONED stores and got icees at Target.

 We weren't the only ones who had this idea.  We met several people who all drove up just for the eclipse.

 My kids being their typical selves...Regan taking pictures and Benjamin making silly faces.

 It was fun seeing all the cool little science things that you could observe.  The kids (and Jonathan) criss-crossed their fingers and you could see the shape of the eclipse on the ground.

 Also, the sun shining through the leaves on the trees left thousands of eclipses on the ground.

 We only had one set of glasses, so we had to share.  This was actually really good since we didn't need to stare at the sun for too long.

 When the eclipse happened, the store lights automatically turned on because it was so dark.  You could also hear all the nighttime insects come out and start chirping.

 The bottom pic in the collage is Hudson using our hand made viewer.  It was actually genius because you couldn't look up at the sun if you wanted to...haha!

 This was the shot from our friend, Michael Patrick. He had a great camera for the event.