Grandpa Larry's Surpise Visit

My dad and two of his friends surprised us last week with a visit from Tuesday to Saturday. He got to meet Joel and Clark. It had been about four years since I had seen Dad myself.

We did a lot of sight seeing while they were here. We all went to Racoon Mountain and panned for gem stones. Clark had fun throwing the treasure back into the water. Michael spent most of his time hunting for the gem Clark threw away. :-)

We went to the train museum and had a great time riding a train. Clark and Grandpa had a blast seeing the old steam engine and feeling the bumpity bump of the tracks. Here's Grandpa and the boys in the passenger car getting ready to go.

Here's the engine that pulled us. You can't help but be impressed by the enormity and strength of this machine. We all felt like we had stepped back in time. (I love living in Chattanooga!!!)

Summer Vacation and Home Sweet Home

At the Jackson, MS zoo, the elephants came to say hi to our little monkey.

At the creek, we hunted for cool rocks, played in the sand, and filled up our big truck with stuff.

Those didn't stay on long.


After the seeing all the animals, we took the train around the Alexandria, LA zoo. Clark and cousin Hannah loved the train, of course.
There's no place like on Grandma's lap wrapped up with her hand knitted blankie, drinking juice, and reading about trains...is there?

Joel has become our resident model. We got to participate in a photo shoot with Olan Mills photography. He hammed it up big time. He new smile makes me laugh so hard. And Joel's favorite chew toy is Chloe's tail. The crazy thing is she loves the attention.


Our happy family.... God is so good.

For our summer vacation, we got to spend a week with family in Mississippi. It was a great, but busy week. We helped grandma and pawpaw redo their bathroom, had dinner with each uncle and aunt, had a date night, went to two zoos, went creek walking and had a picnic, went to a family reunion, and much much more!!!!!