Chattenooga, Tennessee

We had a great trip to Chattenooga! I was becoming wary of the long drive with 2 little ones as it got closer, but they did remarkably well for a 10 hour trip.

Doug had planned the whole thing and we followed his itinerary pretty well.

First day was the incline railway

A mile up to the top of Lookout Mountain, the steepest railway in the world.

We came home for naps and later went out to Ruby Falls, which is a waterfall that was found in a cavern.

That was a really cool cave tour.

Rats, I forgot to take a picture of our AirBnB. It was over a hundred years old and had these amazing 10+ foot ceilings, it was on the bottom of Lookout Mt and the drive to the house was really steep and cool. The kids did well, we had packed some toys and they had some books there, every morning Jeanie woke up at 6 or so and Doug got up with her while I slept in, soooo appreciated.

The next day we spent at the Tennessee Aquarium.

We got lunch at this Greek/Mediterranean place downtown and then went to a railroad for a little train ride.

This train ride just went a couple miles out of town and then turned around on a turn table and went back, it was nice though.

My favorite thing we did was a trip to Rock City. A wealthy couple had turned this beautiful bouldered piece of property into a path that you walk down, there was music in spots and, it's hard to describe, but was just beautiful. At the top was an overlook over 7 different states.

After nap we drove across the state line to Georgia. Doug had been to pole climbing school there a decade or so ago and wanted to drive by his old apt, we also went to Canyonland State Park for a little hike to an overlook.

The next day was our last day in Tennessee, we packed up lunch and went on a hike to Sunset Rock and ate our lunch there.

Then we went on our longest hike, on Signal Mountain to Julia Falls overlook. I wore Jeanie in the front carrier and Doug had August in the backpack since it was a challenging hike.

It was a hard hike, but good to get some exercise after several days of eating too much :) the falls were also dry that time of year, but still a great hike.

I accidentally booked our stay one night too short, but it ended up being good because we drove halfway home to avoid a full-day drive on the way home again.

Beautiful sunset in Kentucky.

The next morning I had my first, and sadly only, Chick-fil-A breakfast of the whole trip! Due to an unfortunate GPS discovery that the previously planned Chick-fil-A breakfasts in Chattenooga were both on a college campus (closed for "fall break" (??)) and on a hospital campus which charged us $2 "parking" to just pull in and turn around after deciding we didn't want to try to find it in a hospital.

After that we drove a couple hours and squeezed in a visit to the Ark Encounter.

I'd been wanting to go here ever since I first heard about it, so I'm glad we went. We only spent 3 hours there since we wanted to get back on the road. Definitely could have spent a full day there. There were lots of exhibits and things to read and it was very busy, there was a whole outdoor section too we didn't see at all.

Back on the road and home by bedtime, spent an hour unpacking, clothes in the laundry, and back to real life :) But it was a great trip and I'm glad we were able to go.

life lately

It seems like all my posts are catching up, but I feel like that's mostly what I'm doing these days. And never totally caught up on everything anyway. Life is good, just busy.

Everyone says she looks like me

I think she looks like daddy.

She almost never just passes out (unless it's in her carseat) but that's what happens when you wake mama up at 6:30 and then play on the activity mat while she exercises, I came out of the shower and she was sound asleep.

Meanwhile, this guy can now climb out of his crib. He didn't actually do it, just perched there, but I don't want him to fall. I was waiting till 3 to switch him to his toddler bed, we haven't been in any rush at all since he hasn't tried to climb out before and just waits nicely in his crib in the morning. I feel like a bed is the 'gateway drug' to running all over the house at all hours of the night!

The kids had chiropractic appointments. Not pictured was Jeanie had an appointment with an ENT, I was concerned about a larynx/epiglottis malformation since she is such a noisy breather. They did a quick in-office scope and she looks perfect, so that was an answered prayer. She's just a noisy breather I guess!

We spent all weekend at my parent's house, they are moving and we helped load up the big truck.

Someone had to keep track of the U of M score!

Cutie pie hanging out

August thought the middle of the yard was a good place to push the cart. So helpful! ;)

My sister and I took one laaast walk in the woods together and reminisced about good times growing up.

I tried the pumpkin foam cold-brew at the work the other day and it was delicious, and this is from a non-coffee person. I think I may even treat myself to this every time I work until pumpkin-everything-season is over. So good!

Other big news is Jeanie is almost 6 months and we are prepping to start veggies. I waited till closer to 9 months with August to start foods and then we had an issue with weight-gain, so I'm trying to start her earlier. I read a book Doug got me from the library and it had a schedule for starting veggies so they get a really broad variety and several tastes of the same thing, so we are going to try that.

There will be 3 different groups of 5 veggies each, then will add other things like salmon, egg yolks, legumes, fruits. I spent all of naptime yesterday steaming and food-milling up spinach, broccoli, and peas to freeze and get ready.

That's $5 of spinach right there in those 6 little cubes.

Speaking of $, I finally picked my very first garden red pepper!

I was joking with mom it only cost $7 : for 2 organic pepper plants and a 4 month wait, lol. I actually have 2 more peppers out there, but they are still green. I'm not sure if they'll get to red since it's cold already. It was tasty though, we had it for lunch today.

Also not pictured, but saved a chipmunk from the jaws of our vicious cat today too, so feeling like a hero.