Our family (minus Dad) just got back from a fantastic adventure!!! We left Chattanooga on May 15 and traveled all the way to Bluefield , West Virginia for our friend's graduation!! That's 7 1/2 hours driving time with a quick stop in Knoxville to return our friend Davis to his parents. We arrived back in Chattanooga on May 26th exhausted and really happy with lots of fun memories. As I look back over the 11 day trip I am amazed at all we were able to see and do. I am grateful to God for his provisions for us and for all the blessings He sent our way!
My favorite part of the trip was visiting with family and friends. Some of our family, and all of our friends, were extremely hospitable and that made us feel great. My great-grandparents treated us royally! My brothers and I spent a lot of late nights watching basketball with my great- grandpa (Papaw Bailey).
We also spent A LOT of time gathered around my great grandmother's table eating her homemade cooking. She didn't just feed our big family but she fed our friends whenever they came around!
Memaw's food is amazing and my mom says she gained 5 lbs on the trip because of it! We stayed up late every night and when we woke up the next morning Memaw would have a huge breakfast ready for us. (By the way Memaw is 80!!) Memaw is famous for her biscuits and gravy, and eggs, and sausage, and bacon. We start dreaming about it before we ever get there! My great grandparents make sure there are piles of quilts and pillows for us to sleep on. They keep soccer balls and basketballs at their house for us and there is a big basketball court for us to play on. We are allowed to have our friends to their house as much as we want and Memaw makes cakes for us and lots of coffee for Mom.
Memaw and Papaw were not the only ones to lavish us in hospitality. Our friends the Hedricks had us over for hot dogs and had a bunch of our friends over too. We enjoyed seeing old friends and catching up with everyone. We played capture the flag and ate yummy food. It was a blast!
My aunt (Sissy) and Uncle Jeff are just 2 hours north of my grandparents so after a few days of visiting in Christiansburg we headed to Harrisonburg. Sissy and Uncle Jeff had presents waiting on us when we to their house and of course the best present of all was being with our cousins Mikayla and Andy.
While we were there Sissy cooked up some delicious food and took us out to CiCi's pizza. Hanging out at their house was a lot of fun and Sissy also took us to a park that was very cool and to a place called Kinetic kids that Olivia loved!! We played outside a lot, hung out, talked, and shopped at the Green Valley Book fair.
Also on this trip we paid a visit to my Uncle Gabe in Washington D.C. (just 2 more north of Sissy and Uncle Jeff ) Uncle Gabe was the best ever tour guide and we packed in 2 days of major sight-seeing! We went to the Washington Monument, The Lincoln Memorial, The Vietnam Wall, The Korean War Memorial, The World War II Memorial, The Smithsonian, The White House, and a ton of great restaurants. Gabe took us where ever we wanted to go and made sure we had a wonderful time . He fed us breakfast at his house and took us all over Virginia and D.C. He took us to the National Zoo and let us drag him all over the place.
I am super thankful to God for this trip. It was one of the best trips ever. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if Dad had been with us. (He had to work.) We are proud of Amanda for graduating high school and glad that we could be there for her ceremony. We are glad for this time with our Uncle Gabe and Uncle Jeff and Sissy and Mikayla and Andy and Papaw & Memaw and special friends!! We are glad for the sight-seeing and fun in D. C. and we are glad for the time at our great-grandparents' house. What a way to start the summer!
Mom is still learning how to cook on a camp stove. It may look burnt but it tasted delicious. (blueberry pancakes and bacon!)
