grand-day's

inspired by our fayetteville adventures, we decided to head to tennessee to see the day grandparents, gege and pawpaw....and man did we have some grand days!! (ok enough with the puns.)

immediately upon arrival they headed out back to the swing set.

i must admit after six hours in the car...anything outside sounded like a great idea!!

after a great night sleep, and a little oatmeal breakfast. (the headbands came in a three pack, and were meant to keep vivian's hair out of her oatmeal. the third one is on gege, but i didn't think she would appreciate that on the blog...you can thank me later, joan! but i digress....)

it was off to nashville. we decided to stop near the grand ole opry...and do some look-e-see.

gege helped the kids check out the enormous catfish...

while mommy attempted to feed the stingrays. (where is daddy when you really need him? it turns out this is a bit more nerve wracking than you would imagine, because you had to stick half your arm UNDER the water so they could suck the foot out of your hand. needless to say, i was the only one from the group that even attempted this feat.)

but the rays were pretty...

and bauer enjoyed watching the reef sharks, too.

next it was off to rain forest cafe for lunch. although i read about this place in dallas, this was our first try.

at first the kids weren't sure....there were actual rain storms with thunder and lightening and all the animals went wild....but after a few times they were hooked. and vivian now says it was her favorite place!

they even had these really cool bar stools. (please excuse the optical illusion on the size of my rear end....short sweater plus booty at odd angle equal bad picture. but look how cute miss v is!)

lastly, we checked out some tropical fish, and after a quick little drive....we were back at the day's.

gege made dinner. and just as we had done as children...the kids enjoyed a warm evening on the porch with popsicles. (my favorite pic of the trip!!)

the next day we headed to the park.

where we played in the sand...

and climbed up the....what do you call that thing?

and went down the slide, with a little help from pawpaw.

back home....vivian found a little place to relax while brother napped.

and after a full day of playing gege read some bedtime stories.

the next morning...even before breakfast...the kiddos were outside helping pawpaw with the "tractor". and then it was off to see pawpaw's new plant.

bauer immediately found something to play with....

and vivian was a very quick learner when it came to the crane (clif says this was one of his favorite things to do at chicopee when he was little).

we even got a "lift" on the forklift. (ok...last pun i promise!)

but wait....uh-oh.....who is trying to work the crane now? without supervision?! ;)

after four days it was time to head back to arkansas....someone had a hard time saying goodbye. we had such a great time...thanks again, gege and pawpaw!!!