Tennessee

We spent last week in Tennessee at my brother's house. My mom, dad and sister came out as well. We were busy and a little cramped, but we had a wonderful time! Jeff and Tammy are great hosts and the kids had a great time together. We took lots of pictures! Between three cameras there were over 2000 pictures taken! Here are just a few...

The boys were very excited when we started seeing "mountains". This is at a gas station in the Smokey Mountains. If they only knew,  these are just barely hills where I'm from.

We all traveled to Tennessee to meet the newest addition to the Bylund clan, Henery James Bylund. He was just a month old and very sweet. New babies are the best!

The first day we headed to the Grand Ole Opry Hotel. They have these huge indoor gardens with fountains and waterfalls and beautiful flowers and plants. We asked one of the gardeners about how they keep it so immaculate (no weeds anywhere, that's my kind of garden!), they said that because it's indoors they don't get any weeds. I'd like to bring in a couple of dandelions to blow all over the place, is that evil? 

Here are Eli and Kason at the hotel pretending to be statues. This is how we got them to stop and wait for us when they wanted to run ahead. Flowers are only interesting to preschoolers for so long I guess. 

Here's Harley and Meg enjoying the scenery from their plush double  stroller.  

We had in incident where Harley lost his shoe in the Koi pond. The fish when crazy -  like it was food and they were starving. We did end up getting it back and Harley was happy to know that his shoe had been "kissed" by all of those fish. We told him the fish kissed his shoe, because when someone said, "they are eating it!" He became very concerned for the welfare of his shoe. Not surprising considering Harley's obsession with shoes, the kid loves them!

That night we went to a very yummy BBQ place for dinner. They had these cheese cornbread muffins that were amazing! And best of all "Soooda" (as Harley calls it) or Rootbeer as it is more commonly known.

The next day we went to Cheekwood Gardens. It is a very cool place with lots of different gardens and it was a beautiful day to enjoy them. They were in the process of setting up a really cool treehouse exhibit. We were a little early for most of it, but they did have this one done.

Meg and Harley walking down the spiral staircase that lead up to the treehouse.

This was the first time since Jeff and Tammy moved to TN (at which point there were only 2) that all of the cousins have been together. Getting a picture was not easy, they each have a mind of their own. 

We took advantage of the beautiful scenery as well as Jeff and Tammy's nice camera and did some family pictures.

The sweet and goofy Kason Anthony

The funny and determined Harley James

The Happy and curious Ella Rebecca

The happy couple (By the time I realized Reed's are closed in this picture it was too late to change it. It takes so long to move the pictures to where you want them in Blogger....He looks handsome anyway ;).

Are next adventure was to a really cool urban park. 

The kids played in the fountains

Ella mostly sat in her stroller and looked cute in her swimsuit, and was very good at it! (Hmm...I don't know what happened to my other fountain picture, but like I said it takes way to long to add a picture where I want it and I have already spent way to long on this post... the natives are getting restless).

We also went to a farmers market that was downtown. The kids looked cute in their matching outfits (thanks Mom!)

Love that little scrunched face!

They had a fun concret sled that the kids (mostly the younger ones, and especially Meg) spent a lot of time on.

We even got mom to go for a ride.

They also had a rock wall that was fun, and surprisingly challenging for a children's playground.

Ella and Nana. It was fun for everyone to get to know Ella. When we were out at Christmas she was still a little baby, now she has so much more personality and is so cute and happy!

A rare picture of Harley and I together where Harley is not crying for his daddy. I guess TN was good for us :)

That night we went to Monell's. It's a family style, homemade, southern food, resturant. It was a lot of fun and very very good. I learned I really like corn pudding.

Good bye Tennessee! It was an awesome week. We really missed uncle Mike who couldn't get work off to come, but everyone there took part in some high quality fun and bonding. I learned a few things - number one that I wish we all lived closer together. I learned that I can get a good night's sleep on an air mattress. And by looking at these pictures I learned that I really need a haircut and to loose a couple of pounds - oh well. Thanks Jeff and Tammy and family for a wonderful vacation!

We got one group picture. Everyone together, but Mike... We missed you Mike!