Road Trip!!!

The girls had Spring Break last week as did my sister's kiddos, so we decided that would be a great opportunity for a road trip to Knoxville! Jeff couldn't take off work, so the girls and I hit the road for our "Girls Only Road Trip"!

(If you're interested in more pictures of cuteness and my sister's version of this post, click here!)

Sunglasses? check. DVD player? check, CHECK. Super fun time? check!

The coloring books and crayon rolls were a hit

Half way there! My parents always stop at the same McDonald's every time they drive to Knoxville, so we had to check it out, too. The girls were seriously SOOOO good in the car! Such troopers!

Yea!! We made it!!! The kids were sooo excited. When we drove up I could see Ali's kids watching out the window for us :) They went straight for dress-up once they all got together!

Not excited one bit. Nope.

My mom sent some clothes to Ali's kids from our latest clothing sale. They immediately grabbed their favorite and put it on, not taking them off until bedtime. The boys grabbed the Cars shirts, of course (well, Zachary went with orange stripe) and Reagan discovered her ballet leotard. She loves to pretend to do ballet, so she thought this was awesome! She wore that leotard over her clothes every day we were there!

Girls' Car!

The next day was pretty overcast, so we decided to take the kids to see Princess and the Frog. It was Ali's kids' first time to the theatre! It was such a great deal: discount theatre ($2 tickets) with popcorn for $1! We got each child their own little bag of popcorn (which they thought was so cool) and each pair of kids shared a Sprite. I didn't know Ali's kids had never had Sprite before (huh??), so no wonder Thomas gulped his and Zachary's... and Reagan and Jonathan's... and tried to get Kinley and Kallen's too! He told Jim that night they had "sour water" to drink! hahahaha! I think he is a Sprite fan!

Zachary and Thomas and Ali (and the sour water)

Kallen, Kinley, Reagan, and one of Jonathan's eyeballs

My mom observed that Zachary was standing next to Kinley in most of the pictures. I've always joked that Zachary could be one of my kids since he favors them so much. I think he's a bit taken with his older cousin!

That night, Jim made us a yummy dinner and Ali read a book to the kids, school teacher style!

My kids were a bit out of their element, trying to go to sleep in a room together, so I let them stay up a little bit later until their cousins were good and asleep. Then I would try to get Kinley to read books quietly on her bed/pallet while Kallen got good and sleepy with the grownups. Kallen fell asleep the second night sitting in Ali's lap while we were watching American Idol. How cute! So tired :)

The next morning Kinley read a story to everybody, then we were off again! This time to a Children's Museum. We were hustling to get out the door and both forgot our cameras (awful, I know!) so please excuse the poor quality of the cellphone camera :)

We were greeted by a giant polar bear and this volcano when we entered.

Then we saw a space ship with switches to flip and a ladder to climb

And a castle with a slide

Group shot!

Finally, Zachary's favorite, the TRAINS!!! Tons of train toys, two large trains to play in, and toy trains running.

 

Next was a large dollhouse for the kids to play in (Kinley's favorite!) and this room dedicated to the Manhattan Project. The kids LOVED the typewriters.

Last was a waterworks exhibit that the kids all really enjoyed. We took the kiddos to chick-fil-a for lunch (this time the BOYS got to ride in JoJo's car!) and Ali only had to climb up and rescue one child from the playground!          

That afternoon Ali broke out the paints for the kids

Zachary

Thomas

Jonathan

Reagan

Kallen

Kinley

Then Allison set up the train set for the kids (wowza, can I tell you this was a big job!?) And speaking of big jobs, I just have to say what a great job my sister and Jim have done with their kiddos. They are so smart, sweet, and well behaved! I think I might be curled up in a corner somewhere if I had a houseful of 3 year olds, haha!

That night, Jim let Kinley strum his guitar a bit before she went to bed. She looks like a natural!

And our visit came to an end on Thursday :(. A couple more group shots before we go!

Bye, guys! Thanks for letting us come and spend Spring Break with you!

We had such a great trip and can't wait to do it again!!