Iron Man and Spider Man Visit Knoxville

While my sister and I were having a yard sale Saturday morning, Rick and my mom took the kiddos to the zoo to see Spider Man and Iron Man.


I think I told Rick about 20 times before he left to make sure he took his camera and got photos. I got 2 and I think my mom took them both. Hey, I am not complaining, it's just not his priority. Which is good, his priority were the kids...I hope.

Camping Out

This is where Rick, Millie and Jacob are right now. They are watching a projection movie on our screen porch and are ready for a camp out. Have fun kiddos. I will be in my nice big bed with the AC blasting. Thanks Rick for doing this, you are the coolest dad and Godfather ever!

The Three Stooges

My sister came down for the weekend with my nephew and my mom and all 3 of the kids have been having a great time. As I type this, they are having a camp out, more about that later. After a long fun day I decided to get out the sprinkler and let the kids play. I had no other motive behind that...like we have not had measurable rain in longer than I can remember and my grass could use some water. What do the kids care anyway?


Reed kept trying to drink the water, thanks JJ for showing him that.


Have I forgotten to mention that Millie has been working on her awesome Ninja skills?


Don't they look sweet and innocent?


Oh Lord he has some chubs!


This boy is just crazy and I love when he visits.


Millie had to try to get a drink of course.


Then Rick got involved. Monkeys See...


...Monkeys do.


They finally all had to take a little rest...


...except for Rick who decided to do a flying leap-flip-roll through the air over the sprinkler. I would expect nothing less.

Reed's Fat Lip

So now Reed has a fat lip to match the rest of his cute chubs. He fell down the stairs on the back of the deck and busted his lip. I have never seen so much blood come of out someone so little. I was very pleased to see that after it stopped bleeding, it seemed to only be his lip that was hurt. He cheered up pretty fast when I gave him a piece of ice to lick.

The Fort

Need I say more?

Story Time At The Library

Millie got to hang out with Miles today at Story Time. After Story Time they watched a magician.

Jon Gustin

When Rick and I took Millie to Cirque du Soleil a few weeks ago I took some time to take a few photos.


While I was doing that, I didn't notice that Jon Gustin was taking a few photos of us as well. First, I don't know this guy, this is not a recommendation, just a story to pass along.


He was nice enough to tell me afterward that he took a few photos and if I wanted them, he would send them to me. I thought that was very nice of him but being a little cautious, I asked if he had a card because I didn't have a pen or anything to write my info down.


Of course, if he had told me BEFORE that he was taking these photos, I would have put down the camera bag and it would have made for a little better photo.


But then I would have been all self conscious and been weird and would have been convinced he was stalking us and wanted to kidnap us all.


He was nice though and I checked out his web site and he is a real photographer and I am glad he sent me the photos. He did a few interesting photo shop tricks to them which I liked and I will have to try myself.

Father's Day on the Princess with Betty White

We surprised Rick with a brunch cruise on the Volunteer Princess today. Millie did a great job keeping our secret.


Reed and Millie wanted to get a closer look at the train and took a little walk down the tracks while we waited for them to start boarding the Princess.


Millie was excited.


Reed and Millie both were able to chat with the captain and take a turn at the wheel.


When Reed finished he kept saying "Reed boat drive oh yes!"...over and over.


I noticed this photo of Betty White and thought is was pretty cool that my kids sat in the same place she sat. Betty White rocks!


It was a nice cool ride even though it was 95 degrees outside. The kids loved the boat and I was glad we were able to do something special for Rick to let him know what a great dad he is.

My Mom

My kids absolutely adore my mother and the feeling is mutual. If we go longer than about 3 weeks without going to Indiana to visit, she will work in a trip down to visit us. She said she just can not go longer than about 4 weeks without seeing them. Can you really blame her, they are adorable and I don't feel like I am bias in this opinion one bit. Well, maybe a little.

Reed was playing with mom here and he just fell asleep. Granted, he likes to sleep, but to just completely release any inhibitions or fear and just fall asleep in her arms makes my heart melt. I know if anything ever happened to Rick and I the kids would be completely taken care of and loved just as much as if we were still around, maybe even more. I don't plan on checking out anytime soon, I'm just saying...


The same goes for Millie. She talks to my mom or dad at least once a day on the phone, sometimes more. Millie can hardly wait to tell Mammy what she has done, what she is going to do or anything and everything that goes on during her day to day activities.


My mom keeps me sane and I don't know what I would do without her.

Cirque du Soleil

Rick and I have enjoyed several performances of Cirque du Soleil in the past. Our first one was Varekai in Chicago with Rick's sister and the second was Kà in Vegas with some of Rick's coworkers. When we heard they were coming to Knoxville for Cirque Dreams Illumination, we figured Millie would really enjoy it so we got front row balcony seats for all three of us and looked forward to a special evening with Millie while my mom (have I mentioned that she is the BEST!) stayed with Reed at the house.

A quick photo before we left...she insisted on wearing a UT bow that my sister got her.


She was looking over the menu at Cafe' 4 on Market Square downtown.


After dinner, we had a little photo time on the walk to the theater.


Her pose for the evening seemed to be this for some reason.


Oh well, at least she was attempting to work with me a little.


Rick finally finished up on the phone and was able to take a picture of Millie and I.


Rick had a little to do with this.



She got pretty excited when our 2 block walk was over and she spotted the Theater.


A few more photos along the way.



Our entertainment for the evening.


The Tennessee Theater really is a beautiful building. It was too dark to get any photos inside.


I asked Millie when it was over if she liked going to the movies better or if she liked the theater better and she voted for the theater. It was great watching her watch the show. She was very excited and amazed by the performers. She was clapping and cheering after every act. She kept asking why they were so much trickier than she is and how in the world can they bend like that? All good questions!

Mayfield Dairy Moofest

Mayfield Dairy had their annual Moofest this weekend. First we had to blow through about a week's salary on 2 rides for Millie.




My mom was able to go with us and she will be here for the rest of the week. She totally rocks! She had both kids all last week in Indiana and now she is staying this week so she can babysit for us on Thursday because we are taking Millie out for a special evening. I will have more on that later. I really don't know what I would do without her. It is great that she comes down to visit so often and does so much to help Rick and I with the kids.


Reed didn't want to do anything but ride the train, he did it twice.


After the rides we had to partake in the local cuisine.


Reed was a fan.


A really big fan. He got concerned when he finished a piece and he didn't have one on deck waiting for him.


For some reason Millie didn't want to taste it but she went to town on my mom's pina colada. Don't worry, it was alcohol free...I hope.


As luck would have it, we were having our gourmet dinner in the main tent when the milk chugging contest started. The contestant in the middle had the best form and was by far the cutest one up there. However, I didn't have high hopes of a victory here because she is the slowest eater in the world. To top that off, she got to pick chocolate milk which she NEVER has at home and when she is eating or drinking something she thinks is a special treat she is even slower. I will get on her and tell her to hurry up and she just looks and me and says "I am taking my time so I can enjoy it Mom."


And then my battery went dead. So, I found a bunch of outlets behind a few deep frying booths and I got a little juice back on the battery while Mom, Rick and the kids walked around a little. Rick got some video on his phone of the milk chugging so when I get the figured out, I will add it later.

We got the camera back online but there wasn't much left to see. The coolest part of the event was all the free milk they were handing out. This made both of my kids deliriously happy.