Sunday, January 3, 2010

Tennesse Trip

This year we decided to take the big road trip to visit Shaun's grandparents and other family in Maryville, Tennesse. They live just outside of Knoxville which on the far East side of TN so it was a long car ride, about 13 hours, but we were pretty comfortable in the new car and overall had a great time on the trip.
The trip was full of firsts for Tyler... first time out of the state, first time staying in a hotel, and first time meeting Great-Grandma & Great-Grandad and several great aunts and uncles.


4 generations

Shaun with his parents and sister

Tyler and his "spotlight"

Shaun trying out his Mom's "snugglie" aka snuggie

Tyler with Shaun's aunt Denise

playing around with Daddy

Hanging out with Greatgrandad, cousin Chloe and Greatgrandma

Greatgrandad and Greatgrandma have this huge basinet with lots of empty space that was very nice to give Tyler lots of room to run around and play or swing. :)

checking out one of Grandma's gifts

posing with Chloe

Half way through our visit Shaun and left Tyler with all the family and went away to a bed and breakfast in the mountains for a couple of nights. It was a beautiful place with great food and we definitely look forward to going back there again next time we are in Tennessee.

this is the view from the main deck of the B&B

this was the little patio by our room and joined the deck where the hot tub was

the one full day we were away we went on a little hike and saw lots of gourgeous scenery

This is inside a nature and historical preserve called Cade's Cove that we drove through. There were lots of other pictures of the beautiful scenery and the fun we had there from our trip, these are just a few pictures I really liked. I hope you enjoy them too.

Christmas morning

Merry Christmas!!


We returned from Tyler late Christmas Eve and were heading out after lunch on Christmas day to begin our road trip to Tennesse. Christmas morning was busy getting ready to leave, but still nice as we did our little family exchange of gifts, opening stocking, etc. I was trying to enjoy the moments so I didn't take too many pictures.








Plastic bugs and an M&M guy, stockings rule!


Leave it to Mom to buy a learning toy!

This is Tyler's new best buddy Woody. You can't even imagine how many times we have watched Toy Story, especially now that he has a Woody and a BuzzLightyear.

Christmas in Tyler

My parents drove up on Monday and picked up Tyler and took him home with them, so he got to spend the early part of Christmas week with them and had a blast. Shaun and I drove down Wednesday night to join him there and enjoy Christmas Eve the next day with my family.


Tyler's first gift on Christmas Eve was from Jen & Kevin Walsh, he a great time pushing around the other toys with it. Thanks Jen and Kevin!

Gran & Grandaddy with all the grandkids


my boys being silly

Bring on the gifts!

Tyler is usually good with pictures but I could not get him to smile to have his pictures taken with his cousins... at least the girls all managed pretty smiles. :)

Our family

This was the hit of the night for Tyler. My uncle Richard gave him this toy chainsaw... I think Tyler liked the goggles as much as he did the saw itself... he made just about everyone in the room try it out that night, it was very funny and cute.

The Whole clan

We were all excited to see it snow on Christmas Eve in Tyler. More fell in Dallas than there but Tyler still had a great time running around trying to catch the snow as it was falling.

Check out all the snow at our house when we got home late that night!