Chattaboogie

Okay, so the blog is not back as much as I anticipated.  But there are so many blog worthy moment lately that I am going to backtrack and the move forward in double time.  (or at least I say:)

But in February we went to Chattanooga (Chattaboogie as we call it) with some very good friends of ours for a little weekend trip.  We had such fun and it was so nice to get out of town and away from all the responsibilities I left behind in Nashville for 2 nights.  Our friends, the Ballews, have twins, Minor and Maston, Hunter's age and then a little boy, Bowen, who is turning 2 this month.  So that means, we had 5 boys 4 and under.  If you have a boy then you can sympathize immediately!
But we started out leaving after the Daddys got off of work on Friday.  Chattanooga is only 2 hours away (door to door) so we got there in time for dinner and had adjoining rooms so after we ate we put a movie on for the kiddos in one room and we hung out in the other.  This is what we found...

I mean seriously?  How adorable/unbelievable is that??  Those were some major sleepyheads!

But then next morning we were excited to get to the Aquarium (or Acreamium as Drake called it)

And the first stop was the sting rays...and we even got to feed them!  Check out the boys faces and hands...

Sheer excitement and Fear!

Me feeding a sting ray, NOT a highlight of my life! (check out Hunty's face)

I love the boys faces here and the fact that Drake started grabbing the leg of the wrong man

Drakey Beiber

Then on to the Butterfly Garden which Hunty loved and STILL wants to go back to all the time.  Drake on the other hand was terrified.

And next stop: the Penguins!  As cute as they were, however, I couldn't help but think of the movie "Happy Feet" which made me instantly sad to be in there with them.  But they boys of course loved them

A typical attempt at a picture of those silly boys!


But then...on to find the SHARKS!!!!!

Sweetly Looking...

Sweetly Looking...

Silly Fish Face with Mommy...

AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! And then they were hooked! (no pun intended) Nothing will ever be as cool as the sharks.

And the boys sure kept looking for more sharks (and I love this picture of Lee with the boys crawling over him)


And even though we were officially out of the salt water and into the river water so the sharks were gone, it was even more fun to pet some fish!  

Always fun to see alligators...

And the adorable turtles (I loved this pic)

And at the very end the boys each got to pick out one thing from the Aquarium store (under $10).  Hunty picked out this cute sea turtle that he named "Snowy".  Drakey picked out a plastic alligator - no name yet.

Next Stop - Ruby Falls...except the little brothers had fallen asleep.  Oh boy this was a looooong cave tour!

Then the little guys woke up a little just in time for the 90 minute tour.  And a typical silly expression from Hunty

Some views from our walk through the cave. 

 It would have been much more fun and kid friendly if we were not required to go through the cave on a tour....frequent and long stops to listen to stories is NOT what little boys are made of!

A Stalagmite 

And THIS was what we ventured through the cave, carrying children, listening to whining and crying to find... (Que the cheesy music and light show)
Da da da taaaaaaaaa..a waterfall.  


Note: the large letters leading up to the tiny letters in the waterfall depict exactly how we felt when we came to it.

Finally on our way back!

WE MADE IT!!!!!! Drakey was very very happy to be going back out of the cave and to some fresh air on the playground.

We ended the little trip to visit the Chattanooga Choo-Choo (another activity I may not recommend)

EXCEPT for the fact that it was the Dungeons and Dragons Convention that weekend so we saw some awesome characters!  Sadly we did not get pictures of our favorites, but we did sneak some pictures of these crazy cats!

All in all it was great to get out of town!