4-day weekend

I've been cutting Benjamin's hair for a while now, and I decided the other day that he really needed to go back to see a professional for as least one visit because let's face it, I'm not that good at it yet.

I was running late in town (after an OB appointment I believe), and I found out that Josh already had a haircut for himself scheduled, so we crashed his appointment (with the permission).

Before:

After:

She did an absolutely fantastic job on it, and I'd be lying if I didn't say I was paying close attention to help me along in my at home endeavors.  Among other things I noticed that I really need to work more on thinning his hair and blending.  In the meantime he might end up with more professional haircuts before things like picture day.

Afterwards we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.  I enjoyed a lovely Cherry limeade.  God sent us a beautiful, fluffy white snow that evening.  It wasn't enough to stick to the roads, but it was enough to soak everything to the point that our freezing weather would make roads unsafe for the next day.  Alas, school was closed for Friday.

 Benjamin enjoyed extra time home with me while Josh went to work.  I spent Friday and Saturday doing an overhaul on my messy closet.

Athena helped me fold laundry.

 Sunday morning we went to church where Benjamin decided to wear sunglasses for most of Sunday School.

After church we grabbed some lunch and headed for an overnight trip to Gatlinburg.  We stopped at the Kroger in Sevierville, and Benjamin loved the car shopping cart.

 

We had a fantastic dinner that evening.

I love my sweet boy!

The next day we went to the Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum, Ollie's (in Knoxville), and Litton's (in Knoxville).  Pictures to come later.  It's time for bed!

Riverbend 2014

So, if you live in our area, you know that we have had a lot of rain lately.  We had plans to take the teens from our church to Faith & Family night at Riverbend Tuesday evening, and we waited out a summer storm then headed out with some cheap ponchos and a prayer to stay dry.

The Lord was so good to us!  

It didn't rain anymore where we were, and it was about 68 degrees with a breeze.  

We were blessed with a beautiful sunset.

 We went specifically to see TobyMac.  We visited vendors and meandered around for a while.  I didn't realize that they had a token system in place where you pre buy tokens and then give them to the food vendors instead of money.  Tokens are 50 cents, and for example, the 32 oz Coke we got was 6 tokens with 4 token refills.

We had a great time!  

The only downside was getting home super late.  It was after 1:00 AM before I was rolling into the driveway\with a sleeping Benjamin in the backseat.  He stayed with Josh's parents, sister, and Christianna for the evening.  He had such a great time he didn't go to sleep until midnight.  He hadn't even taken a nap either.  He was no worse for it though.  He slept in today, and then he took a 3 hour nap despite having slept in.

A day at Dollywood

Last Thursday we took a day trip to Dollywood with Josh's parents, sister, her husband, and Christianna.  

Benjamin loved seeing the ducks walking around.

He chilled out during most of the stroller ride.  Looking at these pictures, you would think that he is all legs.

He rode the carousel with Josh.  Not sure if you can tell, but he had a death grip on Josh's shirt the entire time.

Papaw took Christianna for a ride as well.

Benjamin then rode the ducks with Christianna.  It went better than the last time which was by himself.  (Not sure if I have posted those pictures?  Needless to say, he didn't like riding solo.)

As you can tell, he wasn't so sure even with his cousin with him.

Next was the bees...

And then the pigs...

Yup.  He was stone faced the whole time.

While Christianna went to try out the elephants with her Daddy, Benjamin tried on her super cool Little Mermaid shades.

He enjoyed the "Choo-Choo."  We did not opt to ride this time.  We will let him get a little older.

By then it was nearing time for a nap...Doesn't look tired at all, does he?

We walked towards the other side of the park, and we noticed many pretty flowers...Including these...Anyone know what they are?  I'd like some in my garden.

He finally gave it up, and he stayed out for about two hours.  After some weather delays for the rides, we took the opportunity to leave him with Nana and go on some rollercoasters.

We started back for home around 5:30 or so since Josh had to go to work the next day.

After some horrible storms on the way home, we were blessed with a beautiful sunset.

Benjamin blessed us with a blowout diaper on the way home as well. SHEW.  He ended up with a bath once we got home.

Before bedtime I tried on his souvenir from Papaw and Nana.  For $15 one would have thought it would already have batteries, but alas, no.  It's a long story, but he was promised a miner's hat upon his first visit to Dollywood nearly 1 1/2 years ago.  It finally happened.  lol.  Ironically he wouldn't even wear it.