Tennessee/Florida

We got pretty lucky with our seating.

 As soon as school dismissed, we whisked the kids off to visit Tennessee and our property.  We wanted to give them a taste for Tennessee.  We wanted to make the whole trip as positive as possible so we sweetened the trip with a visit to the beautiful white sands and blue-green water beaches of Destin, Florida. 

Chattanooga splash park

Gwen has a thing for posing on sculptures

We flew into Chattanooga and stopped to visit the park on the first day.  My mom and dad joined us since my Mom had been born in Oak Ridge and my dad had always been curious about what his father-in-law had done for work in Tennessee as it had always been top secret.  

Lincoln can not get enough of West!

On our drive to our property--so breathtakingly gorgeous!

So lucky to have Mom and Dad come with us!

You may be able to tell, but Lincoln was just stung or bit by some sort of insect and I was worried about him passing out at this moment.  His words right before this occurred? "Mom, Tennesse is beautiful, but there are too many bugs."  I think the bugs were offended and let him know it. 

Found a few of these on our property

We hiked all over the property.  We even navigated the lowest area of the property, crisscrossing streams, watching for snakes, and waving down spiderwebs as we bush-whacked our way through the foliage. I was able to manage not stepping in water, until the very end. 

posing around our buried time capsule at the top of the property.

We formed a train to help my Mom get up the hill to the top of our property.

Relaxing in the shade at Roane County Park

After visiting our property, we made our way to nearby Roane County Park.  We played Frisbee Golf and relaxed in the shade.

We played a bit of frisbee golf on this trip.

We stopped in Oak Ridge to attend the American Museum of Science and Energy to learn about perhaps some of the work that my grandfather participated in while they lived there.  Then we went to see Grandma's first home. I somehow don't have a picture of that!! 

More frisbee golf

Sunburn earned the first day at the beach!

After visiting the ward that our property is zoned for, we drove all the way through Alabama to the panhandle of Florida.  The drive was absolutely gorgeous with more greenery.  When we arrived, we went to the beach as soon as we unloaded our stuff.  I stepped in the water and let out an audible gasp because, for the first time that I can remember, the ocean temperature was warmer than the air.  

A friend of Zach’s niece when she served her mission here in the Rockwood ward—which would happen to be our ward if we lived on our property.

Morning jog along 30-A

The boys found these super cute frogs swimming in the condo pool.  They had some frog races with them.  They were so fun to watch swim…so cute!

We came home with a sunburn, not a few mosquito bites and a memory full of gorgeous terrain and good times.  

Can’t wait to go back!