Roomie Reunion

A much anticipated part of our trip, for me, was our stop in Knoxville. As much as I wanted to get to Virginia I didn't want to miss the opportunity to spend time with my precious college roommates. College roommate sounds so impersonal for these two dear friends. We have been through college, courtships, weddings, marriage and babies together. I couldn't be more blessed than to have Lisa and Olivia to travel this journey with me. Even though I don't live as close as I would like to (Lisa is in Knoxville and Olivia is in Chattanooga) we are determined to live close someday, even if it's in a nursing home! Olivia drove up from Chattanooga and Lisa found two friends to watch 6 of our 8 children so that we could go out to lunch. We went a tea room, the quietest place we could find, and enjoyed high tea complete with finger sandwiches and little desserts. At one point we laughed about going to get something to eat afterwards (it didn't look like very much food to two nursing mamas), but it was worth it for the the beautiful, relaxing atmosphere.
Bethany and Ellie came with us and were perfect tea time companions.
When we got back Lisa pulled out a bunch of dress up clothes and the kids spent a long time playing around and dancing. This was the best group shot that we got. Doesn't look like they are having so much fun? Really, they were, they were just annoyed that we stopped the fun to take pictures. Well, Sophie was a little more than annoyed.

Jenna played the whole princess thing to the max. If she know how to bat her eyelashes she would have. She loved played with Naomi, who is a about a year and a half older than she is.
Jenna also loved playing with Charlie, the whole four days, whatever he was doing. Charlie was pretty fascinated by her too. Lisa and I couldn't help but giggle. We joked about serving fruit snacks at their wedding. At one point Charlie even agreed to play the prince and dance with Jenna. It only lasted for a few minutes, but it was adorable. On Sunday we went to a great park in Knoxville. The kids fed the ducks,while I did my best not to jump every time they seemed too close to the edge of the water. I am usually a pretty relaxed mom, but for some reason this was really hard for me. The kids had a great time though and Lisa got some amazing pictures. She really has the gift.

We were planning on going out to dinner, but forgot that is was Sunday and that we are in the South. We walked to 2 different places before we decided just to feed the kids the granola bars and goldfish that Lisa had wisely brought along and pick up something on the way home for the adults.

We had a wonderful time. I'm just sorry that we never got a picture of the three of us with all of our kids. The only other disappointment was that my cell phone disappeared. The last time I used it was in Lisa's house. We all three turned that house upside down, and still nothing. But, with 8 kids under 5 who knows where it could be. Heather says her guess is that it got flushed down the toilet. :)