There's No Place Like Roam

Well, Christmas has come and gone. It was a wonderful blur. The boys have video games to last an entire year! They also received a marble run, some Legos and a Spirograph set. Lots of board games too. Presents were slim for mom and dad because we were forced to buy a Christmas range! Yippie!  

So this Christmas it was 75 degrees. It rained, and rained and rained. Almost 8 inches in 24 hours near our family in Alabama. We pass Noccalula falls every time we visit "home". I was surprised to see the parking lot full, as it had just stopped drizzling. Then I realized that they were looking at the falls. The last few times we stopped, it was barely a trickle, but the boys had fun playing on the rocks. Not this time! You couldn't even see the rocks and the bridge was partially underwater.  I went biking on Sunday and took this picture of the Chickamauga dam. That's a lot of water!

This is our 5th consecutive year to visit the Enchanted Garden of Lights at one of our favorite local places, Rock City. It was foggy and drizzling, but that just made the lights glow! It was beautiful. Graham was so excited to see Santa and Carter put up with it. ;-) I ❤️ traditions!

To be honest, we aren't die hard sports fans. Hunter has been asking to go to a college football game, but with soccer it had been hard to fit it in. My alma mater, Jacksonville State University, made it to the semi-finals in their division, so we took the opportunity to go. They whooped Sam Houston and will play their playoff game in January. The boys had a great time and I loved seeing the Marching Southerners!

The coolest indoor rock climbing place was built in Chattanooga 2 years ago. I wanted to go so bad, but just never made it a priority. The kids begged to go over Thanksgiving, so we took the guys and cousin Patrick. Because we had to supervise their climbing...I STILL didn't get to do it!

Starbucks, Subway and a SmartPhone...yep, he's a teenager! 

Hunter played soccer again this fall. His team won all games except one. It was a rainy season, but we finally wrapped it up in November. Hunter wouldn't let me take ANY pictures until the very last game. Hunter's magic knee. It prevented a few scores in the last game.  He even tried his first Starbucks (PSL) as a reward.

Continuing the family tradition of dressing in theme, we tried Star Wars this year. Carter was on the fence about trick or treating, but we assured him that he should get in his last pre-teen year while he could!  We went to a new "employee-sponsored" event at VW and it was awesome. Trunk or treat, food trucks, pumpkin carving, bounce houses and a dance floor. We hope to decorate a car in the trunk or treat next year! Jason's spooky pumpkin!

We continued our pumpkin patch tradition after our move to TN...we are so glad to have found Old McDonalds farm! There are so many things for bigger kids to do - I even tell Jason he will have to bring me after the kids are grown.

We were able to have a fall session with our favorite Chattanooga photographer, Pleasant Vonnoh. Jason had a special request for the first shot. ;-)

I took a day off work to attend a field trip to the Civil War tunnel in GA, and then we left the field trip with several of Hunter's friends and headed to Superfly. We finished up with CiCi's. They all had a good time celebrating Hunter's 11th.

I attended Graham's first field trip of the year...a ride aboard the Southern Belle riverboat. It was a little chilly, but the kids had a great time. It was my first ride as well, so I enjoyed checking that off of my Chattanooga bucket list!

There has been more car swapping going on around here than normal! Jason turned on his convertible Audi and we bought a Tundra 4x4....with the intention of keeping it FOREVER...(we'll see about that!). ;-) Also, my van lease was ending and VW stopped making the Routan, so we went with a Golf Sportwagen until they start producing the CrossBlue. Boy oh boy are we already missing the three rows. "He's on MY SIDE!!!" is the new favorite phrase around here. 

After attending the Lookouts game, we headed back to the parking deck. We were only parked on the 2nd floor, but Hunter and Graham raced onto the elevator to "push the buttons". Carter and I were already headed up the stairs, so Jason joined them. Carter and I made it to the car and then realized they rest of the group never got off the elevator.  After 10 minutes of Jason having no luck with the buttons and in elevator phone, I called 911. The fire department arrived on scene and has them out in less than 15 minutes from the time I called. We were very grateful!  Graham was very unhappy because he felt like it was his fault, but Jason kept them entertained. Now they enjoy retelling the story.

We continued a fun tradition with the Gunnoe family. They drove up to watch the Lookouts, Chattanooga's minor league team. We all had a great time...and ice cream!:-)

So this is the second year in a row that all three boys are in different schools. A nightmare for mom, but the boys enjoy having their own turf.

Well, I was in no shape to run the 5k this year (lazy!), but all three boys ran the kidstock and of course uncle David ran the entire thing.  

Jason and I had a wonderful time celebrating our 20-year class reunion with many of our classmates from Alexandria High School.

So, I'm going about my business and out of the blue a former co-worker calls me and tells me about an opening at my old company. Since Sherry moved, I've truly missed the flexibility that my previous job allowed. After looking into it, I decide that I just can't pass it up. A month later, and I'm walking back into my old cubicle...in some ways it's like I never left. My voice mail recording was still on my phone! Ha! I'll treasure the friends I made at VW...and it was fun living in "Jason's world" for a while. I'll definitely miss our daily, kid-free, lunch dates!

Beach!!!!