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.