Too Much Fun!

Is there such a thing as too much fun? I'm beginning to think not. And it's about time. :) It seems like I've been making up for lost fun time in a big way. We've packed so much into this week with my sister that I can't even remember all that we've done. Just the overall sense of wanting time to stand still and wishing I never had to leave.

We arrived about 7:30 Saturday night.

Sunday was church, and it was great! Their new pastor, Greg Nash, is a very good speaker. We ate lunch at an excellent little Mexican restaurant.

Monday was customer appreciation day down at the market where Johnny works, and there was free lunch, so our plans for the day centered around that. :) Josh and Johnny took the kids to a Kid's Kastle playground while Amy and I went to get a pedicure. I can't believe I've never done that before. We got to sit in a massage chair the entire time, and we had about a half hour wait. It was wonderful, and for the first time ever, I think, I've been tempted to take a picture of my feet! Ha Ha! :) Amy and I missed out on the free lunch, so we sent the guys home for an afternoon of swimming, while we girls went out to eat at Demos' and then shopping for clothes for pictures on Wednesday. Johnny's brother, Lester, and his wife (and Amy's best friend), Marlene, came over for supper that night. We had a ball visiting with them.

Tuesday we went hiking to Savage Gulf. If all hiking was as easy and pleasant as that I would forever love to hike. It was about a mile one way and led to a beautiful bluff that dropped off into endless trees as far as you could see in every direction. We ate lunch at Pizza Hut, (which was super good!) and then we headed to Cumberland Caverns. That was SPECTACULAR! By far the highlight of the whole trip. We got back just in time to change and head to Amy's baby shower at her church. The guys stayed home again with the kids. They swam, ate, gave baths, put them all to bed, and watched a movie.

Wednesday was picture day. That took the entire morning, and then we all went to eat at Demos' again. Oh, so good! I don't think I would ever get tired of eating there. The prices are reasonable and the food is out of this world. The waitress thought that we had to wait too long for our food, and gave us all free dessert. Raspberry Brulee and Chocolate Cream Pie. Yum! We came home and relaxed until church that night. The kids got to swim again all afternoon. They loved it.

Thursday, we went to Chattanooga. We planned to leave early for our BIG day, but that didn't happen so everything was off a little. We went to the Aquarium, took a break for a few hours at the Discovery Center, and then finished up at the Aquarium. The kids did super all day. We wanted seafood for supper, but it was way over-priced so we settled for another restaurant that looked good, but wasn't.

One incident of note ~ Just as we were getting ready to leave the Discovery Center, a little boy managed to open the door by himself, and ran off at full speed. We had been waiting outside for Johnny and a few of the kids to finish up, and no one else had come out so we knew he was alone. It all happened so fast. None of us knew what to do for sure, and then finally Josh told me to hurry up and go get him. I don't think I've run that fast since I was eleven! He was half a block away before I even began to run, and we were surrounded by big city traffic. I barely caught up to him in time to keep him from running into the street. He stopped long enough for me to grab him, and then started running again, and that little stinker actually pulled me to the curb. I managed to pull him kicking and screaming, "Let go of me you mean woman!" almost all the way back before someone from the Center came out to help. My stress level was probably the worst it's ever been before in my life at that point, and that's saying a lot. It's scary how fast something bad can happen. I praise the Lord that it turned out well that day. After I caught my breath I asked Josh why HE didn't run after the kid, and he reminded me how bad that would have looked. I'm so thankful for his quick thinking.

We got back from Chattanooga late Thursday night, and were planning on leaving for Iowa Friday morning, but we decided to stay an extra day to rest and relax before heading home. It was so nice! Johnny's parents came over in the evening to watch all the kids so that we could go out to a nice restaurant for dinner. We finally got the seafood we had been craving, and it was incredible. The guys got Cold Stone like ice cream afterward, and then we went to Wal-Mart for some last minute shopping for our trip and stuff. We got in late, but it was well worth it.

In the coming days, I plan on doing posts with pictures (we got a ton!), and a separate detailed post about our stay in Iowa. I hope I didn't bore you all too much with this long post. Thanks for reading it through! Have a great day.