I'm ecstatically exhausted

Today was a great day. The weather was Bea-U-ti-Ful. 80 degree temps, humidity: not TOO bad, occasional cloud cover and a refreshing breeze. The perfect day to enjoy SIX FLAGS OVER GEORGIA and make use of our season passes. I can't wait to tell you all about it...but first things first.

First, I need to finish watching my Tivo'd General Hospital episode...so hold on a sec.

...Michael woke up last week from a year long coma!! He doesn't like his mother anymore. Claudia was just outed for trying to kill Jerry Jax. English admitted that Ethan is Luke's son (but is she lying?!) Robin is back from her hospital stay for Postpartum Depression....

Ok...now back to the blog. Where was I? Oh yes, a perfect trip to Six Flags. Did I mention that I didn't have Matt with me? He decided to work instead.

He worked today despite the fact that the Forrest Industries Business Unit (F.I.B.U...) (....wow, I just had a vision of a clothing line involving leaves and twigs...but I digress and will save the vision for another blog post.) So seriously, where was I?

Oh yes, Matt worked today despite the fact that he and the rest of his group at HarrisGroup had to take a 10% pay-cut (again.) (I told him him a 10% pay-cut most likely meant his company wanted him to work 10% less...but he didn't agree. Something about trying to keep his job...blah blah blah.)

So I took my kiddos to Six Flags along with some Stay At Home Mom (SAHM) friends and their kiddos. We had 4 moms and 7 children among us. What a great pic!!

(l-r: Dylan, Jake, Lea, Lauren, Chase & Tyler)

**mine are in the shades**

(not pictured: 6 month old Ava who occupied Ms April's backpack the entire time)

The swings were our first ride. If you remember the last time we went Tyler refused to go on them and Lauren was quite hesitant. But having their friends with them gave them a boost in confidence. They both got on the swings and Had A Great Time.

next were the trucks
and then the airplanes

it was a little hot at times so we made good use of the mister water sprayers

from there we went to the Hot Air Balloon ride. This one made me a little dizzy but Tyler LOVED it. Just look at his face. His expression on this ride made my entire day (oh to be a kid again.)

and then the Carousel

Lauren and Tyler rode their own horse while I rode another right behind them.

This was the first time Tyler rode his own without someone standing next to him.

and finally it was time for Thomas Town. Even though we had been at the park for 6 hours, Lea, Lauren and Tyler were still CRAZY for Thomas. We played on the Thomas playground and of course, rode the Thomas Train too.

here is Tyler smiling

so he's not really smiling at the camera but He Is Smiling.

While they ran and played, Ms Maria and I nursed our aching necks and backs. What didn't make it into the pictures was the part where we watched each other's kids and took turns going on The Ninja ...which is definitely not kid friendly. While this "Ninja" looked like a smooth ride it turned out to have it's jerky surprises. (either that or we are getting old...I'm rooting for the former.)

Despite my temporary back pain (I'm sure it will go away after tomorrow's 3.5 mile jog) today was a wonderful day.

I'll close with a few updates from the Family Files:

**Lauren has started to call me MaMa most of the time. I'm guessing this has to do with Lea calling her parents MaMa and PaPa. She was calling me Mommy and it's now MaMa. Either one is fine but I'm so not ready to just be called MOM. I'll put up a big old fight when that happens. =)

**We have added a new show to our TIVO list/"season pass" We've added Special Agent Oso and in turn have deleted Sesame Street. I'm a bit sad that we have seen the last of the Sesame Street era.

**Lauren's favorite (inappropriate?) song is "I like to Move it, Move it." She sings this more often than I like to admit. I asked her where she heard this and she said it was from the movie in the hotel. She means Madagaskar. And from a quick Google search, she means this song. So just be aware when you let your sweet, innocent and beautiful children watch it.

Photo Diary of Days By Gone

Here's a view of the weather we were able to enjoy for the majority of G'ma Jan & G'pa Michael's visit. Cloudy, Rainy & the occasional outbreak of Sun. At least the temps were in the 80s and super muggy. Yay!Dinner at Smokey Bones in Peachtree City. Michael's grand-daughter and her husband live in Columbus, GA so they drove up to have dinner with us one night. Look! Tyler is actually looking at the camera.

Braves Game, from the Chop House Restaurant.

We slaughtered them Rockies that night.

(Meanwhile, back at home, the kids were enjoying the evening with Papa John's pepperoni pizza and Miss Morgan as a baby-sitter.) Thursday we left town for Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

We armed the kids with DVDs and Headphones for the car ride.

Our first stop was at the Smoky Mountain foothills. We stopped to see Tallulah Falls. My favorite part of this stop was to discover the movie "Deliverance" was filmed there. Too COOL!

We went off hiking to explore the Falls and surrounding Gorge.

We didn't go quite that far though.

Soon it was time for lunch. I think it was called "Meg's Diner"

It was an awesome dive.

the boys

the girlsand back ...On the Road Again...

next stop: the North Carolina and Tennessee State Line

(don't believe me? then check out the pic below)

many thanks to the Rockefellers, back in the day, for donating to this park

Lauren gives 2 Thumbs Up

shall we hike to Maine??

the fam on the border

G'pa Michael and G'ma Jan in front of the Smoky Mountains

I love the Smoky Mountains...they remind me of the North West and the beautiful mountains and passes we have out there.

We explored Gatlinburg, TN before settling down for the night in Pigeon Forge.

Gatlinburg is an awesome little town, despite being SEVERELY touristy. The pictures just don't do it justice.On Friday we hit up DOLLYWOOD!!

It was a beautiful day and it wasn't very crowded at all.

It was perfect.

Here we are taking over the fountain.

Lauren and I in a Pink Cadillac.

Matt, Tyler and the turquoise cruiser are somewhere behind us.

G'pa Michael and G'ma Jan on a fun water ride.Tyler thought this was the Coolest Thing Ever.

the Merry-Go-Round

Lauren as a Dollywood "chick"

We took the DW 192 train around the theme park. This was a real coal-burning train. Matt even got a piece of coal dust lodged in his eye. Lucky Guy.

Tyler tried on a Davy Crockett hat

he wanted us to see the tail too.

(business up front...party in the back)

He couldn't decide....Cowboy or Coonskin?

Before we left Matt and I took advantage and went on a couple of big kid roller coasters. Here we are riding the Mystery Mine Coaster. I'm in the back row in the pink shirt.

Crazy Fun.

That night we admired our "dirty hotel floor feet"

and then took a swim in the pool. Although you can't tell from the picture Tyler was a Water Dog. All he wanted to do was jump into Matt's arms from the side of the pool...over and over again.

The next day we were off across Tennessee heading to Nashville. The kids were exhausted from all the previous excitement.

In Nashville we had dinner at the Big River Grill. Lauren and G'pa Michael pose for the picture. G'pa is a bit red after eating some jalapeno nachos. =)

This fountain is just outside our Hotel.

from our back windows of he hotel we could see the back of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

after some exciting days Matt took a nap while Tyler...

and Lauren played in bed without him knowing.

On our last full day in Nashville we tried to tour the Grand Ole Opry but found they weren't offering tours that day. Go Figure. We did get a couple of pictures...

....before heading to the Opry Mills to shop and eat some dinner.

At the supersized mall, Lauren and Tyler found a school bus they just needed to drive.

Later that night G'pa and G'ma watched the kids so Matt and I could go out on the town. We went the the Wildhorse Saloon

where I was attacked by this statue of a horse

after the Wild Horse we stopped by Bailey's to watch the Lakers win and then we crammed ourselves in and listened to some local flavor at Tootsie's. It was a very fun night.

On the way home we drove through Lynchburg, TN to tour the Jack

Daniel's distillery.

these are the simple steps to make Tennesee Whiskey

G'pa Michael and G'ma Jan pose with Jack himself...all 5 feet 3 inches of him.

And this concludes my photo diary. G'ma Jan and G'pa Michael caught their morning flight back to Boise today and arrived home without any problems. We really enjoyed having them and miss them already.