It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

We are having some great weather right now! We hope it stays!! Today was beautiful, in the 70's with a little wind. The girls wanted to go fly their kite so we took them to the field across the street.
The spectators across the street :-)Tomorrow we are driving up north to Mackinaw City and staying in a hotel right on the beach. We're excited that it will be pretty nice to maybe play on the beach, probably not in the water though. Then next week, the girls and I will be Indy for their Spring Break. Nathan still has classes so he will stay behind. We will miss him! If any of my Indy friends want to get together, let me know!! I'd love to see you!!

Finding Nemo

One of the nice things about going to school here is that they have started a program for the Students with Children. They offer free activities for us to take our children too! This past Saturday we hopped on the Ferris bus, and headed to Grand Rapids with other families to see Finding Nemo on Ice! This is not something we would have normally paid for, so we are very grateful to the school for offering this to us. The kids had a great time, although I must say, Charlotte was more excited to see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald than she was Nemo. I don't have a great camera, so it was hard to get very many good shots in the dark and weird lighting.

All I want for Christmas...

is my two front teeth!

Too bad it's 9 months away.

Oh, and sorry about the bad picture. She kept closing her eyes.

Pretty, Pretty Princesses

These princesses are really going to miss each other when we move.

Adventures at Burger King

Saturday we tried to go bowling. But there were no open lanes and it was too smoky anyway. So we had to go to our go-to alternative: Burger King, which has the only indoor play area for kids. The kids love it, the parents not so much. Why? Because of people like this:

That used to be a Ford Explorer and some genius decided to turn it into a truck. WOW!
This lady locked her keys in her car and practically broke her window trying to break in...at least, I hope it was her car...

The number one reason we don't like BK? It stinks like dirty feet, dirty diapers, and trash all at the same time. At least in the play area. If that won't ruin your appetite I don't know what will.

We capped off our adventurous trip to BK, with a trip to the local ice cream shop downtown. We have never been to the ice cream shop/souvenir shop and probably never will again. One scoop of ice cream in a cone was a whopping $4.00!! Good thing the girls had free coupons! They were done after about 6 bites.

Chattanooga Children's Museum

The Children's Museum was right down the street from our hotel so we decided to take the kids there before we left on Monday so they could get some of their energy out before getting back in the car for 8 more hours. Again, nothing like Indianapolis, more like Grand Rapids. Give Charlotte a kitchen and Brooke a store with play money and a cash register, and they're happy :-)
Even daddy was having fun!

Tennessee!!

We had a great time in Tennessee this past weekend. We hope that we will move there when Nathan is finished in May. I only say "hope" because Nathan is still working out the details with his future employer. But, things are looking up. It's a beautiful city right on the Tennessee River. It also has mountains (not big, like you think of out west, but big enough). The weather is perfect!! It hardly ever snows, and if it does, it's just a dusting and it melts the next day! After living in Michigan for two winters, I think I'll take a break from the snow for awhile! The temp. was 67 degrees when we left on Monday. The people are so friendly as well. I don't think we came across one grumpy person :-) I have a lot of pictures to share, maybe I'll do them in several posts.

We stayed right downtown, so the first night we just took a walk to see the city. We came across this hill, where people were sliding down on cardboard! The girls wanted to try it, but it didn't really work out so well. Maybe when it's raining? There were two hills like this and apparently the city has been advertising it. Weird.

Chattanooga has a foot bridge from one side of town to the other over the Tennessee River. We walked a little ways down it.
Photo courtesy of Brooke :-)
This is a little dark, but Nathan and Charlotte are in the distance.

That was Saturday. Sunday we went to the ward that we would be in. Everyone was very friendly. Unfortunately, it has mostly "older" people and not a whole lot of families, with a tiny primary. That's a little sad, but oh well. We went to lunch with Nathan's future boss and wife. Later that night we rode on the Chattanooga Ducks. If you have ever been to Branson, Missouri, maybe you've done the "ride the ducks". Very similar. It drives on the road, then floats in the river. At the end of the ride, the driver let all the kids have a turn steering. They thought that was pretty cool.

I'll post pictures of the Children's Museum in a new post.

Giveaway!

My friend Gwen just started an awesome blog and is doing her VERY FIRST giveaway! Go to www.sewmanybooks.com to enter and don't forget to tell her I sent you. If you're on facebook you can become a fan too! You know you want to...just do it!