Knox.

This is how we spent most of our week in Knoxville.

And this...outside in the nice, hot weather.

We arrived late Friday night at about midnight after driving from work.  The plus side to leaving later in the evening is that the boys tend to sleep most of the ride so it's quiet and Ed and I can have a chance to talk (or I can torture Ed with my favorite music genre, country, as we drive through the mountains and can't get any other station to come in clearly.)  Deuce decided to wake big Chris up Saturday morning so they could play.  He hadn't seen big Chris since last summer when he was only a few weeks old.  Big Chris graduated from UT, where he played football, and is staying with Aunt Rita and Uncle Jeff until he starts his job back home in Memphis later this month.

Big Chris may be one of the nicest people we have ever met.  He is an advocate for the Knoxville community, a big part of the local FCA and is very well respected by the people in Knoxville.  We enjoy spending time with him and his family whenever we can.  I told Chris' mom Gloria that I hope I can do as good a job raising my Chris as she has done with hers.

So this week we swam, and played and swam and played.  Deuce really enjoyed hanging out on the float with Aunt Rita.  He's totally over his little ring that he can float on his own in.  He wants to be out with everyone else.

When the sun went down, Deuce and daddy would hang out and listen to music and play with his phone, poolside.  Deuce is very observant as is demonstrated by his hand over his head while he bobs to the music playing outside.  I never realized how much I jam in the car until he started copying everything I do...

And the neighborhood cat, who belongs to Uncle Jeff's brother, hangs out at this house more than she does her own.  This made Deuce happy since he was missing his Bailey kitty. {Side note: he missed Bailey so much that when we got home, I caught him trying to pick her up by her head!!!}

Sunday evening, Uncle Jeff's niece celebrated her 9th birthday with a pool party at the house.  There were all kinds of little girls running around and playing in the pool and Deuce was loving it!  He made sure he was right in the middle of everything!

Tuesday we took the boys and Jalen & Chanler to the aquarium in Gatlinburg.  It was really neat.  After the first 10 minutes, Deuce decided that he was not feeling the stroller and wanted to be able to press his face up to all of the glass.  He L.O.V.E.D. the aquarium! {sorry, I totally forgot my camera this day so all pics were taken with the cell... sad.}  Those are sharks above us.

He and TJ got to go "inside" a fish tank and then all 4 kids went "inside" the penguin exhibit.  They were all able to run free and that was really nice for us!

We all really enjoyed the aquarium and I hope to take Deuce back to another one soon.

We did some more swimming while in Knoxville and even got to take bubble baths in Aunt Rita's HUGE jacuzzi whirlpool tub. Oooh La La!

On the night before we left, Aunt Rita and Uncle Jeff took us out to dinner while Chanler stayed behind and babysat the kids.  Shout out to Chan...she put Deuce down for the night all on her own and had no problems!  She's the only person other than Nana to do that.  Yay for my niece!!  She made sure that we knew she was available for babysitting anytime we came back to Knoxville and I'm like "holla!" 

Aunt Rita & Uncle Jeff

My cuz Jordan and his girlfriend Kelli

The other cuz, Ricky...he had no date so I had to pose with him...

And the honey.

Before we left the next morning, we had to get a shot of the kids with Big Chris but Deuce decided he wasn't feeling it.  Jalen and Chanler had spent the night after she babysat and Jalen came over straight from football practice...Yes, he slept in his football pads all night long, lol!!!

So Deuce sat on my hip while I snapped the picture...

So here's them from last year.  What a difference.

I miss Knoxville already.  Jordan graduates in December so we'll be back up there before we know it.

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