Trip to Knoxville.

A few weeks back Deuce and I went up to Knoxville with my dad and sister to meet the rest of our family for my cousin Jessica's wedding. Any time my family gets together we have a blast. No matter what we're doing we have a lot of fun together. We arrived in Knoxville around 5:30 on Friday afternoon and immediately made our way out back to relax by the pool & the fire.

As is customary for my aunt & uncle's house, there are always people over. Whether it's family or friends, there are always visitors there. So we start up the fire, usually put the race or some sporting event on the TV (unless Grandma is in charge of the remote and then we watch Andy Griffith), drink a  few brews and play games in the yard. Deuce immediately decided to play football with Jordan.

Deuce loves him some Jordan! Then Pop got in on the action.

Then Deuce found Courtney. Courtney's boyfriend Chad is the neighbor and they might as well be family. She has a daughter that is 18 months old and I don't know if she just oozed of mommy vibes but Deuce loved him some Courtney too. Poor girl. She had 2 nights in a row out without her child and mine was glued to her lap the entire time. He's a ladies man.

We called to check on daddy and make sure he was alright at home without us.

Then wedding day arrived. The wedding was at a cute log cabin chapel in Gatlinburg and with it being the opening weekend for Dollywood and some car show in town, it took us 2 hours to get from Knoxville to the wedding. This made for a long journey. We split up into 2 cars and about an hour and a half down the road we had to stop for a bathroom break. We stopped at this country store in the middle of nowhere and went in all dressed up. We definitely looked like true city folks while the store was full of mud covered, overall wearing farmers. So in true country folk style, we picked up a couple of beverages to complete our long journey to Gatlinburg. Shhhhh......

We finally made it to the chapel with only a few minutes to spare before the ceremony started. Luckily someone noticed that Grandma was headed into the chapel with her bedroom shoes on.

Lawd.Have.Mercy.

Jordan had to take her back to the car so she could put her dress shoes on. We were all laughing so hard we were crying. Including Grandma.

My cousin Robin and her son Weslee. The setting of the chapel was beautiful!

The bride & groom: Jessica & Jason.

While Jessica & Jason were outside taking pictures together, we seized the opportunity to take some family pictures in the chapel. Pop kept Deuce at Aunt Rita's house in Knoxville and I'm very thankful for that. The 4 hours in the car for the 15 minute ceremony probably would have been a little too much for him.

Jordan, Aunt Rita, Uncle Jeff, Ricky

Aunt Rhonda, Ryan & Brandon

(Ryan & Brandon are getting married in September!!)

Aunt Rhonda, Ryan, Laura, Lindsay, Me, Aunt Rita, Ashley & Hailey

Me & Wawa outside the chapel.

Pop brought Deuce to the reception which was back in Knoxville and he was so proud of himself. He had fed Deuce lunch, gotten him to nap, gotten him dressed for the reception and found his way through Knoxville to the banquet hall. He did a darn good job!

And can I just say, my child would not leave the dance floor the entire night.

Like at all.

He threw a tantrum when it was time to go.

The embarrassing kind of tantrum.

I guess I kind of do the same thing when I have to stop dancing too.

Meeting of the Cousins

Here are some more pictures from our trip to Tennessee.  We spent the remainder of the trip visiting with family.  Actually I didn't leave Aunt Rita's house from when we got home from the basketball game on Friday until we left on Sunday morning.  Ed & TJ went to play basketball on Saturday.  It was so nice to be around my family, be a grungy mess and not have anywhere to be or anything to do.

This is Chris with his cousin Jaycie.  He is just 6 days older than her.  This is their 2nd time meeting.  They were sharing a hug.

 Jaycie gave him a quick peck on the cheek.  I caught it but didn't have time to focus it... sad.

Playing in one of the play rooms with Ricky.

Jaycie made her way over to Deuce & Ricky.

 Deuce's first New Year's.  He loves his cousin Chanler!

 Uncle Jeff

 Yeah he's up and awake for his first New Year's. 
There was just so much excitement at the house!

 With his cousin Jami Grace

 With his cousin Haley.  This was their first meeting and she loved him!

 TJ with some of his "new" cousins, as he calls them.  They belong to my cousin Robby & his wife Ashley and it was the first time TJ had met them.

Carter - 2, Haley - 5, TJ - 8, Dylan - 9 & Hayden - 6

 The boys had a good time playing pool & Wii together.

 Y'all he is so close to crawling!  He rocks back and forth and locks out his legs in a push up position and then hops his knees under him.  He gets where he wants to go but it takes him a while and some rolling over and he gets frustrated.  ANY DAY now he is just going to take off!

 He loved Aunt Rita's Christmas tree.

 He enjoyed their hardwoods too because it was easy to slide everywhere.  He rolled his way from the tree down the hall where he was playing peek-a-boo with me.

 Time for night-night in his new jammies Auntie gave him for Christmas.

The Invasion of Big Orange Country

I have waited for this game for years.  WE have waited for this game for years.  And when I say years, I really mean a lot of years.  Carolina had not played UT since 1961.  That's 20 years before I was born.  The Geer/Edgerton - UNC/UT roots run long and deep.  Let me explain...

I have both aunts, uncles and multiple cousins that live in Knoxville.  Die Hard UT fans.  They feel about UT just the same as we do Carolina.  They go to every football game, every basketball game, baseball games and they travel where ever the team is.  They are either alumni or current students, big time members of the Tennessee Fund and are very close with several members of the coaching staff.  They love UT and I love that about them.

Ed's parents both worked for UNC so he and his brother both grew up die hard Carolina fans.  They were the kids you saw crying in the stands when Carolina lost.  When Ed's brother got a scholarship to play basketball for East Tennessee State University, he left Chapel Hill in 1987.  After graduating, he moved to Knoxville...where he lives only a few miles away from my aunt and uncle.  He is a Carolina Fan surrounded by a sea of orange, much like anybody that comes to live in Chapel Hill is surrounded by Carolina blue.  He has been waiting for 23 years for this game to take place.

I was born in Hampton, VA.  Not very close to either UNC or UT.  BUT, my dad has been a Carolina fan since he was a kid.  He was the only Carolina fan in a house with 8 people...all of whom were NC State fans.  Plus my cousin was the quarterback at Carolina during the late 70's-80's (during the time I was born) and my mom's brother was a UNC graduate and he lived in Chapel Hill so naturally I was just born a Carolina fan too.  We have instilled this in our children.

Again, this game was a long time in the making.  Carolina/UT have been scheduled to play each other for awhile now, in Chapel Hill in 2011 and in Knoxville in 2012.  Our families had been planning the tailgating and all of the family happenings for these games forever.  Then before this season started, UT pulled out of the contract, cancelling both games.  We were so upset.  So when the season was over and the bowl games were announced, I don't need to explain that tickets were purchased to the Music City Bowl within minutes of the announcement.  Even better, the game was in Nashville, close enough for us to stay with the family in Knoxville.  We love Knoxville.  We love that when we go up there we can see both my family and Ed's.  We love that my Aunt Rita & Uncle Jeff are so welcoming to Ed's family that we all do everything together and avoid the "we have to do this with your family here and my family here" thing.  We jump on every opportunity we have to get away and go to Knoxville.

 

I must say, I loved Nashville. 

Love country music = Love Nashville

I want to go back.  Soon.  For vacation.  When we have time to visit places and when I have the chance to drag Ed around to try and find Tim McGraw's house.  He would do it if I wanted to.  He is that good to me.

We started out the day at the Wildhorse Saloon where we met up with some fellow Chapel Hillians.

This place was awesome.  Not so sure if everyone else liked it but this country girl did.  I even participated in the line dancing with Deuce on my hip, a la Gretchen Wilson's Redneck Woman.  It was so much fun.

 

This is my niece Chanler holding Deuce at Wildhorse Saloon.

Then we walked across the river to the stadium.  It was beautiful.  The Titans stadium was on one side of the river and the Nashville skyline was on the other.

Deuce took a pregame nap while we tailgated with the family.

I was so excited that Trace Atkins sang the national anthem.  Ed was like "who?  Oh, you like him?"

So anyway, this was definitely the craziest football game I have ever been to. 

I don't know what else to say about the game except that we won. You know there were only 10 Carolina fans in Nashville and we were 7 of them so we were surrounded by all UT fans.  That didn't bother me.  But at the end of the game there were some pretty unruly ones that were truly upset about what was taking place.  TJ was crying that he wanted to leave because he thought we were going to get beat up.  This was before the game went in to overtime.  Once it went in to overtime and then we won, you should have seen him.  He thought he was 10 feet tall.  Comical.  I got a text from my Aunt Rita that said we were going to have to find another place to stay after the game.  They were staying the night in Nashville and we drove back to her house in Knoxville, because yes we are too cheap to get a hotel.  I wrote her back that we were going to go back to her house, eat all of her food, paint all of their orange stuff blue and then leave by the time they got back the next morning.  They were good sports about the game and we all agreed that the officiating on BOTH sides was pretty terrible.  But I won't say anything else because....we won!

The next day, New Year's Eve, we had the opportunity to go to a UT basketball game.  I had never been to Thompson-Boling arena and the last time Ed was there was when his brother was playing for ETSU and they played Ga Tech in the NCAA tournament.  He was little then.  The arena has recently been renovated and my uncle's steel company did a lot of the steel work.  The place was beautiful!

This was Deuce's first collegiate basketball game.

Me, Ed & Deuce sat with my cousin Ricky while TJ got special treatment and got to sit in the coach's box with Aunt Rita & Uncle Jeff.  He had a blast. 

After the game, we were treated to a behind the scenes meet & greet with the players.  They were all so nice and more than willing to take pictures.

John Fields & Kenny Hall

Kenny Hall & Jeronne Maymon
Jeronne was so nice and kept saying how beautiful Deuce was. He told me & Ed that we "made a beautiful baby."

Scotty Hopson
TJ told me "his string was in my face but I didn't want to be rude." 
I guess his manners are starting to kick in.

Trae Golden

Melvin Goins

Tobias Harris

TJ with Melvin.  He liked Melvin because "he plays the point just like me."

TJ & Tobias

Josh Bone

The boys with Coach Pearl.  We didn't get the chance to talk with him that day.  I don't think he was too happy, they had lost and he had been kicked out of the game with 2 techs.  TJ thoroughly enjoyed talking to his parents and his wife though...lol!

Thanks to Aunt Rita & Uncle Jeff for making TJ's day.  He will never forget this.  And of course Deuce will love looking at the pictures when he gets older (and the fact that i had his UNC paci clip on him in every picture, hee hee.  Sorry Aunt Rita!)