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.

University of Tennessee Graduation

{BEWARE: this post is filled with lots of pictures, from various cell phones and cameras - some clear and some not...}

We set out on our journey to Tennessee on Thursday, December 8th to see my cousin Jordan graduate from UT on Friday morning. We were so excited to go as most of the family would be together for the first time in awhile. Whenever my dad's family gets together, an amazing time is guaranteed. The ride to Knoxville was smooth and easy.

The kids went to bed not too long after we arrived. Graduation was scheduled to begin at 9am on Friday morning and there were at least 15 people staying at my Aunt Rita's house so everyone had to be up in plenty of time to shower and get ready. Thank goodness for 4 showers & a huge water heater in the house! The graduation was held at Thompson-Boling Arena and was really nice. It was a little long and with every graduate walking the stage, Deuce got a little restless. So after Jordan finally made it across the stage, I took him up to the concourse level to roam. We must have walked the arena 4 or 5 times. Then we stopped to take a break {and lay down on the stairs for a bit}.

After the ceremony we all headed to the Country Club for a brunch for the family. The Club was decorated for Christmas and sits on the side of a mountain looking over the valley with large homes. It was really beautiful. The food was great and we had a good time. We even had a few emotional family moments when Jordan was thanking all of us for driving the distance to watch him graduate and telling us how much he loves us all. My cousins and I are very close.

some of the Edgerton family, everyone joked that me and Ed had to stand on the right side to spread out the color.

cousins: Ricky, Laura, Jordan, Ryan, Jami, me

my cousin TJ with Aunt Rita (we had to call him Big TJ all weekend to not get the two confused).

G and Laura

Jordan and Big Chris

Deuce and Jordan

The chocolate cupcake that could not be put down

Seriously, how Dennis the Menace is this??

Aunt Rita, Jordan, Uncle Jeff

The Roth boys doing the Baylor Bear Claw for Spencer. He is the punter for the Baylor football team and couldn't make it home for graduation.

Deuce and G

After the brunch we went back to the house to hang out for awhile until the party started. A local bar had been reserved for a graduation party and we turned that biker joint into a club. That's how my family rolls. Chanler was on board to babysit for us {love having built in babysitters in Knoxville!} so we had a late night out. We wobbled and shuffled and booty popped all night. That night was one of the best nights we've had in a VERY long time!

I don't think I really left the house on Saturday. The boys watched football in the media room all day and the girls watched Lifetime movies in the living room all day. Aunt Rita and Aunt Rhonda cooked dinner and we had a wonderful time laying around. Sunday we headed back home after a lunch with Ed's brother and the kids. It was such a nice weekend and has us all looking forward to Ricky's graduation in a few years!

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.