Monday, March 30, 2009

Jack Daniel's Distillery

We spent Monday at the Jack Daniel distillery. The tour is free and the weather was great so we couldn't pass it up. It's a really interesting tour, given by a good 'ole boy from Tennessee. There are no free samples, it's in a dry county, go figure but there are lots of whiskey scents in the air. We ended the day going back to Kelly's and just visiting a bit. We made it back to Knoxville today for a week of rest and then we're off again.

Here's the gang minus Jack, who didn't want to look at the camera.

On of the towers at the distillery.

The big white building on the hill holds 1 million gallons of whiskey and there are 77 buildings across the distillery. Our tour guide explained that of the 77 million gallons of whiskey here, they get one pint a month. He seemed bitter about that.

Popo and Abbott in front of the old REO Speedwagon fire truck.

Jack decided after Popo and Abbott did it, that it was ok for him to do it, too.

My dad and my Poppa.

The natural spring that runs through the distillery and where they get the water they use in the whiskey.

Jack & his "Momo" stance.

Poppa said he almost lost Wannie today to the other Jack. I think she still would have picked him!

Kelly & Abbott with Jack. Abbott sure does look interested in him. My Jack's not so interested in him.

Here's the fermenting whiskey.

Popo and Abbott on the tour.

This is a barrel full of charcoal. The whiskey drops one drop at a time. When the charcoal can't be used for the whiskey anymore they bag it up and you can use it in your BBQ.

Kelly is taking a whiff of the whiskey barrel. She stayed there for about 15 minutes... I'm not sure why.
I just thought this was a cool mural.

The grounds are so pretty and peaceful.

Everyone got a little weary.

That's a lot of barrels of Jack.

After the tour we went to "metro-Lynchburg", which was actually what the city limits sign said. Downtown is a quaint little square with Jack Daniel related stores and some restaurants. We ate lunch at the BBQ Caboose and shopped a little, it was great.

If the only way is the wrong way, which way should we go?

Jack & Abbott had fun picking flowers (or weeds) and putting them in the bucket.

Jack had fun blowing, with a little spit, the dandelions.

This is the face of a super cute, absolutely worn out boy. He sure does know how to test the limits at times, but he missed out on a lot of sleep and didn't feel 100%. I hoping the week of rest will be good for him so we can go at it again. Jarred has about 4 weeks until he takes his test so start thinking about him and praying that he does well so he will pass the first time and be done with it!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Just a day to veg.

We celebrated Abbott's true birthday the right way, just laying around and eating and watching basketball. We went back out to Tim and Janet's and ended up spending the afternoon just doing nothing. It was nice. Jack took an almost 4 hour nap, I guess he needed to catch up. We went to dinner at Olive Garden and now we're back at the hotel to just relax some more. The weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow so hopefully there will be some outside time. It's hard to believe Abbott is one. That just means Jack's 3rd birthday is around the corner!

Jack, Popo and Moma Jo are just chillin' in the bed eating chex mix.

Today Abbott had some fluffo salad. It's a yummy mix of cherry jello, marshmallow creme and whipped cream. He loved it and would get so sad when his bowl was empty. He pouted and started to cry and I asked him if he wanted more. He pretty much threw his bowl at me, it was pretty funny. I got him some more and he licked the bowl clean.

See... he's licking the bowl clean.

Abbott got this cute ride on turtle but he prefers to be pushed rather than use his feet.

Kelly took this picture of me and my mom and just happened to catch the tv at an interesting time. We're looking forward to another fun day!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Happy First Birthday Abbott!!

Well, technically it's tomorrow but we celebrated today. We had forecasts of severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings and Jack was running fever this morning but by party time, it was perfect. We had no rain, few clouds and Jack was just about his normal self. We were able to take Abbott's high chair outside and let him dive in. Soon after we made it back in the house and Kelly began opening presents, the skies opened up and it poured, hailed and was very windy. Someone wanted us to have a great party today and to them, I say "THANKS!" Abbott loved his cake and it was so fun to watch him get all messy. He wasn't too interested in opening presents, but he was interested in playing with them and so was Jack. Kelly would open one and Jack would take it over to Popo and say, "Popo, will you open this so I can share it with Abbott?" Which really meant, "so I can play with it." but we had discussed that the presents were for Abbott but that he could probably play with some. It was a really great day and it couldn't have gone much better!

In case the cars didn't give it away, you knew this was the place by the balloons and star!

We had a nice wagon ride where we found lots of flowers (weeds).

Abbott has 2 pretty yellow flowers and Jack has a "little tiny flower".

Abbott loved his balloons!

While Jack and Abbott were napping, a few people got in a game of Bocce ball. Kelly and Dad won. YAY!

Kelly made these cute cakes for Abbott's birthday. Janet made an extra one in case this wasn't enough. I don't think it got cut into at all.

Look at these cute boys with their Wannie & Poppa!

So cool in his sunglasses.

There were just a few people there to help Abbott celebrate. This is about half.

He is really excited to dig in!

Jack's wondering why only Abbott gets cake when we'd been telling him all morning that he was going to get to eat some cake.

MMMMM, he really liked his cake!

Kelly likes it, too!

He was messier than he looks, but doesn't he look so cute?

He got some cute rock & roll shoes, along with many many other gifts.

"All for me!"

Jack was very good at helping Aunt Kelly open Abbott's presents.

One present.

"Yotsa presents!"

Here's our live doppler radar. Red is not good.

Tim, Justin (Ryan's brother), Jack & Abbott all playing with some new toys.

Jack, Abbott and Moma Jo.

Jack was a little tired of the party so we came back to the hotel where he got his second wind. He and Wannie and Poppa played and played and were just plain silly, if you can imagine that. We had such a great day and we're looking forward to the rest of the weekend!