Too Much Fun!

Read this when you have extra time because there are lots of pictures from this past weekend. But, hey, when you have a great time, you've gotta document it and that's just what I did.

Our fun started out at home on Thursday:

My little monkey jumping on the bed.

And helping me fix some chicken salad. He is a great helper. Especially when he sits really still on this stool...

Next our fun continued Friday afternoon when we went to Nashville to see Baby Abbott (ok, I guess we went to see Kelly, Ryan, Tim and Janet too). Jack and I picked Abbott up from school early and we headed to Tim & Janet's. We had a good time napping and playing until everyone else got into town. Mom and Dad came over, too, to get some ideas to redo the High Hopes video.

"See Abbott, this is how you do it."

"Nah, I'd rather make silly faces at Aunt Jami!"

"Fine, let me just get in there and show you how it's done."

Awww, poor Jack fell asleep right beside baby Abbott.

Abbott says, "Waaasssssssaaaaaaap"

We raided Janet's kitchen and cooked up a yummy spaghetti dinner. (Did I mention they weren't in town at this point. They were in Ohio at their other daughter-in-law's graduation. They came home Saturday afternoon.) Here, Popo and Ryan help clean out the sauce pan with the extra bread.

Saturday was the most eventful day with a morning trip to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, back to Janet's for an afternoon nap and then out to Arrington Vineyards to watch Ryan (and the rest of the band) play. Cheekwood had a special admission price and any of the families from High Hopes were able to go. They had exhibits called "happily ever after" and they had to do with different fairy tales. They handed out backpacks full of fun things for the kids but Jack's favorite was the magnifying glass. He searched for all kinds of things.

He looked for things in the water.

He looked for bugs on the flowers with Momo Jo.

This leaf is not big enough, so he had to get a closer look.

Checking out the purple flowers.

You can see better through a magnifying glass if you hold it far away, like this.

At the "Sword in the Stone" display, I attempted and failed to remove the sword from the stone.

Kelly also attempted and failed.

Would you believe Jack had no problem removing he sword. I guess he is the next King. Does that pay well enough to take care of your parents?

Here's part of the Japanese Garden.

Flowers along the walking path. There were a lot of butterflies around these.

Look closely, there is a beautiful orange butterfly on the flowers.

Lilies on the lily pads.

This is the Cheekwood Mansion, which we found out, was home to the Maxwell House coffee family.

(break for nap)

Next we headed to grab a burger and to the vineyards.

When my hair gets long enough to cut, I'm going to this place. It was in the same shopping center as our burger stop.

At the vineyards, Jack enjoyed seeing the grapes. Problem was, the grapes were down a rather steep hill so we had to take turns going to see them. Also, we weren't really supposed to be wandering around the grapes, but we didn't see the sign.

They looked good enough to just pull them off the vine and eat them, which I'm surprised Jack didn't try to do.

Here's the store at the vineyards where they sell the t-shirts and let you taste the wines. Kix Brooks (of Brooks & Dunn) and his old roomate own this vineyard, but we didn't see him.

Janet, Kelly & Abbott chillin at the vineyard.

Here's the band. When they play here, they don't sing, they just provide background music and they call themselves Art 4 Sale. It was very relaxing.

Jack is giving his request (Freebird) to Dougie.

Hangin' out with the guys, drinkin' and listening to music. What a great night.

On another trip to see the grapes, Kelly and Jack had to take a spin. Too much wine for Aunt Kelly? I hope not, it might not have sat well with all the spinning!

A perfect ending to a great day!

Sunday we enjoyed spending time together and visited in Tim & Janet's backyard before heading home.

Jack is making you think he pushes the pedals, but he prefers to use his feet Fred Flintstone style.

Getting in some Abbott time before we have to leave.

Look at these 2 cute boys. Abbott is coming to stay in Knoxville for the weekend. Kelly is in a wedding in North Carolina and Abbott is going to stay with us. I'm predicting another really fun weekend!