Chattanooga

Today I returned from spending 2 days in Chattanooga with my Granny Betsy.
There is nothing better than being around someone who loves you and knows you. Who knows you and still loves you. That's Granny Betsy. Well, that's family, but I feel like Granny loves me a little more than most people love me.
It is so much fun to get to Granny's house, because the boys just adore her. When we drove onto her street, Grant said, "There it is!" when he saw her house. They have their own little toy collection there, and right when she opens the door they run back to check on all the trains, trucks, cars and airplanes she's collected for them. This time they discovered her marbles... fun but hard to keep up with. I'm afraid Granny might step on one and go sliding one day. She also gave them a huge piggy bank and a whole basket full of quarters to put in the bank. I hadn't told her of their obsession with coins (more Grant's obsession than Walter's), but she said it was just an idea she had- and what a good one! They spent lots of time inserting the coins into the pig. This is something I used to do with my Granddaddy Walter when I was little. Grant was sad to leave today, even when I told him we were going home to see Daddy. He wanted to stay at "Ganny's" house.


this is an old one- but that's my Granny.


Yesterday Dad and the boys and I also got to see my Granddaddy JAC, my dad's dad, who is 98 years old. He bought them each a little Thomas the Train tank engine, which was very sweet. I hope Walter and Grant will remember their Great Granddaddy JAC. He is an amazing person. We sat and looked at his favorite pictures from his trips to Europe. He told me a story about a man and a baby and the man's dog- there was a man traveling with his dog and his baby, and the man had to go off and leave the baby with the dog for a little while (ok, so this is more of a legend I suppose, and my grandfather is the storyteller, not I). When the man returned, he couldn't find the baby, and the dog had blood on his mouth. The man then killed his dog because he thought the dog had killed the baby. Then the man found a wolf, which had been killed by the dog, and he found the baby, safe and sound. While telling this last part, my grandfather's eyes started to water and he got all choked up. He could barely speak.
pictures...



Today before we left, we went to Amanda's house to see Amanda and Morgan (3). Amanda is due with her second girl in about 2 weeks. The boys had fun playing with Morgan's toys, and they all seemed to really warm up to eachother right around the time we had to leave. It was fun seeing them playing and laughing together.
pictures.....
Morgan didn't want to get too close to the boys, and who can blame her?

Saying "cheese!"


Then we went to Greenlife to have lunch with Kingsley and her 3 children, MaeMae(6), Carter(4), and Hunt(1 and a few months). I'm sad that I forgot to document this- or was it that I never ever would have had a moment to document, because our 5 children were running wild all over Greenlife and Rock Creek Outfitters. I think Kingsley and I may have said 4 or 5 words to eachother the whole time. This was a good thing- they were having so much fun together! I hadn't seen Kingsley in such a long time, and the boys really weren't old enough to play with her children at the time. It made me think the chaos is one of my favorite parts of having children, which makes me think maybe we should have more. :)

What a wonderful Christmas I've had so far, and it isn't even Christmas yet. It's just so comforting to be around people who have known you and loved you for a long time- this is how I feel about all of my friends and family in Chattanooga. Love you all.