Goodbye Knoxville, Hello again Ithaca!

Our time in TN has went by wayyyy too fast. :( Luckily we didn't bring that much stuff, so packing wasn't bad (it was just shoving the clothes in the trunk and buckling in our old TV).  It was sad once the furniture people came and took away all of our furniture though. We never saw our apartment empty, so it made it all the more sad. Here is what our apartment looked like before and after furniture:

A view from the road

Our building

Go past the stairs and we're the last door on the left!

Our apt!

Living room

Door to the balcony

We got to decorate a little at least lol

Whole living room

View from balcony

our AWESOME kitchen!

Computer area

Bathroom

Bedroom

So sad :(

Our last night was spent eating at Abuelos one last time and shopping for a tent for Bianca to play in on the beach...Yes we are stopping at VA Beach on our way to Ithaca, hooray! We said our goodbyes that night and left as early as we could the next morning.

We made good time and went right in the water when we got there! Bianca absolutely LOVED it! She had so much fun splashing in the water with daddy! Then I took her to the tent, where she also had a lot of fun...eating the sand. Ohhh well. 

When Bobby was done getting thrown around by the waves, we went back and changed and went out to eat at this yummy Mexican place. We noticed that our storller was packed up in the car...underneath all of the clothes packed tightly in the trunk OF COURSE!!! I went to Walmart and got Bianca a cheap $15 stroller that we used this trip and worked pretty well. It was nice having a lighter weigh stroller actually. We went right to sleep that night when I got back since we were so tired.

(She was so tired she fell asleep at the table, haha!)

The next day we went to the beach to take her 9 month pictures! I can't believe our little baby girl is 9 months already! Holy crap! We swam a little and then noticed that I had gotten sand in the camera, UGH! Bye bye camera...Bobby says I'm the camera ruin-er. I have no comment. We got a disposable camera for the rest of the trip though.

We spent our beach time just relaxing. We walked around and ate some sno-cones, ice cream, ate at the same Mexican restaurant AGAIN (same waitress too haha!), went swimming, watched an outdoor show at night and had a blast! 

The next day was our last day there, sadly. Of course we swam, went shopping for candy/salt water taffy, ate at a different Mexican restaurant (getting our Mexican on before Ithaca, the land of no Mexican food), and got ready to leave. We left the next morning and returned to Ithaca...but we were not ready for what we discovered when we arrived at our apartment......................

TO BE CONTINUED...........

9 Months!

 HAPPY 9 MONTHS, BABY GIRL!!!

photo shoot pics:

The time my mom made Elaine drive to Tennessee...

We left Georgia in time so that we would return back to Knoxville by the afternoon because my mom and her friend Elaine were coming to visit us! Hooray! We made good time driving back and got to relax a bit before they called and said they were here. 

We met them at their hotel and then went out and got some dinner. We showed them our apartment and they showered Bianca with gifts, which she loved. They were tired then, so they headed back for the night...since we had a busy next couple of days planned for them!

The next day we picked them up at their hotel and we drove to Gatlinburg. We thought it'd be fun to show them real mountains so we drove up into the mountains and hung out. Bobby and I decided to walk up this trail to get to a look out place and stupidly decide to take Bianca with us. Yeah. It took a while, but we climbed it (sorry mom and Elaine!) and slowly made our way down the steep paths. They were just hanging out enjoying the views and sweating to death, since I forgot to leave the keys with them, oops!

(So polite, always shaking Elaine's hand)

 

(She had it tough)

Then we had some time to kill so we stopped to eat some Sonic and shop at this huge Christmas stop there! It was a lot of fun. It was filled with all sorts of neat Christmas decorations. 

We also got to see Santa sing! He sang a few songs for the kids and then they could go up there and visit with him...well Bianca liked the music,

 but as for saying hi to him...

Oh well! The things we do to that girl. ;) Our next stop was the highlight of our day: THE DIXIE STAMPEDE!!! It's a dinner musical show that Dolly Parton created. You could either be on the North side or the South side, and naturally the Yankees outnumbered the Southerners here 4-1, hehe. GO NORTH! It was an awesome show though! They had a pre-show where a hillbilly band performed. Bianca simply loved the music (takes after her mommy!)

The show was spectacular! Bianca sat so nicely through it. She loved all the lights and horses and buffalo. The food was good too. It was just like Medieval times where you don't get any silverware. It was funny watching my mom eat without any silverware. We all loved the show, even though the North lost. We got to show Bianca one of the horses close up after the show as well. What an awesome evening!

We picked them up early the next day as well because we were going to....DOLLYWOOD!!! Not only does she have a dinner show here, but a neat theme park, ha! It was a nice day to go, it wasn't TOO hot out. Bobby and I got to go on all of the rides we wanted to while Bianca hung out with Gram and Elaine. She was great for them too, just sat there or slept. 

We saw some shows there that were fun, like Dolly's family band and then another indoor show. We toured her tour bus, shopped, and erode the train around the park (Bianca's first and only ride here). 

We stayed until closing and then went to eat at Johnny Carinos yay! We were all exhausted by the end of the day, but everyone was surprised at how much fun we had here. Thanks, Dolly!

The next day we actually stayed around Knoxville for once (wow!). We were so sad, we wanted to go to this indoor skydiving place in Gatlinburg, BUT IT WAS CLOSED THE ENTIRE TIME MY MOM AND ELAINE WERE HERE!!! UGH! We wanted to do it, but of course you don't throw a 7 month old in there to skydive, so they were going to watch her while we did it. Sad! Anyways, we took them to downtown Knoxville to go up the Sunsphere. It took some convincing to get my mom up there, but she did it and liked it! Ha!

Then we got some food at The Tomato Head, a sandwich place which we LOVE! Some co-workers of Bobby's took us out to eat there earlier this summer and I love it down there! It was too hot to really walk around downtown a lot, so we went back to our place to relax a bit. Then my mom suggested we do something fun...play mini-golf! (Yet she never took me to do this as a kid!) It was a lot of fun! Elaine beat us all by a lot, followed by my mom, then Bobby, and in last place, me! Oh well! Bianca got so bored she dropped her water cup somewhere on the field, never to be found again. That girl!

And that concluded their trip to TN. It was a lot of fun to have them here, even if we were running around like crazy everyday trying to fit all of the fun stuff in. Thanks for coming!


(This trip to TN has been brought to you by Dolly Paton)