Our Knoxville 4th could be broken up into a few posts, but I'm trying to be better about condensing these weekend getaways into one post for posterity sake. So get ready for a picture heavy post reflecting on the most wonderful Independence Day at Omi and Papa's house in Knoxville. It involved everything that a summer reunion trip should be:)
We swam a lot at their neighborhood community pool. Since these two started off so cute in their swimsuits, I posed them with our festive flags. I swoon for kids in red, white, and navy:)
These patriotic cuties were oozing brother and sisterly love for a split second, so why not capture it.? I'm sure 30 years from now, I'll only reminisce on these sweet moments and have momnesia about their fighting:)
We celebrated our July birthdays with Omi's famous Southern Living Strawberry Cake. It is my very favorite summer dessert.
The next morning we packed up sack lunches and headed north to Sweetwater, TN to tour The Lost Sea. It's been on our bucket list for a few years and Eliza Kate was finally old enough to walk the 3/4 mile sloping hike. Our guide, was entertaining and explained the cavern's history. We also learned about the geological development of the cavern rooms and rare formations. Miller got to observe both stalactites, stalagmites and cave flowers in person. He was in cave exploration heaven:) Not thinking, I didn't prepare for the much cooler temperatures down below the earth. Temps in the cave remain at a cool 58 degrees. Miller could have used a pullover. EK's swim cover up doubled as a sweater!
I could really bore you with all of our scientific photographs. Miller wanted to remember all of the stops along the way. Miller couldn't get over the fact that the cavern is listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as America's largest underground lake.
Who knows what Miller the spelunker was thinking?:)
Colorful spotlights illuminated special formations and commanded a lot of ohhs & ahhs down below. At the bottom of our hike, we boarded up a glass bottom boat in the dark for an exciting trip on the lake . They added rainbow trout to the waters in the cave years ago and because of the pitch blackness, the fish have all become blind. The trout are also albino--new word for Miller. They get their beautiful colors from sunlight. So, if you want to see thousands of teeming white trout--this boat trip is for you;) We got to reach in and feel the mineral water, but made sure not to put our hands anywhere near our faces. Dripping stalactites also splashed minerals on our head during the boat tour. This really was right up a little boy's alley!
The Sweetwater village was so cute to explore. These kiddos worked up an appetite. I'm thankful we loaded up a picnic lunch.
Meridith joined us later on for a 4th of July dinner at Omi and Papa's house. The cousins were up to all kind of crazy chasing shenanigans in no time.
The weather was unseasonably cool--almost fall like and perfect for playing an adult game of bad mitten:)
Of course, the littles were up for more swimming action before the street fireworks show.
Ek's Sophia goggles created quite a fashion splash this summer. She adore her water accessories. Look at Miller taking off in perfect freestyle form;)
The boys ventured out to "Bimbo's Fireworks" to snag some driveway fireworks. Little did I know, that the word bimbo would be uttered 99 times that evening in Miller's excitement about the dude field trip to the firework's warehouse. All I could do was cringe every time that awesome word rolled off the lips on my classy dude:)
Eliza Kate was little timid after a few sparks touched her toes!
And, here's Landon. He forgot his hanging patriotic swag at home. Forgive his green. Although, we think daddy looks handsome in anything.
It was a fabulous trip to visit family. It was the perfect burst of activity that we needed in the middle of our summer slow down. It's weekends like these that I feel so thankful for my family:)
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