Sorry I am a little delayed in writing part two of our TN visit. I know you've been waiting at the edge of your seat for this gripping tale.
We did a lot of things while in TN, and of course I didn't get near enough pictures. We went to the Ripply's Aquarium, which was huge and super cool. But, no pictures. And "we" also went on a hey ride, although I sat that one out, do to my hey allergies. But, I hear it was beautiful. One day, we went around the small town that we were close to and shopped around. the pictures above, are of me in a cute old phone booth, and also of a cheese store that I thought was cute. I LOVE a good cheese. (if you look closely you can see Ryan and Amy purchasing some exotically strange cheese.)

This is a huge grandfather clock store that serves as my personal Hell!!! I. Hate. Clocks. That. Make. Noise. Even the clicking of clocks drives me nuts, me and captain hook would have a lot to talk about.
My studly husband and creepy wooden Irish clock statue.
This is a candy store, picture justified.
One of the billion of delicious Candy stores that lured us into them.

Note; Kiri is in a pancho because it was drizzling outside.
dinner/theater show thing. It was kind of like that show that is across from Disneyland. You know, the one where the knights joust. (has anyone seen that other than me and my jr high choir?) The only difference was that this place had better food, and it was country western themed (surprised?) But the best part of the night was the video of Dolly Parton they showed at the end, where she sang a super horrible county song. The crowd ate it up, she is seriously like a God over there. It is hilarious.

This is us riding up the ski lift into some cool little town-ish place. It was beautiful, but strangely this is the only picture I snapped. Ryan, I don't know why, but you make kind of strange appearances in all my pictures. HA
This was a little booth in the town at the top of the ski lift. This is Amy showing us her mad shooting skills!! Our roots run deep in Louisiana!
This was just a random view from our car. It was so so green and beautiful.

Dad, why are you making this face. Ha. Love you.

It was super hazy and cloudy at the top of the highest point in the smokey mountains. The boys all hiked, while the girls wussed out and stayed with the kids.



It was very eerie, but beautiful.

My family is awesome. Truly they are, I am so blessed. My parents are gracious enough to foot the bill each summer so we can all get together for a family reunion. I look forward to it every year. This year we randomly headed to Tennessee!!!

My sister and her family moved to Tennessee a few years ago and happened upon this cool vacation spot like an hour out of Knoxville. Why not, said the Theriot's and we all (minus my sister Dee, her husband Michael, and little girl Raegan who were all greatly missed) packed our bags for TN. The West coast gang flew and then rented cars, while the TN/MO gang drove. Amy provided an amazing.. shall we say 'themed' mixed Tennessee Cd for us all which still haunts my dreams and gets stuck in my head today... thanks games. Tennessee was absolutely gorgeous.

As we drove the three hours from the airport to our destination we counted 13 cracker barrels!! 13. and we weren't even seeking them out. They found us. So naturally we had to eat at one and the verdict is.... even in Tennessee, they still aren't good. Ha, but when in Rome.

I have to break this post up because I am much to lazy tonight to blog about the whole trip so I will limit this one to our cabin. It. Was. Awesome.

Three stories with a big kitchen/family room, game room, and theater. There were 6 bedrooms all equipped with king size beds and their own bathrooms. There were also 2 spas located on 2 of the different stories. The view was amazing. It was a great setting for such a fun trip.

Update

It has been far too long since I have talked about what Mack is doing. What kind of family blog is this!?

Here is what Mack is up to these days at 27 months...

Mack has conquered the alphabet. Upper case and lower case. He can sing the entire song without help, and is super proud of himself. He does a pretty good job, but has a hard time saying the letter W.

He is obsessed with letters, seriously everything can be a letter in my two year old's eyes. Yesterday I was clipping his nails and he was screaming bloody murder, which was strange because he usually doesn't mind me cutting his nails, in fact, he likes it. Anyway, he screamed the whole time until I was finished and then he ripped the fingernail clippers from my hands and held them upside down and said "V." I was so impressed. He also continued to make an "A," and "I," and and "L" out of the fingernail clippers.

The incident with the fingernail clippers is not anything new. Everything is a letter or number with him. Pens are "I"s buttons are "O"s and on and on. It would drive me crazy because it is non stop, but it is too cute to be annoying.

Numbers are also up there with letters, as well as colors. He counts to ten by himself, even though 6 and 7 are harder to understand. He is trying to learn 11-20, but as of now just chants "mmmmteen" 5 or so times and calls it good. Mack counts non stop. His steps, the church lights, his crackers. You get the picture. And if you are thinking to yourself, wow that kid might be OCD, you wouldn't be the first to think it. :) His favorite number is 9. He can draw a "9" and an "e" by himself, and is super proud of himself.

Mack has his colors down, with the exception of yellow. even though he knows what color it is, he calls it "Y". Strange.

Normal color labeling isn't good enough for him anymore, and I blame dang Blues Clues. ...has anyone seen that episode with chartreuse and magenta and stuff? ..Consider yourself lucky. Along with all the normal colors he also knows black, grey, and pink. I think his favorite colors are orange and purple. He gets very excited to see/say those colors.

Mack's talking is getting better. He still is far from where he should be, but he is improving so I am happy. He is starting speech therapy again next week and I am nervous. - The lady told me to have him stop practicing letters and numbers, and I/we just couldn't do it. Mack is obsessed.

He loves blues clues and Finding Nemo. His favorite shows are wheel of fortune (I wonder why) and also Price is right. (He gets giddily excited when anyone bids $9.99) He is a super sweet boy and has hardly any tantrums. He loves the little girl Lucy that I watch a few times a week and calls her shushi. (Which is better than what she calls him. She tries to say Mack and just ends up saying F***. Ha ha ha) Mack Loves the park, swimming, grandma and grandpa's house, and being outside. More than anything though, he LOVES the library! I know... he is a strange little man, but he LOVES the library more than anything!!

We love this little boy. He keeps us laughing all day long. We are grateful he is part of our family.

Family pictures. I have been putting these off much too long. Like, we've never actually gotten these taken, besides extended Huffaker family pics.
Britney Gurr was lovely enough to take them for us, on super late notice too. She is amazing. Seriously amazing. After leaving that photo shoot I was convinced there weren't going to be any good pictures because Mack was screaming, doing "limp legs," and rolling his freaking eyes, my two year old, already rolling his eyes!! ugh. But Brittney managed to make us look like a normal loving family :) Go to her web site right here and then book for for some pictures. You won't be disappointed. She is talented, and a delight to be around.

...and excuse me for putting a billion pictures on. I can't help myself.

Where is it? The book Atlas Shrugged that I have been reading. I am like a third into the 1000 page book and I am loving it. Ugh. Annoying. I know that I JUST had it.

Time passes.

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Obligations continue.

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Laundry needs to be changed.

What the... Seriously!?!? Yeah, that just happened. I washed my book in the laundry.

To give you perspective, it was like washing 50 rolls of toilet paper in with the laundry... not that I've done that, I just imagine it to be so. Not that I would put that past me anymore.

This is all that is left.

Annoying.

5 years

Cody and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary on May 16th. We were in Tennessee with my family, but we celebrated a few days before we left. Pizza Bianco was our destination. We have been wanting to go ever since seeing this place on the food network channel. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint. Fan-frickin-tastic. Our only regret is not getting a marinara based pizza. BUT the two we chose were fantastic. The place was a little pricey for us poor student folk, but so worth it. We will be back!! When we stop being so broke.
I don't think I even need to say how much I love my husband and how I would make the same decision to marry him a hundred times over.

sorry these are so blurry.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was uneventfully beautiful this year. Other than one fact, which is why I am blogging about it a month later.

Bakeable chocolate croissants!

My mother in law heard rumors of these things, and I am glad I can now call this genius a fact.

Run to Trader Joe's immediately and try them. But avoid looking at the fat content.

My mothers day was spent enjoying a breakfast of chocolate croissants, hot tea, and fresh berries. Seriously my fav. breakfast ever! I also enjoyed my homemade card, and being treated like a queen by my amazing husband.

I had planned on writing lengthy ...eloquent?.. post about how being a mom is wonderful and fulfilling and amazing, but Mack was especially crazy this morning and now I am tired. So hopefully those few words will suffice.

Ha- that pretty sums up being a mom