One Day at a Time...: The Mobley's Road Trip ~ Summer 2012 ~ Part 2

*disclaimer - this is a REALLY long post, mostly because of pictures...eventually I'll get to the actual reunion!

Monday (June 18th) - on Monday morning, Mike and Josh went to Graceland (you have to go to Graceland while you're in Memphis right?!) while I slept in with the girls. After we got up, the girls and I went to breakfast, then we headed back to the room to get packed up. Shortly after, we all piled into the car and headed to Chattanooga (we got there mid-afternoon). We got in to our hotel, checked out the pool (the kids were excited!), drove around for awhile to see the scenery, and then headed to dinner across the street.

Leaving Memphis, headed to Chattanooga
6/18/2012

Beautiful Tennessee mountains
6/18/2012

Getting a little (and I do mean little) nap in
6/18/2012

Dinner
6/18/2012

Taking some peanuts (she loved that you were SUPPOSED
to throw the shells on the floor!)
6/18/2012

Snuggling in bed
6/18/2012

Tuesday (June 19th) - Tuesday morning, we got up and had breakfast at the hotel, then we went to Raccoon Mountain. They had a cute little bench out front, so (of course!) I grabbed a few shots of the kids.

At Raccoon Mountain (not sure what Zoe is scowling about!)
6/19/2012

Then, we went on a tour of the cave - the pictures here don't do it justice - it was beautiful! It was about 60 degrees inside the cave (the tour guide said it stays that way all year round!) and she showed us a lot of really cool stuff...they do all kinds of tours - from the one we did, to overnight stays!

Inside Raccoon Mountain
6/19/2012

A shield - I forget the statistics, but this is a very rare "shield"
that the cave built inside itself...
6/19/2012

Very cool!
6/19/2012

She was a little unsure at the beginning...
6/19/2012

After the cave tour, we went on a boat tour! There are way too many facts about the tour and the boat, so if interested, you can read all about it HERE. For me, the best part was watching my kids do something they'd never done before. That, and we got to enjoy a glass of wine (beer for Mike) while cruising. :) After the boat ride, we went to some restaurant in downtown and had lunch/dinner.

Getting ready to go on the boat
6/19/2012

On the boat, about to take off!
6/19/2012

Rylie and Zoe, enjoying the view
6/19/2012

The "lock" - we were hanging around waiting for it to open up,
but it didn't while we were there... still pretty cool!
6/19/2012

Josh and Rylie
6/19/2012

Josh
6/19/2012

Rylie
6/19/2012

Our boat!
6/19/2012

Wednesday (June 20th) - We started out the day with a ride up the side of Lookout Mountain - again, pictures don't really do it justice. It was CRAZY riding up the side of a mountain...very cool! We got to the top and walked around for awhile, looking at everything. We went to Point Park and got to read about some Civil War history and we took some fun pictures.

Riding up the side of the mountain

Pretty shot of what we saw riding up

LOVE this picture!

Me and my littles

Josh and Rylie

BEAUTIFUL.

Could she be any cuter?

Josh, standing dangerously close to the edge...

Zoe, a little closer than the VERY edge...whew

Rylie, looking like sh'es about to fall off the edge...I had butterflies!

Sweet brother and sister, a rare moment

Mike and the littles

Josh, from the top of a rock that he probably
wasn't supposed to be climbing ;-)

The way down...

After Lookout Mountain, we went to Rock City - that was one of my favorite parts of the trip - it was a beautiful mix of natural and man-made scenery - it was like a huge magical fairyland. We got our picture taken on the way (and I got duped into buying it on the way out!), then we started down all the windy twisty paths. I took lots of pictures along the way, but about halfway through we stopped in a little area where they had some fun stuff for the kids to do - Rylie and Zoe got their faces painted, and they were ADORABLE. Rylie got a ladybug with its wings flapped open right over her eyes, and Zoe got a butterfly over her whole face. I could stop staring at them, and what made it so cute was that after a few minutes, they both forgot the paint was there and walked around/looked around like normal...I'd giggle at their irresistable faces and then they'd give me this innocent "what?!" look that it made it that much cuter!

After Rock City, we were about done...it had been a long day and we accomplished A LOT. So, we went to eat at some grill in downtown and then headed back to the hotel. Pretty low-key evening, and we all slept well. :)

Walking through one of the huge rock tunnels

Mushroom Rock

Walking through one of the caves

"The earth laughs in flowers"

Daddy and the kids

Mommy and the kids

This is me "sort of" leaning over the edge of the rock
we were standing on so you could get an idea of how
high up we were, and how far out the side of the mountain
we were on our ledge...you can see the other
people on "lovers leap".