We’ve had a busy week filled with all kinds of fun and adventure though most of our fun happened over over the weekend as you’ll see in a minute.
Throughout the week various family members began arriving in Ohio in preparation for Jim and Pat’s 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration on Saturday, August 12th. Uncle Todd spent the night with us and Griffin really loved having him here. He wanted him to do everything – play superheroes, dodge ball, read books, color, any and everything he asked Todd to do it with him and Todd obliged 🙂 
On Friday I went Kroger and Costco to pick up white flowers to make arrangements for Jim and Pat’s anniversary party.  I got home and put them all in big vases and from there began making arrangements. It was so fun! And I think they turned out pretty well. 
Later on Friday night we headed off to drop the kids at Uncle Andy and Aunt Amy’s house with the cousins while Kevin and I went to our friend Laura’s 40th birthday party. The theme was Prom 1995 (the year she graduated high school) so we got all decked out in dressy stuff. I was fortunate to borrow a dress from a friend and I found a matching bow tie and cummerbund for Kevin. I ordered us matching corsage and boutonniere as well. It was a fun celebration and I enjoyed getting the below text updates from Amy and Andy letting us know all was well with the kiddos. We’re grateful they were able to watch them for us!
Saturday morning we woke up early and got the car packed up and headed to Enon to begin the party prep for later that afternoon. When I made all of these flower arrangements I had no idea how many I would end up with or what size or how we would get them there! Turns out we had five (four pretty large ones) to somehow get there in one piece. Kevin did a great job of making support boxes for them so they wouldn’t move during our trip. They all arrived looking great thanks to his packing genius. 
Here they are, the celebratory couple standing next to their party sign! Kevin had this banner made locally in Columbus and they did a great job. The picture on the left is from their wedding day and the picture on the right is from our wedding almost 5 years ago. It worked out great and was easy to setup and take down.
We brought cookies, cupcakes, and an anniversary cake for the celebration. I went and visited Sweet Tooth Cottage, a local bakery in Powell where I’ve previously gotten custom cookies. I had heard good things about their cakes so I figured we would get it there along with cupcakes too. Oh my goodness – the cake was delicious! It was chocolate with vanilla buttercream and the frosting was so good. Flavorful but not too sweet. Â And that cake, oh my goodness, four layers of chocolate loaded with beautiful flowers and gold dust on top. It was SO HEAVY! And we had cute little cupcakes to match and custom hearts with “fifty” written on them and wedding cakes with “fifty” as well. And we enjoyed finding decorations and having pictures made for everyone to see Jim and Pat 50 years ago!
It was great to have so many family members make the trip to Enon to celebrate and also to see the progress Jim and Pat have made on renovating their “new” home! It was also nice for everyone to be able to meet Reid! He was passed around for most of the afternoon and got to meet many aunts, uncles, and cousins from Ohio to Texas to California. 
After the party we headed down the street to Kevin’s high school friend, Eric’s, annual pig roast/party. It is literally a few houses down the street. Tons of people were still there and they had a lovely bonfire that Griffin really enjoyed. 
Pat’s request for her anniversary was that she wanted all of her kids under one roof! Who knows when that may happen again, but we made it happen this time complete with grandkids too! Here Griffin is fast asleep after a super late night and a loaded party day!
On Sunday morning Griffin enjoyed more play time with Charlotte and Max who were in town from Albuquerque. Charlotte and Finn really loved playing with the cars and the track forming it into various shapes with different ramps and such. 
Chris and I joked as we sat around on Sunday morning that this is the new “family” time. Every single person in the room was using their electronic device be it a laptop, tablet, or cell phone.  Too funny, but the way it is these days it seems. 
On Sunday afternoon Brett and Missy made fried chicken for dinner for everyone. It was tasty!
And here are some others from throughout the week. 
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https://youtu.be/ZE7YRC_KTzM
Griffin enjoyed some bears in the snow pancakes from the Pancake Pantry one morning 🙂 Then we explored the Village area shops for a short bit and then later headed to Dollywood. The weather was so warm! We were in short sleeves and were toasty walking around but once the sun went down the temps dropped too. We had a great time and Finn got to sit and talk with Santa. He asked for a real baseball bat, a real baseball, and a real baseball glove.  (No more of this soft stuff!). He also saw Clarice, Yukon, and Abominable again this year. He also played a “baseball” throwing game where if you get all 3 balls into Abominable’s mouth you win a stuffed Abominable toy.  Sure enough, he got three in a row on his first try! We were happy for him and he was so excited. He was tall enough this year to ride several of the rides this year so we saw several smiles of him enjoying new things. He and Kevin even rode on a crazy spinner ride that he thought was great!
Another new adventure for us this year was heading to Ripley’s Aquarium in Gatlinburg. It is really a nice place and we spent a few hours walking around checking out the different animals. They even had a couple of animals you could touch so Finn got to feel what a jellyfish and a horseshoe crab feel like!
Another really neat area was the penguins. There are tunnels that kids can crawl through that go right through the swim tanks and then they can pop up and stand amongst the penguins! He loved going in and out several times. 
A new restaurant we hit up this year for breakfast was Crockett’s Breakfast Camp.  Oh my, it was delish! I had their signature pancakes that are cooked in a cast iron skillet and they are literally 2 inches tall, each! Griffin helped me polish off the strawberries and whipped cream that accompanied my griddle cakes 🙂
We moved cabins this year in the middle of our stay as we were there long enough that neither cabin had the full length of our stay.  The second cabin we went to, “Lover’s Lookout,” we stayed for only single night before being moved at our request due to gross amount of cockroaches that we discovered after returning to the cabin on what would have been the second evening. Gross! Fortunately, we were able to move to “Treehouse” which was a great cabin and we enjoyed the rest of our stay there :). 
And here are some videos from our time in Tennessee, including Griffin’s first flip! He was so excited that when we went back to The Island the next day he wanted to do it again.
And we celebrated anniversary #4 while on our trip this year. We spent the evening at the Dixie Stampede and then moving from a yucky cabin to a clean one. Â It was memorable!
