Yee-Haw!

Halloween 2011 was a great success!  Tessa chose to be Jessie from Toy Story this year, so we had a cowgirl on our hands.  It was such a cute costume and she got loads of compliments.  Now, we've got enough candy to last us...at least a couple days!! :)  Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!!     

The Farmer's Market

T's class went on a fieldtrip to the Farmer's Market today and I was lucky enough to go along.  What a crazy few hours!!  We had a great time and, by far, the best moment was when we were walking to lunch and t said, with no prompting, "Mommy, I'm glad you're with me today!"  I love that girl!! 

Chagganooga

This is how my child says Chattanooga and it's really cute.  We went there this weekend for Jim to run the 1/2 marathon.  In addition to the race on Sunday, we visited the aquarium, the IMAX (Born to be Wild 3D), the park (a couple times) and had some yummy food!  As we stood waiting to see daddy in the darkness (race started at 7am.  Sunrise was at 7:45am) t said, "Mommy, what are we doing here?"  I guess she didn't get the importance of being about the only two people (of course there were workers, too) out there at this time of the day!  Well, the runners came and we, oh I mean I, cheered them on.  T chose to cheer on daddy...that was it!  And I think we were lucky to get that! 

In the traditional Wilkinson fashion, I wore a horribly tacky, gold jacket with black plaid to cheer Jim on.  These jackets were purchased about 15 years ago at Marshall's on the clearance rack because you never know when you'll need 'em!  One of them still had a price tag on it and, for all you bargain shoppers out there, we paid $4 for a jacket that was originally $50!!  What a wonderful savings!! 

You may ask: why would one wear such a thing?  Well, I wanted Jim to be able to see me in the huge madness of people!  Wait!  This is Chattanooga, not Boston!  Let's just say he had no problem finding me and neither did anyone else!  One man named me the favorite fan and a woman told me as she ran by that I'd managed to be everywhere (we mapped out several locations to visit on the course).  I can picture my dad smiling as he reads this!  I'm sorry to say there are no pictures to document this fashion statement, but just wait for the full marathon.  I will definitely have pictures then as Jim's mom will also be wearing one!  You won't want to miss that!

Although I don't have pictures of me in the jacket, here are some others from our trip.

t on the playground

waiting to see the IMAX.  it was titled Born to be Wild...ain't that the truth!!

gettin' it done!

after the race

1st place in my book!

one of us was more into this picture than the other

mom and dad - taken by tessa.  this was on the 3rd or 4th try.  eventually we moved our heads where they'd show up in the picture.  if we hadn't done that, we may still  be there now trying to get a shot with both mommy and daddy!!

   

Cruisin'

We can no longer say we've never been on a cruise!  We recently returned from a family vacation with my parents and Jim's mom and had a great time!  We stopped in Nassau, The Bahamas where most of us went swimming with the dolphins.  I don't have pictures of this yet, but it was AMAZING!  That was the one thing I really wanted to do and I loved every minute of it.  We hugged and kissed the dolphins, danced with them and, of course, did the infamous foot push through the water.  It was really cool!  Dolphin Tale is now on my list of movies to see.  In Freeport, we visited the beach and some shops.  Then in Key West we went to Hemingway's house and did additional shopping. 

T had a great time at Camp Carnival (face painting, coloring t-shirts and puppets, reading books, running and jumping around) and choose to be with her new friends more than us.  She was always eager to see what towel animal had been created for us as we entered our room each night. 

We were in the bean bag toss, went to the comedy shows, saw the hairy chest contest (no Jim didn't participate in this), performed in the final show on Saturday night (I was Gloria Estafan - the Rhythm is Gonna Getcha), and ate tons of yummy food!

A great time was had by all.  Here are some pictures.   

one morning at breakfast

mom & dad as we arrive in Nassau

hana, towel doggie, and t



on our way to swim with the dolphins



one of the butterflies at the conservatory in key west



t with a turtle (it's down there somewhere)

jim in front of our ship



me in key west as we were about to board our ship



Our last dinner

gloria estafan and her dance partner



t and her idol, gloria



back home.

Congrats

It's been a while and this is way overdo! Congrats to Jimbo!! He received his MBA from Belmont University this past August. It's been a long and exciting journey, and we are so proud of him!

Before the hooding ceremony

Graduation day.  t cheering her daddy on!

It's official!!



Love this! 



Swim Lessons & Cicadas

We started swim lessons last week and ended up being demoted from the intro class to the parent/child class. Since swimming is in my blood, I was quite disappointed for this set-back. However, she did great last week with the "babies" and we'd hoped for her to eventually get back in to the intro class. Well, today was the day...she didn't want to move up at first, but she ended up swimming with the big kids (and by big kids I mean the kids her age). I was so proud!! Here is a picture from her first day of swim lessons before the demotion...I love this picture! She was so excited!!



This is me after she swam with the big kids...


On another note, is it gross that my child loves cicadas? If you ask me, yes...it is. Today, I went to pick her up from school to find a small cup filled with cicadas she'd collected throughout the day that she wanted to bring home with her. Are you kidding? You want me to allow those nasty, annoying bugs in my car? The ones that run into me when I walk outside? The ones that occasionally fly in my mouth (no joke!)? I think not! I won that battle, but as we got to the car she saw more in the parking lot and wanted to take one home because she "loves" them. Well, guess what? I allowed her to have ONE in the car and it was one of the most pleasant rides home we've had in a long time!!! Here's some video:

Happy Easter!

Here are a couple pics from Tessa's Easter Egg hunt at school today. Hopefully more pics to follow as we'll be attending about 3 more Easter Egg hunts!!

Snow Day

T and I had a great day on Monday! The day was filled with puzzles, games, movies, and playing in the snow!!

Happy 40th Anniversary

So my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary back in July and we celebrated by going out to eat, but I wanted to do something more for them. I wrote letters to some of their best friends and asked them to share funny stories and pictures of their friendships with my parents. Thank you to all those who contributed to this project!! Here are some pictures of the completed album that I gave to my parents a few days after Christmas.