The Davis Family: Great Times with Great-Grandma Rose

After a wonderful Christmas celebration in Charlotte, we headed down the road to TN to visit Uncle Roy and Aunt Beth and Great-Grandma Rose in Jackson, TN for a little New Year's Celebrating. It is always a long drive to get down there, but it is always completely worth it. This time, Ian and I had a pizza place in Knoxville picked out where we wanted to stop for lunch on the drive. However, we were making really good time, so we actually needed a detour so our lunch stop would be open when we headed by. So, we decided to do a little scenic drive through Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, two well-known tourist stops. Well, Gatlinburg was everything that I thought it would be. It was quaint with little cabin-style hotels nestled in the Smoky Mountains. Then, we moved into Pigeon Forge and I was completely surprised. I thought we had arrived in Myrtle Beach or even Las Vegas with all the gaudy huge buildings that you would expect of either city. It was definitely an interesting drive (and a great pizza place at the end of it).

Finally, after our long day, we arrived at Great-Grandma Rose's new place. It looks like a great place to live, and I hope she settles in and enjoys herself. When we arrived the first night after 12 hours in the car, the boys were definitely glad to see Great-Grandma and were also a little bonkers! She had been concerned about disturbing her neighbors with whom she was sharing a wall, and my hyperactive boys running around and yelling certainly didn't help. We had a good visit, but there was a little shushing involved, and we decided that Benny had one of the loudest voices in the world. After a good visit with Grandma, we headed over to Uncle Roy and Aunt Beth's house because they were nice enough to let us stay there even after all of their Christmas company. We had a delicious dinner and everyone quickly crashed.

The next day, a much more well-rested family headed back over to Great-Grandma's house. This time we were prepared. We brought our new I-Phones complete with the game Angry Birds so the boys could play some quiet games on the phone when they got noisy. We had a great conversation with Grandma, and I really felt like we had some nice time to talk. She also gave us all some great gifts. She gave the boys some cute toys, and then she gave me the most wonderful gift. She gave me a box of treasures from her old house. Everything in that box had a story, everything in that box will always remind me of her, and I will treasure everything in that box-from the antique bottles to the handmade trivets. She is so sweet to think of all of her grandkids and give them some of her most treasured possessions-don't worry Grandma, they will be well-taken care of.

After a great morning with Grandma, we wanted to give her a chance to eat her lunch and relax, so we headed out for some adventures in Jackson, TN. First, we went to a great hiking trail to et some energy out. It was the perfect stop because all of the trails were raised with fenced overlooking some cypress swamps. This meant that we had fenced trails where the boys could just run! We didn't have to worry about them getting lost! Their favorite part was definitely noticing that some of the water below us was frozen. This led to a lot of throwing sticks in the water and poking it with sticks to see if it was frozen. It certainly helped the boys get their wiggles out. We finished up our hike with a trip to Steak and Shake which was of course, a delicious stop for everyone.

After our middle of the day adventures we headed back over to see Grandma again. After another great chance to talk, we got to go on a tour of her new place. We were wandering the halls just before dinnertime so we got the chance to meet a lot of the other residents. The boys' favorite part was either the big aquarium or the almost life size dancing Santa. I think my favorite part was the picture of my Grandaddy that they had put on the walls with other veterans. What a nice touch.

At the end of the day, we headed home for another delicious Heatherly dinner. They certainly fed us well while we were there, and we couldn't have asked for better hosts than Aunt Beth and Uncle Roy. We were early to bed again because the next day was New Years Day and there was some celebrating to be done so stay tuned!