Quick Trip to Tennessee!

Well it started off with Paul waking up with a sore throat Friday. :( We've all gotten this virus going around and he was the last to get it. I asked him if he wanted to stay home since we wouldn't get his white pants in time for the trip but he wanted to go since the hotel was already paid for.

We had planned picking up the kids early from school and heading to Tennessee but the weather started getting dark and dreary so we decided to wait for the Tornado warning to go away. The kids were disappointed that they didn't get to skip out on school early but they were glad.

So we got going on our way about an hour after the tornado warning and have the news on listening to the weather and find out about 15 miles up the freeway in the direction we are heading there were 2 tornado touchdowns. Right before we got to the small town it had mentioned on the news our traffic starts to slow down and we see on the opposite side of the highway a beat-up semi surrounded by cops and notice the trees around it were pulled out and toppled over by a tornado. The driver wasn't hurt and was talking to police but what we couldn't get over was the backed up traffic. For the next 15 miles traffic was at a complete stand still on the opposite side of the road. It was insane. I felt bad for all those people who were just stuck waiting for the Semi to be moved.



We get to the hotel and as we are checking in I realize my bank card isn't in my purse. I run back out to the van to look for it and when I return to the hotel room the kids are flopping down on the bed and out of breath. I asked them if they were ok. Paul then informed me that he told them as they walked in the door that the first thing you have to do when you walk in the door is jump on the bed. O.o

I didn't get a shot of them jumping but this was a few minutes afterwards.

After unpacking we and goofed around inside then we ventured across the parking lot to Joe's Crab Shack. The wait was about 30 minutes. All of us went outside to wait on the deck and watched it rain until our name was called.








Per Janna's request I tried to take more pictures of myself. :P (Looking at the kids is much more interesting but here you go.)

We went in and the atmosphere were great! There was a 10-12ft shark hanging above our heads. Occasionally the disco lights wouldstart to go which we found out is a warning that the waiters and waitresses will be dancing or singing soon.







This is Paul. Paul likes crab.

See Paul eat crab? Eat Paul! Eat!


Right before we left the kids made a request for Cotton Eyed Joe. Elie was very excited about this and couldn't sit still.

She even got up and danced with the staff and had a blast.

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR: No actual PJ's were hurt in the making of this picture. Now crabs on the other hand...

After dinner Paul indulged me by all of us walking around the corner to a local clothing shop. When we started on foot it wasn't raining but about halfway there it started. The closer we got to the front door the harder it rained and the harder it rained the more lightening and thunder we saw/heard. The kids and Paul weren't too happy with the lightening but they were troopers.



After we ducked out in the shop for awhile waiting for the thunder to subside, we went back to the room and just kicked back for the rest of the night watching basketball and some extreme martial arts punching thing. To be honest when that was on I just nodded and smiled to whatever Paul was saying but I do know some guy won pretty quick because the young one "tapped" out. *shrugs* The HD looked nice! I do remember that! lol

The next morning Paul woke up from a rough night and his throat hurting even more. :( (Poor guy. He's such the trooper for coming in the first place). Since Paul was feeling so crumby we decided to just eat and head back home. The kids and I snuck downstairs for a lite breakfast while Paul slept in a bit. We then got packed up and watched some Saturday morning cartoons.

After Emma ate a couple ho-hos(yes I'm a bad mom) and we had watched the new Transformers cartoon and the new Ben-10, we headed over to IHOP for a scrum-diddly-umptuous late breakfast.

Paul and I figured out we hadn't gone to IHOP for almost 2 years. It was definitely a fun treat. (AND their chocolate milk tasted like ice cream. I had to restrict myself from the kid's cups and stick to my delicious tap water. :) )

After breakfast we stopped by to get a couple books for Paul's business trip next week and headed back to Little Rock. It was a quick trip but it was a lot of fun just to get out of the norm and get away from our normal routines. Hopefully we'll do it again sometime soon and no one will get sick. I'd love to head to some of the museums, check out the zoo and visit some Civil War sites. Sorry Elvis fans. Graceland isn't on the list. We drove by it for the heck of it last time we went to Memphis and it was not impressive whatsoever. I do want to check out some diner there that FRIES their burgers. They've been doing it for the past 80 years! I saw them on the Food Network. It just sounds so bizarre but I really want to try it.