The Lopez Family Blog: Thanksgiving and Chattanooga

We have had a fabulous holiday weekend. Ricardo and I started the festivities on Wednesday afternoon by getting a babysitter at 3pm so we could go to the mall together. I know this is funny, but he is my very favorite shopping buddy so I wanted him to help me pick out a couple of new tops. We enjoyed our alone time and picked up pizza on our way home to have pizza night with the kids and Aldo, Eliana and Camila. On Thursday we woke up to glorious weather and Ricardo took the kids outside to play in their jammies after breakfast and they had a blast. I started cooking around 9am and enjoyed having the windows open and beginning the day with a thankful heart for all of God's blessings. Ricardo and the kids decorated the Christmas tree in the morning and the kids were ecstatic. This is the earliest we've ever put it up, but we knew we'd have a busy weekend so it was a good time to do it. I spent most of the day in and out of the kitchen and cooked turkey, sweet potatoes with maple syrup, mashed potatoes with goat cheese, green bean casserole with mushrooms and cranberry sauce. I took two new short-cuts and bought the gravy and dressing at Whole Foods and they were really good. Aldo and family arrived around 1:30 with desserts and we were good to go! We ate around 4:30pm and had a really nice time. Alexia ate her weight in turkey and Diego would not even try it. We made him try everything else, but we know he does not like turkey so we didn't force that one.

The kids patiently waiting for everything to be ready!

Clockwise: Eliana, Aldo, Ricardo, Camila, kids. The kids love Camila and Alexia insisted on sitting next to her.

On Friday morning we woke up, packed our bags and hit the road for Chattanooga for an overnight trip. We drove straight to the children's museum where the kids were in wonderland. They have the coolest children's museum and there was so much to do. We had brought our lunch from home so we stayed there for a few hours, ate our lunch and then headed to our hotel around 2:30pm. We wanted to get the kids to nap so we could have a late night, but our attempt failed. They did not want to have anything to do with sleeping in a cool hotel room. So, after a 40 minute rest time, we headed out again to go to Rock City which is spectacular. It is a winding trail that goes through natural and man made rock formations and has gorgeous views. The kids had a blast and Diego was in awe of the caverns and enormous rocks. We took along the hiking pack for Alexia to ride in, but she would have nothing to do with it. She walked for over 2 hours and never asked to be carried and would actually get mad when we picked her up to speed up the pace. Diego, on the other hand, was wiped out so we offered him a ride in the pack which he gladly accepted. After our lovely walk we were all hungry so we headed down the mountain and drove by a fabulous Italian restaurant where we had a delicious meal.

On Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and met Aaron and Helen and Aaron's parents for breakfast. Aaron's parents live near Chattanooga so it was a special morning to meet them and hang out with our friends. Alexia was thrilled to start her day in their company! From breakfast we headed back to the hotel to hit the indoor pool which was a blast! We then showered, packed the car and headed to the aquarium. The aquarium there is awesome and the we all really enjoyed it. We had a fun lunch at Sticky Fingers, ice cream for dessert and we hit the road around 3:00pm. It was a really special family weekend and we are so thankful we were able to do it!

Pulling the levers to splash water. He was very into this!

Alexia could barely reach!

She was thrilled to camp out at the water table for a long time

Digging for dinosaur bones

Bad picture, but it has a purpose. I have a picture of Diego and I in this same frame when he was about 13 months old. I will try to upload it to share.