Pit Stop #1

Along the trek back east, we managed to stop for about 5 days in Tennessee so see my family. My little sister is in Alaska with the army, so I didn't get to see her. And my brother just moved to Arizona, so I didn't get to see him either, bummer. BUT, I did get to see Heidi and her 3 kids, Paul, Ryan, and EmmaLynn. And my parents, of course. I was super excited to go visit them, even though it hadn't been that long since we'd seen each other last. I'm very grateful for how often we've been able to visit this year since I usually only get about 2 visits a year. Heidi's kids hadn't met Charlotte yet and hadn't seen Ivan in person since he was about 3 months old. Now that had been a long time!

He loved playing on the "tractor." He kept saying he was just like Papa. 

The kids took a little while to really warm up to each other. This hammock was just the thing they needed to get comfortable. They kept swinging on it and tipping over just like this. At one point we had all 5 kids on there, laughing and having a blast. 

We got some pictures done of all the grandkids while we were together. This is just outside the photoshop. Ivan looks a little worried about EmmaLynn's driving. 

Hanging out at the pool at Heidi's hotel. This little pool was awesome. It was only about a foot deep so Charlotte could walk around comfortably. 

And she got bored of playing in the water so she started biting my face! 

While we were there we managed to lose Ivan 2 or 3 times. That boy just loves to explore and run and be free. And my parents have a lot of land. A couple times he ran into the woods in the back yard (and came back with ticks all over). Once he ran all the way to the neighbors house, this was all in a matter of minutes. We were getting in the car to go somewhere and I had Charlotte and was getting her strapped in the car seat. I assumed Michael had Ivan and Michael thought I had Ivan. Oops. Away he went. That kid sure can run. The kids both loved all the animals. They got to feed the chickens, which was very exciting until Charlotte got bit. Then she started roaring at the chickens. Ivan did a happy dance for the kittens he found and Charlotte managed to badger poor Blondie, my mom's dog, into a state of pure terror. 

We went to Dinosaur World too. It's this really cool... exhibit? in Kentucky with life size replicas of dinosaurs. There is a small museum and a place to dig for fossils too. It was kinda chilly that day, actually the coldest day we were there and we were outside all day, ha. Ivan was in heaven! Almost everyday since we went there Ivan has said, "Gonna go to disagor world tomorrow with Papa. It gonna be so fun!" 

We're awful happy to be inside a dinosaur's mouth. 

Cousins! Left to right - Ryan, Paul, Ivan, EmmaLynn

ROAR! 

This is the giant dinosaur you can see from the interstate (which is just on the other side of that there fence). Apparently it's a fictitious monster created just for fun, and to draw in the customers. 

I'm amazed at all the detail put into each of the dinosaurs there. There are over a hundred and fifty life size dinosaur models. And all the dinosaurs are made on site! 

This is Charlotte roaring at the dinos. 

I think these ones are called the ultrasaurus. It is the tallest and biggest dinosaur that ever existed. 

I love this picture of my dad carrying my baby girl. It makes me think of all the times he carried me like that when I was that little. 

All the dinosaurs had name plates saying some info about them. I just really liked the engraving under the description of this one. Ha ha

They had a super fun playground area. Lots of stuff to climb on. 

This is the fossil dig. The kids all thought it was really cool and they even got to keep a couple of the fossils they dug up! (Most of it was just fossilized poop, but that makes it cooler, right?)

And of course any down time at the Roney Ranch meant it was time for a walk. We took many walks down the road to visit the creek and throw rocks in it. Not quite sure what's so amusing about that, but it sure entertained all the kids. Ivan and Mina (the dog) are best buds now. She's a good dog too, if Ivan got away from us, she would be right by him.