back to "chaganooga"

I hate it when I neglect the blog. Because once I'm behind, it's so overwhelming to think about trying to catch up. Some funny things happened the last couple of weeks I'm sure. But I'm just going to pretend they didn't and move on to our spring break. We wanted to get away for a few days, but didn't want to go far or be gone long. We thought about Gatlinburg, but just weren't up for the traffic. We thought and thought and I said, "We could go back to Chattanooga." Luke loved this idea, so of course that's what we did. Guess where we stopped on our way into town? Rock City! And there beside the gnome hats are See Rock City birdhouse hats. Classy. I know we have a picture of me and my brother sitting on this stone bench at Rock City about 30 years ago or so. Wouldn't it be nice if I actually had that photo and inserted it here for comparison? If I were a good blogger I'd do that. And check out super cool Luke with his glasses up on his forehead. He had strict guidelines about glasses on your eyes in the sun and on your head in the shade. I was frequently a rule violator. Some nice lady volunteered to photograph our family. I just lovely friendly folks! Fat Man's Squeeze. A favorite of Luke's. The boys in front of the waterfall. Luke's comment about everything in Rock City was, "It is SO beautiful!" Even the really cheesy stuff was so beautiful. After a great time at Rock City, we checked into the hotel, rested a bit, and headed out for dinner at Big River (barbecue chicken pizza--yum!!!!!). Luke said several times he wanted to go to the"carpet slide". Here's the carpet slide. A hill down by the river covered in brown grass. There are large pieces of cardboard, I assume left by other sliders. His OT gym has a carpet slide and I guess it's a similar sliding experience. After a small wipeout on his 2nd or 3rd slide, he was a little scared. So Lamar escorted him down the hill several times. He's a really good sport. Tired boy after a fun day. Day 2 we planned to head to the aquarium. But Luke kept asking to go to the museum. Last year we went to the Creative Discovery Center and he kind of enjoyed it, but he quickly moved from one activity to the next without really playing anywhere. So I wasn't excited to pay admission again, but he insisted he really wanted to go. Why not? He wasn't much for the first water play area, but he LOVED the play structure. He and Daddy did some serious climbing. SERIOUS climbing. Walking to take this photo I got soaked by a boy playing with the water. Kept me quite cool for our entire 3 hour museum visit. Luke then sat down and colored and cut out this crafty project with me. He willingly sat down and did a craft. Wow. Luke's favorite section of the museum was the music and performance area. He loved the stage area again this year, especially the sound effects. And he LOVED this screen that had psychedelic colors and forms mimicking his movements. Could have stayed here for hours. He saw some children walking around with decorated faces and he remembered face painting from our visit last year. We had to find the face painting station pronto. He spent quite a while on his masterpiece. The masterpiece. After spending a long time in the downstairs exhibits, we headed up to the roof. Here I'm lifting Luke with a pulley. Pretty much the only way I could lift him anymore. Kayaking demo. I wonder how many kids had that helmet on before he did. Gross. Back downstairs he found this voice recording exhibit. He could have entertained himself there for hours. Too bad for him (fortunately for us adults) some other children wanted a turn. We finally left the museum and Luke immediately decided he was embarrassed by his face paint, a total replay of last year. He wanted me to somehow hide his face as we walked back to the hotel, which was as impossible as it sounds. And he did not enjoy the scrubbing required to remove the face paint. I suggested he store up these memories for the next time face painting seems like a good idea. But the museum was definitely a hit this year and it was amazing to see how far his play skills have progressed in a year. After a very yummy Cheeburger Cheeburger lunch, where Luke was fascinated as our waiter announced that two fellow patrons had polished off 20 oz. burgers and instructed us all to cheer for them, placed giant hamburger hat on their heads, and took their picture (because excessive eating should be celebrated. Nonetheless, they were some seriously good burgers), we headed to the aquarium. I was tired and Lamar was tired. I suggested we just rest a while and skip the aquarium. We could head out for more fun and dinner later. Luke really thought the aquarium would be fun. We started out with gusto. He even touched a stingray. I think he touched it. Those stingrays must be immune to human germs. There are thousands of hands in that tank each day I bet. Or they replace those stingrays pretty often. We loved the tiny penguin exhibit again. I'm still really hoping the penguins are happy in there, jumping in that same little pool over and over. About halfway through the aquarium, Luke's energy was fading fast. He was following other families around, because every family is apparently more interesting than ours. He asked if he could take pictures (I just had our little point and shoot on this trip). He took about 200 photos. They all look pretty much like this. After reviewing his photography work he said, "All the fish have red eyes." After the picture taking bonanza, we went back to the hotel and crashed. After a little rest we hit the hotel pool for a second time. Luke loved the water and after months of not swimming, he jumped in with no fear. I cannot procrastinate any longer on swimming lessons. I mailed in a registration form for swim school today. Hope we get a spot. We enjoyed another good dinner, more fun sliding down the hill and playing on the playground and a milk shake, with sprinkles in it. Did you know, if you ask, Cold Stone will put sprinkles in your milkshake? I can't imagine anyone other than Luke would need that information though. We enjoyed a second delicious FREE breakfast at our hotel Wednesday morning and headed home. We stopped for some shopping, because I learned this weekend that Luke's swimsuit from last year was TOO small. Luke had a super time in "Chaganooga". He bid farewell to every single thing we did as we drove out of town and promised "We'll be back Chaganooga." We enjoyed our second visit to this incredibly family friendly town. After checking into our hotel we walked everywhere we went. And there was so much more we wanted to do but just ran out of time. During Spring Break we also saw Mars Needs Mom and Luke lost his second tooth (not simultaneously thankfully). Back to school on Monday. Just about 9 weeks left of kindergarten. How can it be?