Fall in Tennessee

Just wanted to post a few photos of our town these past few weeks. The biggest difference we've noticed is that it has taken a period of a few weeks for the trees to all turn. They all seem to be on a different schedule, lol.. In Utah, I remember ALL the leaves would change within about a week's time, then quickly fall after another week or two. Here, it has taken over a month for them all to change. The sea of multi-colored trees on the horizon is just breathtaking. 

These first couple are from around Sam's campus... The golden trees are so vibrant. They are awesome. 

Ivy and Evelyn playing in the weeping willow branches. We were walking with the boys while they played disc golf on campus.

They have these cute little civil war type fences with haystacks and corn husks set up all over campus. Actually, most people have something similar in their front yard all over the town. Must be a tradition of some sort. This pumpkin was ginormous. Had to get a pic of Ivy on it, lol:

None of my pics really do justice to how beautiful it is here. We've really enjoyed this season to it's fullest. Yay for fall!

Knoxville Zoo

A couple Saturdays ago, my friend Diana and I decided to head down to the Knoxville Zoo because our husbands were busy studying all day for their test that coming Monday. We actually didn't get to the zoo til the afternoon and the kids were not on their best behavior but it was still pretty fun. We just learned that next time, it needs to be a morning trip for sure. haha. They were still so cute to watch with all the animals, though. Ivy loved seeing the monkeys and lions. This was actually an awesome zoo.. It was so easy to see all the animals, they all seemed alert and pretty close to the viewing areas. 

Two peas in a pod, watching the rhinos:

Otters.. Ivy kept saying doggie. haha:

Hangin' out in a safari truck:

 

Silly Girl

Just wanted to post some silly videos of Ivy from the past month or so. Her personality is just too funny.  This first video is just some cute clips of her dancing. I love that I can turn a fun song on the tv and ask her to dance and she just goes.. It's usually only for a few seconds at a time, which is why they are short clips, lol.. She especially loves the episode of Yo Gabba Gabba where Jimmy Eat World plays while riding on flying cats and dogs. That's why she screams "doggies" in a couple parts, lol.. 

So we were in Walmart looking at cards and there was one that had a kid laughing when you opened it up. Ivy clearly thought it was funny (or was just trying to imitate the little kid lol)..

This last one cracks me up. Ivy had been at our friend's house playing with the kids and she was just so talkative so at a stop light I held up my phone and pressed record. (I'm just holding the phone up by my shoulder with the backwards camera.) Ivy can see herself in the phone which is why she keeps saying hi, lol. I do realize I start to drive in the middle of it. I wasn't looking at my phone at all though, don't judge. haha.

Love our silly girl! She is growing up too fast!

Date night

Pretty sure it had been two and a half months since Sam and I had gone on a legitimate date together. Between the move and Sam starting school, time just got away from us. Adjusting back to student life, we've decided to save some money on babysitters by doing a swap with our friends Britton and Diana every few weeks..  Where we choose a weekend and I go over and watch their kids on one night, then Diana comes over to watch Ivy on the other night. A couple weeks ago was the first time we did it and it worked out perfectly! Thanks Diana! Anyways, Sam and I headed down to Knoxville for a quick stop at Target for some diapers, then headed to dinner at a chinese place... finally, something other than Cracker Barrel. Hallelujah. It was so nice to be able to just talk the whole time and be together without any distractions. Love my hot husband!

Hike to White Rock and Sand Cave

A few Saturdays ago, we finally decided to go on a legitimate hike, one that would take us most of the day. We had found a decent hiking backpack for cheap on craigslist a few days before and were ready to try it out. We decided on a hike up to the Sand Cave just 15 minutes drive up the freeway. Originally we thought it would be about 2.5 mi one way but when we got there, for some reason the map online and the one at the trail didn't quite match up and it actually said 4.5 mi. one way or something. Whaa? OH WELL. We are here. and have nothing else planned for the day so we might as well. Haha! While we were up there, we decided we better stop by White Rock which was just a mile detour from Sand Cave and we were glad we did! The view was awesome! The entire hike took about 5 hours. We took about 45 minutes for lunch somewhere in there while we were at Sand Cave. Ivy actually did pretty well. She never whined about being in the backpack or anything. In fact, for the first couple hours she pretty much talked (or babbled) our ears off while we were hiking. Guess she was just enjoying the ride and being outside for so long. It got pretty funny at times.. Anyways, here are some pics from our day.

All strapped in and ready to go!

Probably my favorite pic of the day. I love her face haha:

The fork in the path to either go to Sand Cave or White Rock.. We went to White Rock first, then took a different path on the backside of the mountain to Sand Cave afterwards:

Yes we were wearing our BYU getup. It just so happened to be game day and both of us pulled out this same shirt. lol.. Guess we gotta represent!

Finally reached Sand Cave a while later.. I wasn't sure what we were going to find when we got there. I was thinking maybe a cave that was originally sand, or with sandy walls or something but it turns out, it's this huge cave (or rock, I'd say) covering this gigantic pile of sand. A cave with sand in it. Sand Cave. Got it..

I'm not sure you can tell the proportion from the pics but we were pretty far up there and only about a third of the way up. In other words, this place was huge. Super cool:

And here's Ivy after a good lunch and a diaper change. She was out like a light within the first 15 minutes of hiking back down. After her catnap she was back to babbling our ears off for the rest of the way down. That girl cracks me up.

Yay for a fun day! I'd like to do that hike again some day but considering neither of us could walk normally for the next three days, we kinda want to wait a little while. Maybe do a few easy hikes before jumping into that one again. haha! It really was fun though, even if it was hard. So worth it.