well after a long drive..i believe it took us about 10 hours to get there we finally saw this sign.
woo
hoo. we made it to Tennessee!
when we got there,
garran immediately had to leave to go to a lecture and i ran to the store to get some food to keep in the apartment that the university had put us up in. i decided that since we had traveled all day on poor B's birthday, i would get her a little treat!
she does not look all that excited, however right after she sang, she dove into the cake with both hands. we cleaned her up and cut her a piece. she did like it. it's just not that obvious from this picture.
i wanted to put this in. this was sunset the night we got there. BEAUTIFUL!
Friday,
garran was gone all day with B. Lyons. he was going to lectures, getting to see the school, having all kind of fun!!
Saturday was just our day. we did some house hunting in case
garran decides to go there. we wanted to know which areas we like and which to avoid. then we decided to just have some fun.
we drove around campus. here is one of the Tennessee signs for campus. it is not the best picture, but you get the idea.
here is just one shot of the campus which was gorgeous. i hate to sound
bias because
Dekalb was nice, but Knoxville was just so pretty!
after we left campus, we just took a little drive.
this is a view we found while driving. it was just breath taking. the river with the mountains in the background. love it.
after this..we headed to downtown.
here are the boys welcoming us to downtown!
we thought the kids might think the sun sphere was fun. you got to ride up in an elevator and go up into the globe part. it was all glass and you could see the entire city.
here are
garran, the kids, and aunt
silara (she came along on our trip) having fun. you do not see me because I have a horrible fear of heights. for some reason i had the worst reaction ever when we were hear. I could not step away from the wall. If i looked down i would get super
nauseous, hot, and my knees would go week. so i just took pictures and hung out by the wall.
here is on of the views. you can see part of campus and the mountains. as long as i did not look down, it was great!
after the sphere we headed down by the water. i wanted to get a family picture since i rarely have another set of hands so that i can be in it.
we took a bunch. this one made me laugh. i have given up a long time ago on getting a picture with everyone looking and smiling. I take what i can get. it seems more like real life to me.
after we got the pictures we decided to walk around for a little while.
on our walk we found these. i thought they were so cool. they have a huge children's hospital in Knoxville. these were all tiles made by children cancer survivors. i wish i would have gotten some close ups, but i just did not think about it then. they were all very cute and had little messages written on them.
after we walked around for a while we found a little treasure.
everything in this little store was made there. they had lollipops and chocolates, rock candy...all sorts of fun things. we each picked one thing to try.
kael and
cullan picked lollipops.
garran sampling some of the chocolates that we got.
im glad we each only picked on because while they were super yummy, they were super rich!
we played some more in downtown and then headed back to the apartment to pack for our long drive home the next day.
I had to get a picture as we were leaving of the mountains. I just love driving through them. so pretty.
the kids did really well throughout the whole trip. it is always hard to have to sit for that long, but we are grateful it went as well as it did. we really enjoyed our little mini vacation and are excited to make a decision sometime soon.
today i am thankful for small miracles. kael had a small accident with a pair of scissors. this post will more than likely make me sound like a horrible mother, but they were not kid scissors. he had found a pair of big scissors. you know the old saying, -don't run with scissors in your hand- well with kael it was -don't walk and trip with scissors in your hand-. I am grateful it is not worse. however we will be visiting the eye doctor tomorrow!!
cullan practicing his name. he is getting better with each attempt.
this is his super hero monster!
some days I feel like he should still be this size. i remember when it was just the two of us all day long. he was such a sweet baby. i found this picture of the two of us today. this was the day i brought him home from the hospital..almost 5 years ago. i can not believe it. now he is such a big kid, hoping in the van after preschool saying "hey mom, can you roll down my window and turn up my music". Yeah he is almost five going on twenty!
this weekend we went to visit my parents and to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. her actual birthday is on st. patrick's day. my aunts took her out to lunch on the 17th and her get all dressed up in st. patty's day stuff for a birthday picture!
bug is a year and here are her stats!
May the friendships you make, be those which endure; and all of your grey clouds, be small ones for sure. 
they made us the best deal. it has a great program and garran really enjoys the professors and other graduate students there. now that we have a location, we will soon be announcing when we will be moving. we feel really good about our decision!!
ok i know I am his mom. but this is the cutest little Irish fella I have ever seen. my heart just melts when I look at this picture. he is getting so big and handsome.
cullan-age 4- painting of a purple P
cullan- age- 4-"I can be a missionary" Primary 2010
Kael-age-3-fish, Primary 2010
FINALLY!
ps. on a different note, it is decision week. we will know where we are spending the next three years by the end of the week!
my friend had this on her blog. she got it in an email. it immediately made me think of B. she got a tutu for her birthday. i am pretty sure that even if she doesn't think she is a princess yet, there is a 6'3 guy in our house that sure thinks she is.
we called her yesterday on her actual birthday but thought we would say happy birthday to our niece who turned 9! happy birthday charleigh. hope you had a great day!
here is the girl of honor. she had just finished dinner and was excited about what was coming next.
grandma made some cupcakes for everyone, but made a special one for B.
from what we could tell, Briea really liked it!
after a quick birthday bath, that cupcake was messy, it was on to presents.
briea got a cell phone from grandma and grandpa G. this girl loves phones. she yells at me when i won't let her play with mine. it is pretty funny. she will stand at my feet and kind of do this funny little noise. she really loves to chat. wonder where she gets that?
then she opened up a present from my mom and george. this was her face from the time she saw it till we let her hold it. she loves babies. really loves babies. so she was super excited about this.
she carried it around all night and then fell asleep with it when we got home. i did not get a picture of it, but it was really cute.
woo hoo. we made it to Tennessee!
she does not look all that excited, however right after she sang, she dove into the cake with both hands. we cleaned her up and cut her a piece. she did like it. it's just not that obvious from this picture.
i wanted to put this in. this was sunset the night we got there. BEAUTIFUL!
we drove around campus. here is one of the Tennessee signs for campus. it is not the best picture, but you get the idea.
here is just one shot of the campus which was gorgeous. i hate to sound bias because Dekalb was nice, but Knoxville was just so pretty!
this is a view we found while driving. it was just breath taking. the river with the mountains in the background. love it.
here are the boys welcoming us to downtown!
we thought the kids might think the sun sphere was fun. you got to ride up in an elevator and go up into the globe part. it was all glass and you could see the entire city.
here are garran, the kids, and aunt silara (she came along on our trip) having fun. you do not see me because I have a horrible fear of heights. for some reason i had the worst reaction ever when we were hear. I could not step away from the wall. If i looked down i would get super nauseous, hot, and my knees would go week. so i just took pictures and hung out by the wall. 
here is on of the views. you can see part of campus and the mountains. as long as i did not look down, it was great!
we took a bunch. this one made me laugh. i have given up a long time ago on getting a picture with everyone looking and smiling. I take what i can get. it seems more like real life to me.
on our walk we found these. i thought they were so cool. they have a huge children's hospital in Knoxville. these were all tiles made by children cancer survivors. i wish i would have gotten some close ups, but i just did not think about it then. they were all very cute and had little messages written on them.
everything in this little store was made there. they had lollipops and chocolates, rock candy...all sorts of fun things. we each picked one thing to try.
kael and cullan picked lollipops.
garran sampling some of the chocolates that we got. im glad we each only picked on because while they were super yummy, they were super rich!
I had to get a picture as we were leaving of the mountains. I just love driving through them. so pretty. 
the kids did really well throughout the whole trip. it is always hard to have to sit for that long, but we are grateful it went as well as it did. we really enjoyed our little mini vacation and are excited to make a decision sometime soon.
we started out very early. i think we left around 6:00am. this was the sun coming up as we were headed to Illinois.
i love this bridge. it is in dubuque iowa. it goes over the Mississippi and it is just a pretty bridge.
here is the sign as we were pulling onto campus. 
this is the art building at NI. garran really enjoyed meeting Michael Barnes and getting to know the other professors and grad students there. he said he really enjoyed himself and that he would enjoy going here if that is what he decides.
and of course i had to get a shot of our little princess in her bathing suit. 
she looked so sweet walking around in here little suit!
