A Tennessee Graduation!

Well, the fam has just returned from yet another road trip around this great U.S.A.  This time we visited Grammy P and Grandpa Jim in the Nashville Area.  This trip marked a special occasion for Emmy's cousin Josh, who graduated from high school.

Grammy P and Grandpa Jim were very excited to have the boys back in farm country and we definitely did our best to give them the most fun, farm experience ever!

First thing first, we had a nice dinner after a very long drive Friday night including Ethan and Aidan's favorite...homemade ice cream!

After dinner, the boys needed to blow off some steam so they played outside in the sandbox and kicked the soccer balls around a bit.  They really had a great time.   Thanks Grammy for the fun toys!

Saturday was the big graduation day and the boys woke us up quite early (maybe because they were excited to sit through 464 calling of names for Josh's graduating class!?!?)  Well, in any case, they were pretty well behaved, had some snacks, colored and clapped for Josh as he got his diploma.

I guess this is a "hug"?

Congratulations Josh!  Best of luck at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville School of Architecture!

After the ceremony, we got the boys home and napping.  Then we packed em up again and headed to Emmy's Aunt Dawna's house for Josh's graduation party.

It was a great party, Aidan got to play with Josh and Trey, ride with Grandpa Jim on an ATV and play with tons and tons of Josh's old legos!  Daddy liked that too!

"Go there Jim!"

He had a fun time on that ATV!

We tried a little swimming, but the water was bone chilling cold...maybe next time.

Aidan really likes Trey and Josh...so cool to see your little buddy get along with those that used to be my little buddies (wasn't too long ago that I was doing fun thing with Josh and Trey)

The Four Amigos!

E was having fun too!

We headed home after desert at Dawna and Tommy's and Ethan and Jim had a meeting of the minds...of sorts.

Grammy even got a few with her Grandbabies!

Sunday was our big farm day and Grammy had quite the plans laid out for us.  Our first stop was to the Roderick farm.  This is where Grammy keeps her horse, Cisco and Grandpa Jim works the fields with the John Deere Gator.

Ethan was a little skiddish at first of Mr. Cisco....but just wait...

It was only a matter of time before the little cowboy was riding, riding!

Aidan was a natural, he really liked being on Cisco....

After a quick ride with Grammy, he was ready to take on Cisco himself, in fact, the first thing he said to Cisco was, "C'mon horsey, let's gallop!"  Whoa!

 

 Cowboy up!

Daddy and Mommy even got up on Cisco!

A couple of videos!

Next it was off to the ride on the Gator!

 Who's driving that thing!

 

 So as the story goes, this is how "Farmers Relax" according to Jim.

 

 They're doing quite a bit of relaxing! Get back to work!

Grammy and Aidan got on yet another ATV!

 That's a big boy on a big bale of hay!

Our final stop was the big one....riding on Johnny Tractor!  Grandpa Jim was out "tedding" some hay and we were just in time to ride along with him!

The contraption on the back twists and turns the hay to help it spread out and dry out some.

 

 Johnny Tractor!!

He was really getting into the farming spirit!

The boys crashed pretty hard after their full morning on the farm.  In the afternoon, it was time for more play and fun as Dawna, Tommy and the boys came over for a wiener roast and cookout! 

 

 Back to the sandbox!

 

Soccer star...

Big thanks to Josh and Trey for playing with Aidan...he loves those guys!

It's E!

Aid wasn't into the wienie roast, said it was too hot on his face, but Mookie was sure having fun!

Finally, I snapped this shot of the Tennessee hills looking out the back of Grammy's newly cleaned up backyard.  It looks really great and who knew that spectacular view was right there!



Thank you again Peggy and Jim, and Dawna, Tommy, Trey and Josh.  We had a great time, ate great food and had lots of fun and laughs.  We're glad you got to see the boys and all their fun and energy!

So on the way back, because we left pretty early this morning, we decided to make a quick pit stop in Metropolis, Illinois, also known as the "Home of Superman". They have signs up for miles saying that you should visit their huge statue (they say it's 15 foot tall, I think it's more like 25 feet tall). so we did.  And it was pretty darn cool!

 

The FFA with the Superman

 Superman!

The phone booth!

Super Aidan!

Super Daddy!

You can see from this picture that he is huge!

Super Daddy and Super Mommy (Aidan took this picture, pretty good huh?)

Have a great night,
Ty, Emmy, Aidan and Ethan