2012 - from Knoxville

We spent New Year's in Knoxville, TN.  This is when the Layne's do our Christmas together. 

Today mom and dad left earlier for home.  They have been here for over a week and wanted to get settled in a bit before we all return.

We were up so late last night that Melanie and I slept until almost 11:00 a.m.  Layne and Matthew were the last ones up about 11:30. 

Melanie, Matthew and I took the kids to see Puss in Boots at the cheap theater.  We still spent over $60.00 for 5 kids and 3 adults.  The movie was really cute.  I liked it quite a bit - Antonio Banderas is hilarious in that role.   Joshua thought it was a great movie.  I think if kind of made up for the We Bought a Zoo movie he watched last night for New Year's Eve.  Poor kid kept asking me "where's the zoo mommy?".  It was a little more about a family dealing with grief and a lot less about a zoo than I anticipated.  He fell asleep with about 30 minutes left of the movie and totally slept through the New Year.

We went out to Chili's for dinner.  Joshua and Jacob were the only ones who wanted to have dessert - oh yeah, and me.  So Matthew was great to take the kids home while we stayed and finished. 

I found a sheet of "Goals" for kids that we had them fill out at dinner.  A little bit of retrospection and some plans they documented.  Will post those later.






A little bit of our week in Knoxville:

Layne, Jacob, Joshua and I came down on Wednesday.  We were here by dinner and the chaos began right away.  They all love being together - but Boy can they be loud! 

We went to Gatlinburg, TN on Thursday and Layne, Jacob and Marisa spent an hour at MagiQuest with Melanie and me.  The girls complained about having to go the whole time and then they were very excited once we got going again figuring out the clues.  Jacob was beyond excited - he has been begging to go back since we left the last time.



 The plan was for Grandma and Papa Jack to go with Mitchell and Joshua to the Nascar Racetrack for the hour.  I didn't know that Melanie had instructed the grandparents to across to WalMart prior to Nascar in order to get the boys jackets since it was outside - but it was right across the street.  We finished at MagiQuest and tried to reach mom and dad on the phone to check in with them. Couldn't reach them - but oh my goodness Gatlinburg was busy this day.  The cell phones were consistently "server busy".  We got to the race track and Layne was begging to go in and ride.  We still hadn't heard from mom and dad and we didn't see them anywhere.  Finally hear from mom - and they hadn't even gotten to the race track yet.  The boys and mom and dad had been driving around for almost 2 hours.  Their GPS took them on a wild goose chase. 

So change of plans again - all 5 kids were now going to spend an hour at the racetrack for $14.99 a piece - good grief!  They wanted every adult to pay the same price - even if we weren't riding.  The saving point was our Senior Citizens that we brought with us - lol.  Grandma and Papa Jack were able to accompay the kids for only $6.00 a piece.  So - Melanie and I went shopping at the outlet mall and missed all the fun.

We met at Red Lobster for dinner.  Papa Jack was freezing.  It didn't help when our waitress poured a full glass of ice water down his back either.  Everyone seemed to find something to eat.

Following dinner we went to drive through the minor league baseball parking lot in Gatlinburg.  They had the lights coordinate with music that you could listen to on your radio in your car.  The kids seemed to really like the lights quite a bit.

Was having quite a bit of trouble with Layne this trip and this week - really up until yesterday. She has been giving me quite a bit of attitude.  She is upset that we don't have a "better car", that we "never have any money" and that "she never gets to do anything she wants".  She was so ugly.  She whined the whole time about going to MagiQuest - than of course had a good time.  She got to go to the Nascar Racetrack - which she wasn't even an option at the start of the day for her.  But it didn't go the way she wanted and boy was I going to pay for it - and her attitude at dinner.  Then she didn't want to eat at Red Lobster and they didn't have anything she wanted.  I finagled special nachos for her and those weren't right either.  It never seemed to end.  Yes, mom, paybacks are Hell at times. 

She seems to have settled a little bit since Thursday - but Layne still has some of her special moments.

Hopefully 2012 brings less surprises and some new beginnings for all of us.  I hope we are able to continue to make wonderful  memories with our family.