An Easter Trip

We went down (over?) to Tennessee to celebrate Easter with Cousin Beth, her sister Suzanne, and their parents, Uncle Allen and Aunt Mary Ann. It was a fun and relaxing trip. I love taking weekend trips; they are usually just long enough to make you feel like you've gotten away from it all and short enough that the drive doesn't feel overwhelming.

We had planned to go down on Saturday morning, visit Patrick's grandma in Dandridge at the nursing home, head over to White Pine to see his Aunt Cecelia, and drive back through Bristol to stay with Beth and Nate and see the other members of their family.

Of course, then Patrick slept until 12:30. So, Plan B:

We left around 3:00 and stopped in Christiansburg for "lunch" at Chic-fil-A. We took a detour to Barnes and Noble and picked up a plethora (yes I just used the word plethora) of books on Australia and New Zealand in preparation for our upcoming summer trip. We happily amused ourselves on the drive by me reading aloud to Patrick about all the places I found in the books that I wanted to visit.

We decided to reverse our plans and stopped in Bristol for the night first. Beth and Nate's house is in the historic district. It is old and beautiful with lots of character. We were instantly jealous.



After checking in and getting the fab house tour, we went over to Suzanne's cool new apartment. I would have taken pictures but she literally had just moved in (like the day before) and was still setting up shop. Suzanne, this only means that we have to come visit AGAIN and see the completed project!

Allen and Mary Ann treated us all to dinner at a fun local restaurant where we sat around and told family stories for the majority of the night. I love hearing and learning more about Patrick's family. Allen is his mother's brother. He and Mary Ann both are also in education and have a ton of interesting stories about school to which I can certainly relate. It was a great meal with wonderful people.

We went to church on Easter Sunday and worshiped the Lord for His work through Jesus Christ. We gave thanks that Christ conquered death for us and provided a way for us to have eternal fellowship with the Lord in heaven.

We had lunch after church and said goodbye to the Stuarts. We headed down to visit Patrick's grandmother. She is 92 years old and looking great! We visited for a couple hours and by that time had to get on the road to head home. We didn't get the chance to visit Cecelia and her family, as it was getting late and Patrick had to work the next day, but decided that this only meant we had to make another trip SOON to see all of them!

The Stuart Gang: Allen, Mary Ann, Beth, and Suzanne. We had to have a stand in for Jeff since he couldn't make it.

What a great start to Spring Break! We loved every minute of our trip and came back rejuvenated and ready to start a new week.