Better late than never….here are some shots from our spring break trip to Chattanooga, TN. In addition to spending time with our dear friends who moved to the city two years ago, we loved exploring the Children’s Discovery Museum, the Tennessee Aquarium, Rock City, and the Incline Railway. The kids loved catching up with their pals Ben and Katie Beth. Ben and Carter are only a few days apart in age, and Carter was obsessed with Ben’s 22-month-old sister. He is definitely ready to be a big brother again!
Most of these pics from Rock City were taken by Caroline (hence why I appear in so many of them). She’s gaining some pretty good photography skills!
Some of the trails at Rock City are pretty narrow, as you can see in reference to my 4-year-old as he walked down these steps.
This was called “Fat Man’s Squeeze.”
I renamed it “Claustrophobic Pregnant Woman’s Nightmare.”
At the top of the mountain, you can see seven different states!
Aquarium Fun…
I thought I might be a dork for dressing the littles in fish and whale clothing for the aquarium, but apparently Stacey had the same idea was well. 
Carter held Katie Beth’s hand the entire time we walked around.
Well…except for when he got a butterfly to land on his hand in the butterfly exhibit.
Katie Beth loved having Scott or myself hold her. Cuddling up in Scott’s lap during lunch, Carter wanted to be right beside her. What you can’t see in this photo is Grace standing on her chair yelling, “Daddy, I don’t want ‘Baby Beth’ in your lap! Put her down!!”
Here’s the view from the Incline Railway train. It’s the world’s steepest incline, and it was a little bit nervewracking!
At the Children’s Discovery Museum, they currently have a China exhibit.
Carter worked on rebuilding the Great Wall.
Grace ran toward the kitchen to cook up some authentic Chinese fare.
And Caroline gravitated toward this classroom setting that reminded her of her school in Nanning.
She settled into one of these desks to watch the video on the little TV straight ahead. What was humourous was that a couple of classes on field trips came walking by and stared at Caroline as if she were part of the exhibit!
She finally realized I was taking pictures of her.
Posing “in the streets” of her homeland.
In the meantime, Carter had joined Grace in the kitchen. I won’t even tell you what all was in the pots and pans. Even though the “food” was pretend, I still get a little grossed out by the commons foods adored by the Chinese. About as grossed out as Caroline gets about cheese.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I can’t call family trips “vacations” because they aren’t exactly relaxing (at least not at this stage). But what we did was create memories, and it was fun to be together as family of 5. Thanks to the Prentice family for welcoming us to their city. Stacey even had a gift bag of goodies waiting for us at the hotel! (By the way, Stacey, how did we not get one picture together??) I’m sure we’ll be back soon!
