Rainforest Cafe

I had a conference in Scottsdale last week at a pretty nice, kid-friendly resort. So we headed up a day early and brought the whole family along. Before checking in on Sunday, we stopped in Phoenix and took the kids to the Rainforest Cafe. It was awesome! We had a lot of fun, even if the food was a bit average. The kids thought they were hot stuff :)

Eating on Vacation is Fun :)

Sydnie, Harrison and Emmett enjoying cupcakes at a Fall Festival on Beck Mountain in Tennessee. I thought it was quite funny that Emmett ate all the frosting on his and then nicely offered to "trade" with Sydnie for hers (which still had frosting on it!)

Campfire weinie roasts are yummy and smokey! Kudos to Kirsten for somehow allowing all the kids to roast their own hot dogs without anyone falling into the fire or getting poked by a skewer.

Trip to Tennessee

We just got back from an awesome trip to the hills of Tennessee, to visit Granny, Uncle Mark, and cousins Sydnie and Dominic. Granny generously treated us all to a few nights in an amazing cabin at Safe Haven Farm on Roan Mountain. Melanie, the owner of Safe Haven Farm, has a beautiful property and the cabin was so much fun and surrounded by so much natural beauty. Check out their website http://www.safehavenfarm.com/phototour.htm Without TV reception or cell phone reception, we had lots of fun exploring the mountain, finding cool autumn leaves, roasting marshmallows and hot dogs, playing silly games and just RELAXING!

The cousins all got along very well, although Emmett and Dominic seemed to butt heads a few times. At 3 and 5, they have very different ideas of what is fair... and it doesn't help that Emmett is exactly the same size as Dominic, right down to the shoes. Makes it hard for Dom to remember that Em is really quite a bit younger.

Sydnie and Dominic seem to be settling into life in Tennessee quite well. Both are doing a great job in school and are loving having their Granny close by to help out when Uncle Mark (their Dad) has to work late. The parks in the area were amazingly lovely, with large expanses of hilly areas and tall, beautiful trees. We timed our trip perfectly with the turning of the leaves. The area's first frost happened the morning before we left, brrrr!

We will definitely be back to visit (maybe after the snow melts) and we all hope to be staying at Safe Haven Farm again soon.