We are ending a week of family vacation with Rob's parents in eastern Tennessee. They live outside of Knoxville in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. We have all enjoyed spending the last few days with them. Nathaniel loves his Nana and Grampy (he is particularly wild about his Grampy at this point in his life), and has done all kinds of things with them this week.
We attended a Tennessee Smokies baseball game, which received mixed reviews from the two year-old. Nat was very excited to go, but when we arrived, they were singing the National Anthem and shot off fireworks, which put a significant damper on his excitement. As we left, however, Daddy bought him a little batting helmet, and he has talked about the "Mokies" and has played baseball every day since.
Nat, Grampy and Daddy went for a tractor ride up the mountain and went blackberry picking. Grampy picks large quantities of the blackberries that grow wild on their 30+ acres and makes his own blackberry wine. Nat hasn't sampled Grampy's vintner skills, but he ate the berries right off the bushes and had a great time. He has even "driven" the tractor several other times: another daily topic of conversation.
We attended a show in Pigeon Forge last night: The Black Bear Jamboree. Rob's parents purchased tickets pretty early, so we had seats at a table literally touching the stage. Nat was a bit overwhelmed when the show began, but eventually warmed up and was particularly impressed with the "cowboy" parts of the show, since he fancies himself to be a cowboy.
In keeping with that fantasy, he has also had the opportunity to pet and feed apples to the neighbors' horses. Nana had talked about calling a neighbor with a particularly gentle horse and seeing if he could "ride" (even just sit bareback) a real "ohs-wee" this week, but it looks like the cowboy may have to be content with his hobby horse, rocking horse, and the penny horsie ride at Meijer.
We've had such a full week, I'm not sure we can fit in one more fun thing. I'm ready for a vacation! Oh, wait. I guess this was vacation. *Sigh.* Back to work on Monday.
