The Barclay's

Our plans for our third full day in Tennessee were supposed to begin with a visit to Grace Baptist Church with Josh and his family. However, I slept with my son...who sleeps like this...and he wonders why we prefer he sleeps in his own bed at home. Needless to say my sleep was broken so I failed to wake in time. We did however meet them for lunch and enjoyed their company and some fun conversation.

After lunch we decided to find something "touristy" to do. We chose the Tennessee Aquarium. Kevin and I had taken the kids here right after it opened. It was a very long time ago as we only had four kids then.

Josh and Travis entertained themselves by scaling some rocks. Travis and Bryan tried on some mood rings.

Here is our group waiting to enter the aquarium

This cool exhibit allowed the kids to go up and into the middle. Sort of like the rabbit hole at Binder Park Zoo:-)

Travis was most thrilled by the escalators and the revolving door. Strange kid.

Here they had a chance to touch sharks. You are only supposed to touch them with two fingers. I guess that is all the aquarium's insurance will cover each person losing.

They posed for this picture and asked me to take it...can you tell they've been raised with a camera in their face?

Now he is touching a sting ray...again, only two fingers.

Here they are posing in the shark cage designed and created for a documentary on sharks that I can't remember the name of. But it was the inspiration for Peter Benchley to write Jaws and it was damaged by a great white shark...probably not the one behind the boys in the picture.

Pictures here of Erin looking at Josh and Travis looking at sharks.

Here they all are in a dome seat underneath the shark tank.

There were creeks and fountains in the plaza that were full of kids wading and playing. It was 100 degrees today with high humidity.

Abby was disgusted with Bryan for dipping his sucker in this water. She was probably correct to be disgusted.
After the aquarium we went to Ben and Jerry's. There was a balloon artist out front. He made Abby a monkey tail...she was thrilled. Travis stood out and watched him for about a half hour and, of course, they became close friends.

We had another great day! We are enjoying our "adventure" in Tennessee. When we got back to the hotel, Abby took the boys to the pool and Erin and Josh went to dinner with his brother, Jeff and girlfriend Savannah (I might be making those names up but I think they are the ones I heard). Travis has proclaimed that he "never wants to go home". I, on the other hand, miss my husband, my oldest daughter and my oldest son, and my dogs...and my bed. Besides, we will barely be home a day or two before we head out to Rochester, New York to visit with some of our favorite people and make more memories.

Life is good. God is great.