New Orleans to Knoxville

This was Sophia's second trip to New Orleans to visit family, but Jason's first time in Louisiana.

Sophia recently received a violin for her birthday and had the chance to talk with Cousin Lulu about it, who plays professionally. Her son Benji and Jason are close in age and enjoyed playing together for a few hours after our flight landed.

My Mom has one sister who gave birth to a daughter Emilie (on the left) and Jesse who married Lulu. It was our first time being all together without any of the grown ups.

It was a quick road trip stop to the Birthplace of Jazz, but fortunately we still got to hear some music when we landed at the airport.

After leaving New Orleans, we drove a couple hours to Mississippi to see Emilie and Jesse's Mom, my Aunt Jan, her husband Ray and grandchildren Anna and Daniel. It was the first time all of us (except Josh for work) had been to the State. The pine trees along the Mississippi and Alabama highways were beautiful, but I am looking forward to returning to see more of both places.

Our next stop was Fairhope, Alabama to visit friends Blair and Blake and their sweet family, including an infant they were providing foster respite for who weighed only 5lbs.

We appreciated their Coastal hospitality and the time both the adults and kids got to spend together.

The longest and final leg of our drive was to Knoxville, TN.

We swam beneath the raindrops and stopped to smell the flowers.

The Dream More Hotel offered bedtime stories and Smores each evening.

We always participated in both.

Sleeping in the same room is one of the trickiest challenges of traveling as a family (especially after consuming sugary Smores).

The bunk beds however were a big crowd pleaser.

We spent one day at Splash Country.

 And one at Dollywood.

The kids would have spent the whole time in the cars.

In the morning it was just three of us and Joshua was able to join after he finished his work meetings.

Jason was eager to go on the train roller coaster. He rode next to one of the park employees with Sophia and I behind him. Sophia liked how it made her "stomach feel funny" and unfortunately Jason did not enjoy the experience as much as he thought he would.

Both children however were mesmerized by Dolly Parton's Stampede.

Before heading to the airport we made one last Knoxville stop to visit our friends Jeff and Becky and their lovely family.

They served us a delicious lunch on their beautiful back porch and our kids loved that there were children to play with every place we went.

We headed home for a final week of school to be followed by more Summer Adventures!