Our Free Day: A Date with Bug

About 2 months ago, I figured out that there would be one day over the summer where I would be off work and Max would be in daycare, so I decided that Anderson & I should spend it together. We have been talking about our date ("free day") for quite some time. Every time a random event was mentioned, he would ask if it was on our "Free" day. The anticipation was so much fun.

Also, he called it a "free" day because that is what fun days at school were called. It turns out, it was actually pretty close to my version of "free" thanks to coupons, free admissions and random free outings.

Breakfast-Waffle House

He has only been there once, a long time ago when we were in Florida, and he loved to hear about that time and definitely loved the massive chocolate chip waffle. 

The next stop was at McClung Museum on UT Campus. 

I took a group of kids here for a field trip a few months ago and I knew that Anderson would love it & I was right. He was so excited about the dinosaurs, the gems & minerals (shout out to Mom!) and even the random exhibits like the mussels. 

"Mom! Presidents!!" 

Insert happy face here. 

Also, he was so excited about the amethyst because my mom has taught him all about random rocks. We spent quite a bit of time looking at everything & it was so nice to not constantly stop Max from knocking over skeletons or pulling down artifacts. 

Quick stop at Neyland for a football player pose. We couldn't go in, but he assured me that it was ok because, "Daddy will probably take me to the field again one day."

Because I am a realist, I snuck in a few errands that I needed to run, but I did let him pick out one of these giant suckers at one place. He was so excited and maybe spent about 20 minutes licking it until he threw it away. It was definitely worth $1.19 for the enthusiasm, though. 

Brandon told us about a fun event with free lunch, a bounce house and police activities, so we definitely met him there. 

Quality time with the bomb robot. 

He LOVED the K9 demonstration. It really was amazing what they can teach dogs to do. I am looking at our Gabbers just chilling on my bed and trying to picture her jumping through a car window to attack someone. I know she would do it if we needed her to; she is pretty awesome. 

Free giant smoothies! 

The best part of the day, according to him, was buying this GIANT water gun at Wal Mart. Aunt LoLo sent him a gift card and he had so much fun trying to decide what to get. He has used this daily since he bought it, so I think he chose well. 

We had such a fun day! 

Father's Day

Max needed a picture with Brandon for a school project and this is the one we sent. I am not sure if it is the fact that we are pretending to be at the ocean while visiting a park, Max's wife beater/neon shorts, or the fact that these 2 have the same face,  but I love this pic. 

Because I prefer "crafts in a box with a 40% off coupon at AC Moore" over anything I have to make myself, we made stone garden things for Father's Day.

And, let's be honest, this right here is why we need this day-to remind us how lucky we are to have such a wonderful guy in our lives. I am grateful every day that life brought us together. 

Also, this. 

We celebrated him with Starburst for breakfast, a FitBit and lots of homemade gifts. 

A few more pool shots...

they got really intense toward the end of the day. 

I love that Max's school actually does the Pinterest crafts. 

We made a quick visit to see Bop where we presented him with his very own "stone garden thing" (and a gift card.) 

We continued the celebration with a delicious fish dinner at the Glover's house and, even though JPa was feeling a little under the weather and we didn't get to celebrate him as we would have liked, we did get to enjoy some quality time with Pappaw. 

Sidenote-we ate fish that Curtis caught on an ocean fishing trip-he camped/slept on a boat and caught a bunch of fish and skinned them & brought them to Knoxville. Who needs to go to the beach when the beach can come to us??

Max & Pappaw selfie!

Some Videos:

Anderson having way more fun at the pool with Brandon than he ever does with me

Another one

Make new friends, but keep the old.

My high school experience was amazing because of these people right here. 

I don't know if it was the fact that we went to an all girl school so we didn't have boys to distract us, or maybe it was because we were just plain AWESOME, but we had some fun times-in this case, we appear to be in a tent. In general, we usually wore 80's clothes in public, we alternated where we spent our time among (amongst?) each other's houses (our house was a frequent stop-thanks, Mom!), and we were ALWAYS eating. In many ways they shaped who I am as an adult and I am forever grateful for them!

Now, we are old and have these kids that expect to be raised. So, we decided to bring them all together and it was so much fun!

4 old best friends from 20 years ago+ 9 new best friends from this year = one helluva weekend!

Look at us! Grown ups!

Skye & Stine drove in town & stayed in a hotel* and we crammed as much fun as we could into the 4 days of the their visit. 

*When I say "they" stayed in a hotel, I, of course, mean that we also were frequent visitors to their room, their pool and their free breakfast.

Because they didn't get in until late, the first day was just a brief visit for ice cream. 

Max. Y'all. This kid is so indifferent to most things, but you put him near a hotel with some big kids (flashback to OEYEO) and he is in his element. Look at his face. God, I love him. 

In case you didn't know, I am an activity hoarder, so I had a slew of things for us to do. First up-Secret City Festival in Oak Ridge! There were so many things to do; I will just include a few pics.

We have only been one other time 2 years ago but it was just as much fun as I remember!

Hands down, his favorite part. 

Max is in the Rescue Vehicles stage, so anything that allows him to be a fire fighter is a win. 

How amazing are all of these people who volunteer their time for other people's kids?

We even did a little crafting. 

Anderson decided that this would be a perfect time to develop an interest in crafting and spent an hour coloring a frame, in detail. This would have been really sweet except it was at least 200 degrees outside and Max kept attacking the water cooler thing. 

Again, he thinks he is 7. 

The big boys in one of the moon bounces!

The entire event cost us $3 for a snow cone.

We made the evening kid friendly with pizza at "the hotel."

How great is it that these kids just immediately bonded? I mean, we kept taking them fun places and giving them food, so it was an amazing set up, but still. 

Day 3 was another fun/chaotic day that began with a Lowe's Avengers' craft thing. 

Anderson quickly became obsessed with "Germany" to the point where he had to ride in our car with us. I don't blame him-Jeremy is pretty awesome. 

Also, I got to hang out with Violet who is as cute in person as she is in her pics. I might be a borderline stalker of her family through Jeannie's blog, so when she first walked up and I immediately asked questions about her recent birthday party and talked about her favorite princess, Cinderella, she should have probably thought "Stranger Danger!"

Anderson kept "rescuing" her from the side of the pool. It was adorable. 

These two appeared to have some kind of conflict in a past life and kept arguing with each other....except for the 15 minutes that they bonded in the Kroger car cart. I am sure the cookies and fruit snacks that were distributed during the ride had nothing to do with that. 

Also, Jeannie and I got picnic food and, upon checking out, realized that we had 3 different kinds of cookies and only 1 package of lunch meat. Clearly, not much has changed since our high school days. 

Picnic at the park!

Jeannie was a master watermelon cutter upper. 

There was a splash pad, but there was also this giant puddle, which was clearly more fun. 

Again, I use this pic solely for Max's face. He was yelling, "Watermelon Time!"

So many attempts at group pics meant that our kids were basically done every time we tried to corral them. 

By the last day, they were truly besties. 

It was sad to end our weekend of fun, but we have already started planning next summer!