Archive for the ‘Life in Tennessee’ Category

Welcome to Tell Me Thursday. I’m excited to share more about our partial family photo with good friend Carol Rice at the International Storytelling Center (ISC) in Jonesborough, TN. Here’s the picture from yesterday’s Wordless Wednesday post:

Here we are with Carol Rice

We loved attending the Storytelling Festival last weekend. I probably loved it more than the girls. They were a bit restless and didn’t want to be confined to seats. But we had a fun time exploring a new location and meeting up with a friend from Utah. I’ve already gone on at length about the value of storytelling, so I’ll get right to the picture.

We are in the ISC in front of the Wall of Storytelling. Our friend from Utah is Carol Rice of Cherish Bound. She is dedicated to the art of storytelling and helping people capture their own personal stories in beautifully bound books. In case you can’t think of any stories, her company also has lots of great tools to help you find the stories that you want to preserve and share.

I Heard a Story...

The ISC has recently teamed up with Cherish Bound to help Festival goers to capture their experiences at the Festival. They’ve put together this terrific little book, I Heard a Story and Thought of You, that is easy to personalize but has professional photos from the festival already included. That is right up my alley because I usually buy postcards because the pictures are better than anything I can take! They also have a Family Tree storybook to preserve your family history.

The International Storytelling Center is also joining the world of Social Media and can be found on Twitter. They’ve recently updated their website with tons of information about ISC, where to find storytelling events and how to stay in the know on future events.

I was lucky enough to be able to share my thoughts on how to make the Festival more friendly towards parents and little ones. I’m excited they cared what I thought and look forward to enjoying the festival again next year.

Here we are with Carol Rice

Find other Wordless Wednesday posts at WordlessWednesday.com

We had the chance to see some great storytellers at the National Storytelling Festival this past weekend. We enjoyed the Family Showcase at the Library tent where the stories were focused on childhood experiences or stories children could relate to and enjoy.

Saturday morning, though, was my favorite. I was able to go all by myself and hear two great storytellers. My absolute favorite from the conference has to be Syd Lieberman. He tells personal tales. Personal tales are true experiences from the teller’s life. Syd masterfully weaves heartache and joy into his tales. I was laughing and crying simultaneously through most of his stories.

Tales of Parenthood

His last story was about the seasons of our lives. He reflected on his children and how they’ve grown and what the future holds. As I thought of my two girls playing back at my friend’s house, I was filled with emotion. These years when they are so young are full of exhaustion and emotion. But this stage will pass and where will we be? What will my relationship with each girl look like? Will Sammi like me? Will she trust me enough to confide in me?

I was filled with a renewed desire to connect with the girls while they are young. The dishes can wait. Toys will be played with again, anyway. Dinner doesn’t need to be fancy. It really is about how we spend our time with our little ones. What are we sharing with them? What traditions are we perpetuating from our own childhood and developing in our new family?

We read. I have always loved books. I’ve been lucky enough to have two girls who took to them as quickly and lovingly as I did. We love reading our favorite stories again and again. I’m much better at reading a story than recounting it from memory. Brent tells an amazing Three Little Pigs, but I much prefer to read the stories I share. But as I listened to Syd Lieberman tell stories from his life, I felt a connection to storytelling I hadn’t felt before.

I can do this!

As I sat there, I thought, “I can do this. I can tell the girls stories from our life. I can keep memories alive by sharing those stories again and again.” And in reality, that’s what parents do day in and day out. Sometimes it isn’t very glamorous telling our little ones again and again that we always brush our teeth, or that we always pick up our toys. But those are stories of who we are, of how we live life. At other times we relive vacations or holidays or trips around the city through stories.

My goal this week is to think of a story or two from my early years that I can share with the girls. And then share it everyday. What personal stories do you share with your children?

Here is my ticket to the great weekend I just had in Jonesborough, TN. The girls and I were able to attend the National Storytelling Festival. There are so many wonderful things to share about our weekend, the international storytelling center, the storytellers themselves. It’s gonna take me a few posts to share it all with you. I hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed our weekend!

Hal Rogers Family Entertainment Center

Brent found us a really fun-looking water park in Williamsburg, Kentucky. We looked at different routes to get there and finally decided to let the Garmin decide for us. Right off it took us over the border into Kentucky and then way down a road we hadn’t been way down before. At least I hadn’t. Brent apparently had been this way once before and started telling me about how curvy and slow the drive was. The speed limit was 55 but I think I rarely went more than 35. We switch backed up and down two peaks! I was driving so that helped stave off motion sickness for me, but we were worried about Sammi the whole time. Fortunately, she fell asleep so I think that helped her tummy stay calm.

As we were driving we somehow crossed back into Tennessee. This mountainous, rural area is always full of surprises. We were enjoying the beautiful foliage, peering through the trees for wildlife when we came upon some roadkill. And there, so close I could almost reach my arm out the window and stroke its shimmering bald head was a vulture. But this was the prettiest vulture I’ve ever seen. In fact, Brent and I both commented that we didn’t know vultures could be that pretty. I so wish my camera turned on more quickly and that I could take pictures while driving. (I’ll refer you to this post for a reminder about the nature of multi-taskers) As I slowed and Brent tried to get the camera going, the vulture hopped back into the trees and disappeared from view. I looked long and hard, though, to get a detailed mental picture, but even that’s already faded. It was a beautiful bird; you’ll have to trust me on this one!

Sammi at the Splash Park

Elli at the Splash Park

We finally made it to the Kentucky Splash Water Park. We quickly found a place to park, unloaded the girls and made our way inside with our three Pepsi cans, which made our entrance fee for the whole family $30. This park has it ALL! There’s a wave pool, a lazy river, three single rider slide, two innertube rides for singles or doubles, and a rocking kids’ area. The whole family was entertained, until we heard thunder. Everyone was shooed out of the water. It started to sprinkle. I needed to nurse Elli anyway so we didn’t mind. A nice family celebrating a birthday invited us to join them under their covered pavilion. We were just getting settled in when the storm hit. The sky was dark, the rain was torrential and the wind was violent. We wrapped our towels around us and we were soaked almost instantly.

Brent and I wondered what to do. The girls were getting restless and we’d have to wait at least a half hour from the last thunder before we could go back in the water. The sky was clearing and the rain was calming down, but we didn’t know if we could entertain the girls for that long. We decided to pack up and go home. Brent took stuff and went to get the car for us. I took the girls inside and waited for Brent to pull up for us. We got in the car, dried ourselves off and started to head out. We got to the mouth of the parking lot where we were to turn onto the main road to head home. We looked at each other, the blue sky and decided to turn around and go back into the water park.

We are so glad we did! We got to go down the innertube slide with Sammi. We played in the waves. We floated the lazy river again. In short, we had a blast. It was a fun, fun day. Since I was pregnant with Sammi I’ve been wanting to go to a water park where I could go down water slides. I went down one here and it was a blast, but I found I enjoyed being with my kids and Brent more than the thrill of the slide. The park was fun and we’ll probably go again. Maybe even September 7th when they have $5 dollar admission for the Pack the Park promotion. Maybe we’ll see you there!

We’ve had so much fun exploring the mountain tops of Tennessee! We live right on the edge of Cumberland Gap National Park where there are oodles of trails, overlooks, historical sites and beautiful scenery.

One of our first weekends here we hiked from Cumberland Gap (the historic town) up to the Tri-State Peak where we were able to be in Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky all at once. The trail was decent in difficulty, but Brent definitely won the gold star for pushing the jogging stroller up it with two kids in tow. There is no way I can hike that trail with the girls and not Brent! Along the way we saw The Iron Furnace which produce 3 1/4 ton iron in a day. We also saw a marker indicating we were on the Daniel Boone trail. Now there’s an historical figure I’m excited to learn more about!
Then a few Sundays ago we decided to enjoy a beautiful drive up to Pinnacle Overlook where you can see the whole Cumberland Gap valley. While we knew we were going up to a pinnacle, we were surprised by how tight the road curved as it wound its way to the top. Boy was I glad I was driving! {Nothing to do with Brent’s driving, I just get ridiculously motion sick unless I’m the one driving.} The view from the overllok was beautiful. We had fun spotting familiar landmarks like Brent’s school and the road we drive home on. The whole affair would have been so much more enjoyable if we had remembered the diaper bag to save Elli from that stinky diaper! She was a trooper, though, poor thing.

Last night we decided to join a family back up to Pinnacle Overlook. This time we walked the loop around the parking lot and came across the Cannon at Fort Lyon. This park is full of history just begging to be discovered around every turn and inviting us to climb in and through and feel that history come alive.

We have loved the quick and convenient acces we have to such wonderful trails. I just learned that a trail begins close to our house and continues, paved and through a tunnel!, for 3 miles to the Iron Furnace (mentioned above). My new fitness goal is to be able to walk and then run the entire length of the trail and then back to the car. I walk/ran a mile section of the trail yesterday before we hiked around the Pinnacle Overlook, in 90 degree weather! Hopefully I’ll reach this goal by Thanksgiving.

Wow! That is all I can say, “Wow!” The Knoxville Zoo is so huge, we’ve been there twice and haven’t seen the whole thing. The first time we went, we saw the black bears and then headed to the left.

We saw rhinos, a red panda, and the reptile collection. We ran into a zookeeper feeding the rhinos. She was very informative, telling us about their eating and living habits. For instance, rhinos hate the water but they love the mud. The cover themselves with mud to keep away mosquitoes and UV rays. In the reptile collection we talked with a zookeeper about the Tennessee bog turtles. The breed them in captivity and then release them into the wild after a year of care. He picked up a baby turtle for us to see. It was so tiny, easily fitting in the palm of his hand. And he said they don’t get much bigger.

While we saw a lot of animals and learned quite a bit from the zookeepers, we weren’t really all that impressed. We knew we hadn’t seen everything, but we thought we’d seen at least half of the zoo. Our favorite part, the redeeming moment, you could say, was the Wee Play Zoo. Here the girls found costumes, imaginative play areas, live bunnies and carpet to crawl on (prefect for Elli who was SO sick of the stroller). We left feeling very good about the zoo and quite happy that we had a membership since we didn’t see the whole zoo.

I took the girls again this last Friday and this time we headed to the right. We walked and walked. We wandered past the elephants, giraffes, and zebras. I figured we were about done and I was ready to head back to the Wee Play Zoo for the girls to stretch their legs before driving the hour or more back to our house. We walked on to what I thought was the end only to find another huge expanse of zoo. We saw gorillas and chimpanzees, ostriches and tigers, a lion and three lionesses. I was getting tired pushing these girls around and ready for a pit stop. I finally gave up seeing everything and headed back to the play area.

Now I am very happy that we have a membership so I don’t feel like we have to see the entire zoo in one trip, because we now know that’s not feasible for our family. I’m also happy that we have a membership because after just two visits to the zoo, we’ve saved money over paying for each visit individually. Every trip from here on out is like a Christmas bonus!

Welcome to a new segment on Because Babies Grow Up that I’m calling Tuesdays in Tennessee. We are having so much fun discovering this beautiful part of the country and I want to share some of the charming experiences we’re having. First up is a look at Sammi’s swimming lessons.

Close to our house are signs for Pine Lake Pool with a phone number for more info on swimming lessons. Brent and I were intrigued and thought that would be fun for Sammi next year. We happened to be talking with a neighbor who said Miss Kathy teaches all ages, especially little ones. Brent wandered up to her house to get more info but she was busy with a class and had more students congregating for the next class. Brent asked a parent a few questions and came back home. Just a couple days later Miss Kathy stopped by our house and dropped off some info about swim lessons. I love living in a small, close-knit community! That parent mentioned to Miss Kathy that someone had come to find out about swim lessons and said he rented a house just down the road and of course, Miss Kathy knew exactly which house that was!

As it turned out, she had a class started that Monday that was a perfect fit for Sammi. The classes were Mon-Thur for an hour each day. We prepped Sammi for the adventure and she could hardly wait for Monday to come! She was so excited all Monday morning and tried to get me to take her three hours early! Her enthusiasm didn’t stop once we got there, either.

Sammi listened so attentively to Miss Kathy and did everything she asked Sammi to do. She wore a bubble on her back (see pics) and poured water on her toes, knees, shoulders and head as Miss Kathy sang the “Sprinkle Song.”

I thought that in 4 days Sammi would probably get used to being in the water and maybe figure out how to kick her feet. Boy was I wrong! Miss Kathy taught them how to kick, alright, but she also taught them how to move through the water indepdently with all kinds of floatation devices. By the last day she could swim the length of the pool and back with just her bubble on her back. Wow! And Sammi’s kicking evolved from crazed, energetic flailings to measured, purposeful thrusts that propelled her where she wanted to go. What an amazing transformation. I’m hoping we can go swimming this week so she doesn’t forget it all.

Sammi’s class was small and so she had lots of attention from her teacher. But, Miss Kathy was also very good at setting Sammi to a task so she could work with another student who needed a little extra help. She was the most patient teacher I have ever seen in any teaching situation, ever.

I asked Sammi what Miss Kathy did and she said, “She taught me shopping carts and how to swim.” When I asked Sammi her favorite part of swim lessons she said, “The favorite part of my swim lessons, I like to do shopping. I like the shopping part.” They pretended a kick board was a shopping cart, extended their arms out straight and kicked their way to the end of the pool where they took pretned items from the side of the pool, put them on their shoping cart and swam back. Sammi LOVED it!

I’m already excited for next summer so that Sammi can have a few weeks’ worth of lessons.

Are you on Twitter? I’ll be at the #GNO party tonight (@ajpassey). We’re talking about affordable kids crafts and ideas. We’ll be joined by Crayola and there’s a nifty giveaway, too! Come see what the fun’s all about.