The children and I had a lovely little trip to Chattanooga together this fall.
It may seem like a "when the cat's away the mice will play" type of thing, but it really isn't. It's just that when Martin is gone on some trip or other, we miss him so much that we need to console ourselves with a little adventure :).
So this time we left right after Damaris came home from work and drove to our motel. We ate a leisurely supper together and the boys swam in the pool for a while.
The next morning we got up bright and early and took the little train up the steepest railway in America to a city overlook.
After that we went to the aquarium and Imax theatre. Other than the usual fishy pictures, here are a couple more unusual ones.
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| Betsy petting a sting ray |
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| Kat - delighted with a butterfly on her arm |
We can't go to Chattanooga without strolling over what we call "the walking bridge" to the fountain and carousel on the other side.
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| no vehicles allowed... |
Looking at this last picture with only 5 children posing, is a sober reminder to me that our "in house family numbers" are on the decline. Despite all the fancy rhetoric that tries to say, "you don't lose a daughter, you gain a son", ect. the practical truth is that our family is getting smaller.
The lesson that I learn from that is very clear:
We have such an incredibly short time with our children. I want to seize the moments and make lots of memories.
