Happy New Year!

WARNING!

Long Post

Before Jarom went back to work we wanted to take a little trip back up to Knoxville.  It was a great way to end 2012 and ring in the new year. 
We have enjoyed being in our new place but probably missed Knoxville more than expected.  We have sometimes caught ourselves referring to Knoxville as home.  I'm sure it seems weird considering Jarom and me are natives to the Chattanooga area, but it was home.  Home for our kids, for sure!  It's where they are from and where our family began.  We definitely have laid roots in Knoxville.

We were so excited to visit our friends and their families at church.  We were greeted with so many warm hello's and hugs.  And for once Jarom and I got to sit in Sacrament and attend Sunday School together.  That is always a sweet simple blessing.

After church we went by to visit our neighbors/ ever-so-generous family that let us stay with them while in transition with our move.  I made Leslie a bag as a little Christmas gift for our appreciation.  They are a special family to us.

Our visit with our neighbors was short as we quickly headed to dinner with some other dear friends, the Pickup's  that had moved to Knoxville while we were there.  We were very thankful that they invited us for dinner because that was something we had not figured out what to do that Sunday evening and feeding our family.  Poor planning on my part but heck, I'm just happy I can get the kids packed and not forget something. . .RARELY happens.  On such occasions I find it makes the food taste even better.

After a nice visit and full bellies we headed to our final destination to sleep.  The Rigg's.  He's co-worker and good friend of Jarom's.  We always enjoy hanging out with them.  They are full of energy and make good and funny company for games.  We love playing games with them.

The next morning we headed up to Pigeon Forge.  At this point, we were playing it all by ear.  We didn't have anything specific we wanted to do just something different for the boys to remember.  What better place than MagiQuest?  It had indoor put-put, a mirror maze, a laser challenge game, but best of all a wizarding world. 

Each of the boys got a wand and we had quest/challenges we had to find in the different Realms.  The wands had some kind of computerized thingy in it so that when you waved it front of items it would make it light up, open, make sounds, and all kinds of fun things.  Our boys were having a blast including Marshall.  He was waving his wand all over the place!
Tipton, he did such a good job he got his name put up on a board and advanced to another level of wizardry.  I guess solving riddles and finding hidden objects is his thing.

We went through the mirror maze as a family and that was fun but scary at the same time.  It had disco lights shining thru it and I don't know how many times Marshall ran into mirrors.  The boys would get away from me and I could see them in the mirrors but not know which one was actually them!  Thank goodness it wasn't a long maze.

 

After a couple of hours of fun we went up into the Smokies and drove up to Newfound Gap.  We were so excited to see snow!  We weren't exactly dressed for the snow but that didn't slow anyone down.

Eventually, the cold started to get to us.

 

On our way back home we stopped by our Filipino friend's home.  They invite us almost every year for some type of New Year's activity that always has LOTS of food and karaoke.  Jarom somehow
had to miss this event most of the time and was excited that he finally got to go.  I wish I had a picture of Aida.  This woman has a heart of gold.  She made all kinds of traditional food for Jarom to try.  Jarom even sang a few karaoke songs as well.  It was a great time.