Bree's Tennessee Trip...

After the 4H Fair was over and we recuperated - and got everything put away - which seems to take 2x as long as dragging it all out - my parents came to town -

They spent a long weekend here and then took Bree back with them to Tennessee - it's an annual thing - Bree and my Mom do all sorts of stuff together. This year I went down to get her on Thursday, we spent Friday antiquing and then Sat went North towards home 2 hours to my Brothers' Family house, spent the night there and then started home on Sunday while stopping off to visit the Strawns and see all the babies (including Boce Boy) and then headed home.

In years past (this dates back to 2003) - My Dad used to tease Bree about his FIFTY horses vs her ONE horse - (his 4 wheeler) - he built a box on the back and would take her for rides out in their woods and such. This year, he "tested" Bree to see if she was strong enough and had long enough legs to drive it herself! Well... Here you go:


My Dad (Bree calls him "Poppa") - surveying her technique!


My Mom and Bree - Bree loved being the "limo" driver and shuttling us all over the place - Notice the box on the back and keep in mind she USED to fit in there - infact both Bree and my Niece would fit in there together (arrggh, I'm getting old!)


Bree showing Poppa how "strong" she is (She is going to kill me for posting this one - but oh well - too bad - so sad)


And of course, her threatening to run me over since I told her I was going to post that picture...

She had a blast - She is getting so grown up!

While at my Brother's house, it is our "annual" go out on his boat on the Lake of Egypt - it is a power plant lake which is nice because it is pretty darn clean and the average temperature is around 83 degrees - delightful!

The kids (including my Brother) had a great time swimming - (notice Bree without the life vest on IN the water?) another first -


On the way back in, my Brother always lets Bree drive at some point - this first picture is from 2003 (the first year out on the boat) - look how little - she has to sit on his lap to see - Look how short her hair is -

This year driving, she's too TALL to sit on his lap, her knees hit the dash!
I love her concentration!

Sunday morning, we got up and headed again North towards home and stopped an hour later at Paige and Barry's - we got to see how big Boce has gotten, said hello to Thor, Teq, Twist and Sly - Fonzie was hiding - I think he saw Bree's size and said "unt uh, no way, I'm not getting roped into that again and hightailed it off somewhere to hide!)

Then we went to the farm to see this year's babies and all the Strawn kids out there - they are looking SO good! I still say I'm stealing Radar one of these days!

After a lunch to which Bree drank 4 full Chili's sized glasses of Dr Pepper (it was hot out at the farm) which caused us to stop what seemed like every 20 minutes for her - (reminds me of Paige's story about BS and going to Canada) we got home around 6:30 Sunday night -

We all had a great time and have a ton of memories!