Spring Break in Knoxville

I promised to write about spring break and need to do so before my exhausted brain starts losing details.

We drove down to East Tennessee for Easter 2012 (Easter last year) only because, at Christmastime, I hadn't wanted to miscarry anywhere other than our very own house. We'd always gone down for the Christmas holidays, and--even though Jim's mom and most of my family drove to us--it took some serious wind out of my sails to sit here in the wrong state, Christmastime, waiting to bleed.

By Easter last year, I was pregnant again (this time, with Baby Chip), and down to East Tennessee we drove, mostly in an effort to connect with Jim's brother Terry and his family, whom we'd missed over the Christmas holidays. Our older niece is one month older than Cade, and our younger niece is less than two months older than Charleigh, so what fun! And I learned that Jim's mom--in having all of us dressed to the nines, spilling out of a pew in her church on Easter--glows ten times brighter than any Christmas tree I've ever seen.

I can't even talk about it without crying, and I'm not exaggerating even a little bit. I felt my tired, old sails puff back out, Easter 2012, and told Jim: provided that Cade's spring break coincides with Easter; he's free to travel with us (because I share custody of him, you know); and Terry and crew can join us, we have to do this every year. We just have to. Really.

So we made it happen again, this year, and it was even better than last because we had an extra person to love in Baby Chip, also because Jim--who weighs almost 200 pounds less than he did last year!--and I are both feeling so much better. Everyone was such a great sport about my taking mad photos. I posted my very favorite here, but here are a few more I love from our time in Knoxville:

My SIL Jill (order a tutu from her in the right margin of my blog) & Niece Adalynn

Cupcakes from Scrupdiddlyumptious

Jim's Mom's Homemade Bunny Cake

My Niece Jasmine

Clementine's Little Hands in Church, Easter Morning

Jim's Mom and Chip

I'm already looking forward to next year! The Monday after Easter, Jim, our four children, our nephew Boone, and I headed to Rock City near Chattanooga; I'll tell you about that, next. In the meantime, I've loved comparing the photos from Easter 2012 to those from this year. Children grow so fast; don't they?

We sang this, Easter morning. And "Victory in Jesus." (Be still my heart.)