Our TN trip...

(Editor's Note: this blog post was started on Tuesday of this week!)

We've just returned home from being in TN and when I think back to it, I have so many mixed feelings about the trip. It was good but hard. It was fun at times but also sad. There were moments where I felt relaxed and moments where I was stressed. I got to rest from our normal life but didn't sleep well so I was pretty tired for most of the trip. We got to see our family, but at times, maybe saw them too much! ;)

Well, it was good to be home with my family. It's always good to be with them. And while the trip was nothing of what I expected it to be, I'm still very glad that we were there during this particular time.

So here is the post about our trip, in sections of highlights:

Flannery got to meet some of her relatives:

Uncle Jesse:

GrrDada:

Her Great Grandma Sheehan and Great Aunt Pati:

Uncle Joel:

Aunt Christen and Uncle Aaron:

...and be reunited with others:

We celebrated Abby's achievements and graduation from University of TN at Chattagnooga:

and took family pictures since we were (almost) all together:


On Saturday morning, we celebrated Eli's second birthday:

And after that, it started raining, which turned into a flood--the most water we had ever seen in the front pasture:

The creek waters rose and went over the road, into our front pasture. We tried to leave but by the time we headed out, the water was over the driveway and we couldn't get out! We watched the water come closer to the base of the hill and were thankful that it did not make it up to the house. We put the boys out to play in the water every chance we got. They were going crazy inside!

The waters receded and when we went down to assess the damage, we found a big grass carp in the front field. He had floated down from the pond behind the house. We tried to save him but ended up setting him free in the creek. Hopefully, he made it.

Our driveway, leading up to the road, was washed out a little bit and there were parts on the road that were damaged.

Sadly, our fence was taken out by the flood, as was all of the gravel that my parents had just brought in the week before.

On Sunday morning, we waited for a big storm to hit and even made it on to the weather map! If you look closely, you can see Big East Fork Road. I was running around exclaiming, "we made it to the news!!"


The flood waters rose again and we lost power and running water. Ironically, there was plenty of water outside!

It was dark and kind of sad. Abby was graduating and we couldn't be there. We had also lost cell service so we didn't have cell phones or internet. Thankfully, we had a landline so we could still stay in touch!

My mom made a tent for the boys who were pretty bored. Actually, we were all pretty bored! At one point, the boys got to go out and play, which again, was really helpful!

We got power back late Sunday night and cell service back on Monday afternoon. We didn't know it at the time, but Abby had been sending us cell phone pictures of her graduation as it was happening. We got to see them on Monday, and were still sad to have missed it.

The next week was spent cleaning up and rebuilding. We also loved hanging out together and doing other random activities!

On Monday morning, we went out to take a look at all of the damage. Our driveway got washed out even more on Sunday. There was a *giant* hole at the end that my dad's tire got stuck in at one point. He put a big board in the hole so we could drive around it and not get stuck again. There was also more damage done to our road in front of the house--two big potholes were created, forcing everyone that drove that way to creep and crawl their car over the holes.

On our walk around the "neighborhood" Amos found an island!

We were all driving around, checking in on everyone. The folks that had bridges over the creek into their driveways and had to fill in giant holes where the road was washed out at their bridge. A neighbor of ours kindly brought over a load of dirt with his tractor, so we could fill in the part of the driveway that connects to the road. It had been washed out and there was really no way to get out without scraping the bottom of the car on the ledge that had been created.

On Monday afternoon, we said goodbye to Aunt Pati who headed back up to Michigan with lots of good stories!

While the clean up efforts at our house were going on, we were watching the news that was on all day, showing the extensive damage that the flood waters had done and were doing in the Middle TN area and in Downtown Nashville. No one would have ever guessed that this would have happened. We were thankful that the only thing were were cleaning up was our driveway, and we prayed for those that lost so much more.

Also on Monday, we found out that our dear family friend, Mr. Leeson had died that morning. Bethany wrote a lovely tribute to him here. Needless to say, it made us all very very sad.

On Tuesday, Abby was finally able to make it back home from Chattanooga and did a kettlebell session with Nathan and I. We loved it! (While we were outside, Aunt Bethany was inside, entertaining Flannery and doing a photo shoot. I used the photos on this post...thanks Beth!)

On Thursday, we said goodbye to Abby again. She headed north to Vermont to do an internship for the summer!

A momentous occassion happened...we finally used the last of the sugar packets, that were bought to use at our wedding, almost nine years ago!! We all had a good laugh about that!

On Friday, we said goodbye to Beth and Eli who headed back to St. Louis. First, though, we got a picture of the grandparents and grandchildren!

Uncle Jesse was over frequently to help rebuild the driveway and clean up the pasture. On Saturday, we had a miniature bulldozer (a bobcat) delivered to our house so we could scoop up the gravel and dirt more efficiently. It definitely helped with the cleanup and rebuilding efforts! Amos was in heaven, to say the least and had so much fun digging gravel and dirt and helping to drive the bobcat!

On Sunday, we headed to Aaron and Christen's house to celebrate Mother's Day. Since we were all there together, it was a great time for family pictures!

Later that afternoon, we watched the boys continue to work on the driveway. Even Flannery enjoyed it!

We had another bonfire, and Amos got to help out this time. Nothing like helping Uncle Jesse light fires!!

Before we left on Monday, there were more snuggles and baths to be had. The grandparents enjoyed every last minute!

And then we headed home with the car packed to the brim.

What a trip. We'll miss our family, who we love so much. That was, and always is, the best part of being in TN.