Chattanooga

The weekend before school started we took our only vacation of the summer (and it was for just one night away).  Brian was working on getting a soccer coaching license and one of the classes he needed to take was being offered in Chattanooga.  So we decided to make a weekend out of it and all go down to Chattanooga.

The class was on Saturday afternoon so we drove down in the morning, had lunch, and then Brian dropped the boys and me off at the Tennessee Aquarium.  We haven't been to the aquarium since we lived in Knoxville so this was Gray's first time there.  It wasn't too crowded and we got to spend lots of time at our favorite exhibits.

We spent a long time watching the penguins swim.

Petting a shark!

I agreed to souvenirs ...

And I got a few nice pictures.  The cuttlefish were awesome!

So were the jellyfish.

When we were done in the aquarium we ran into friends who were also visiting the aquarium from Franklin!  We let the boys play in the water outside of the aquarium (somehow no one got soaked!).

When our friends had to go, we walked over to Rita's for some Italian Ice while we waited for Brian to come get us.

After Brian picked us up, we went out to dinner.  We had barbecue and then enjoyed a band playing outside the restaurant before heading to our hotel for the night.

On Sunday we went hiking.  Our first stop was to Glen Falls on Lookout Mountain.  This is an easy hike (only about 1/2 mile) but a fun one for the kids because they got to play in the water (we brought along Chacos).

 The falls aren't the most impressive we've seen but they are fun because you can walk in the shallow water below them.

The boys continued on the trail a little further and ended up even with the top of the falls (I'm still at the base).

We had to go through a tunnel created by some fallen rock.

Then we explored the creek bed above the falls.  It was pretty dry but we could see where more waterfalls would feed the creek after more rain.

Our next stop was Lula Lake.  This area is only open a couple days a month and we happened to be in Chattanooga on one of those days.  The gates opened at noon so we picked up some lunch and waited at the gates for them to open.

I don't remember how many miles we hiked that afternoon, but it was more than we expected.  The parking area had moved so we had to do a lot more hiking on the road to the trailhead than we'd anticipated.  If you look at the map, we parked at the word "Entrance".  Then we hiked the gravel road to the Middle Trail.  This was the view from the top of the mountain were the Middle Trail meets the Bluff Trail.

We continued on the Bluff Trail to the High Adventure Trail.

There were a couple of ropes in one section to help with the descent which I'm guessing is why it's called the High Adventure Trail.

It did go straight down the mountain.

We continued down the Lula Fall Trail to Lula Lake Falls.

You could probably walk behind the falls but it was really slick here and we didn't get too close.

We did get very wet by the spray though.  We hiked up the gravel road a bit to the actual lake which also has a waterfall into it.

 We continued on the gravel road and then did the North Creek Trail which we had all to ourselves.

We knew the boys were probably getting tired so we decided to take the Ford Trail back to the gravel road leading to the new parking lot because it would cut off some distance.  Unfortunately we didn't really think why the trail would be called the Ford Trail.  We had to totally ford the Rock Creek.  And it was deep!  Up to our knees at least and moving pretty quick.  I was more concerned with falling with Gray on my back than taking pictures and totally regret that I didn't get any photos.  We all made it across with out slipping and Gray even stayed asleep in the backpack.

We continued up the gravel road and to our car.  We headed back to Franklin after that.  It was a great two-day trip to Chattanooga!

Top Scorer

Carter and Rylan have played three basketball games so far this season.  Rylan had a super second game!!!  He hit the scoring limit for his age group and got his name on the website for being a top scorer for the 8U Boys!!!

Rylan has been practicing a lot lately.  He is always going outside even when it's freezing and shooting for at least a few minutes.  That includes before school everyday.  It's definitely paying off!

Artists

I'm insanely impressed by the art that Carter and Rylan can produce.

Carter did this at school this fall:

Rylan did this in art class at Firstlight:

And then there is Gray ... He does some very good stuff, like this drawing of Mr. Elf.

But then he gave me this drawing the other day ...

It's a bunch of butts :)

WCSA Indoor Soccer

We let Carter and Rylan play early winter indoor soccer with Williamson County Soccer Association.  We've only played with this league in the summer before because the games are so far away (at Robert Ring Arena).  And I don't know how much we'll continue to play with this league.  We don't love the organizers or the officials and were frustrated with a team size of 12 when only 6 kids play at a time.

Some of Rylan's friends were playing with their old coach (one had played on our team this summer that Brian coached) and invited Rylan to play with them.  This was the first time Rylan has ever played on a soccer team coached by someone other than Brian.

Carter ended up wanting to play and we formed a team with some of his friends (along with some random kids that got added to our roster).  Brian wasn't planning on coaching but when we didn't have anyone else on the team volunteer, he did.  Unfortunately the other teams that Carter was playing against were teams that play outdoor together regularly.  Our group of boys don't play together regularly and we had half a team of random boys that didn't know each other.  So they were at a major disadvantage.  There were some close games but Carter's team didn't win (or tie) a single game.  Luckily the boys seemed okay with it and maintained a pretty positive attitude.

Rylan's team on the other hand did really well.  Especially once the coach realized that Rylan is actually quite good and started playing him more.  And up front - there were some games he was the only one to score for his team.  His team ended up second in the league and got t-shirts after the last game.

Here Rylan is with Luc, who is in his class this year and now one of his best buds.

WCPR indoor soccer starts in a week!  We are looking forward to that league since it's a draft league and the teams usually end up a little more even.  Brian is coaching both Carter and Rylan's teams as well.

Vanderbilt Basketball Game

We went to a Vandy basketball game this afternoon.  Because it was a non-conference game (and maybe because it was New Years Eve), I was able to get cheap tickets for the 8th row behind one of the baskets.  We had only sat in the 300 level before so this was a major upgrade.  Vandy played UNC-Asheville.  They kept it a close game through the first half and a bit into the second half which kept it interesting.  And the close seats were pretty awesome.

We love free stuff!

Vandy won 90-59.  We learned a few players so hopefully everyone will be interested in watching a few games on TV when NCSU isn't playing!