Knoxville, TN

So, if you have been following this blog, you know I am in the midst of detailing our wonderful trip to the US. I left off with us leaving Lexington, Kentucky for Knoxville, TN! We traded the big blue for the big orange. The husband was in hog heaven. I think he wanted to get lost in downtown Knoxville one day just so he could drive me by Neyland Stadium a couple of hundred times. We spent 4 nights and five days there on our first leg, drove to Little Rock, Arkansas for Christmas and New Year, and spent another week in Knoxville before flying back to Tokyo. I will combine the Knoxville time into one blog piece. This was the first time Nana and Opah got to meet the K Man. They were thrilled to say the least. Nana and Opah also have a large yard like Grandma and Papaw so the kids were thrilled playing in the yard. In fact, the neighbors next door raise their own chickens so the kids thought that was fun. The K Man learned how to say "chickie." The kids had their first adventure to an American library. We do not go to the library much here in Tokyo, but if I lived in America I think I would be there weekly for the story times. We could walk to the local one from Nana and Opah's so that was fun. We also took the kids to the grocery store. You would have thought it was Disneyland. Miss M loved driving the big car grocery cart. Yes, I was that woman. I even took a picture and this lady was staring at me. My MIL told her this was our first time for the car grocery carts since we lived in Tokyo. Every time we passed that lady in Kroger she started smiling. Miss M would get out of the grocery cart car and pretend to fill it up with gas. When we left the grocery store she asked if we could go back the next day. She was very concerned about the gas in our car on this trip, asking if we were on E or F, and when we were going to get gas. Kan and I were able to get away to Ashville one night and meet our pre-marital mentors/dear friends for dinner. That was an amazing night - so refreshing and nice to catch up with them. Love love love them! Kan's American brother lives nearby in Knoxville so we spent lots of time with his family and the newest baby in our family. I am a great Aunt now. Miss M was in LOVE with baby Lily. She wanted her to visit us every day and she would always bring her Minnie near baby Lily and share it with her. It was really sweet, considering when the K Man was born, she did not want much to do with him. We enjoyed lunch with Kan's best friend from high school and his wife. I got to meet and hang out with some of his other friends from high school whom I have recently gotten to know through facebook. During our last weekend there, family came from NC to visit us. We had so much fun playing games, eating, and watching our kids play together. The kids got along really well and we even had a skype date with them since we have been back. Miss M did not want her cousin to have to go to bed. She wanted her to stay on skype. I was blessed to get to visit with two of my bridesmaids while in Knoxville. One lives nearby so she drove up about a hour with her three kids to see us. The other was passing through on her way home to New Jersey so we had breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. These are two of my dearest friends so it meant a lot to me that I got some small nugget of time with them and their kids. Nana and Opah loved us well during our visit. The kids picked acorns in their yard. Opah played endless games of Hungry Hippo with Miss M, and was such a gracious sport considering she made a stink every time his hippo won! Every night at dinner the K Man wanted to "cheers" his milk with Opah. It was so cute. We had lots of tea parties with lots of sugar getting spilled on the table cloth. They made us some of our favorite meals. The fondest memories were our late night chats after the kids went to bed. It would be 1AM and we would have to force ourselves to go to sleep. Thank you Nana and Opah for such a great time and letting us invade your home. We love you so very much.