This Weekend Together: Tennessee

Grandpap and Muffin

This weekend we traveled to Tennessee to be able to spend wonderful time with family.  Five generations all under one roof, Muffin being in the company of 3 sets of grandparents. 

Maw and Muffin

A grandparent’s love is magic.  It’s the 'I love you no matter what', 'you can pull everything out of my cabinets and I won’t care', 'would you like some more to eat' kind of love.  I am always amazed at all of the loving people in our lives, and I fall more in love with our family the more I watch how they interact with our daughter.  It’s such a warm feeling to know that these people will always love and protect her.  We have been so blessed to have both of our families so involved and present in our lives and that distance has never been a factor.

Muffin entertained everyone being her usual little performer self.  She ran through the house and laps around furniture.  Everyone laughed at how close she would get to the cats but taking extra care not to actually touch them.

Uncle Brady and Pap

The men always wrapped up the evening inside after having spent the day running electricity to the new building.  Corey loved it.  He said it was like being back on the farm, everyone falling into familiar rolls while working together.  Only this time he was able to sit back and see the beauty in it all.  And with everyone working so hard, he managed to snap a few pictures without being noticed.

Father aka Grandpap and Great Grandpa

With the men hard at work, we ladies would chit chat inside and nap when Muffin napped.  It was laid back and absolutely relaxing.  Our second night there, after a trip to the grocery store, I decided I would make everyone monkey bread.  While it was baking, some of the sugar fell to the bottom of the oven as the bread rose.  I managed to smoke everyone out of the house, forcing Mother and Father to pull out all of the packed away window fans and open most of the windows.  When it came time to pull it out of the oven, Mother and I tag teamed it, each grabbing a pan (there were two).  By the time we got them onto the stove top we were coughing on burnt sugar smoke with eyes watering and red.  It was worth it, because after the smoke cleared and the monkey bread cooled we all ate it as an after dinner dessert (and then again for breakfast in the morning).  And it was pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.

Grandpap sharing some of his tea

It was hard to leave as it usually is.  We don’t get to see each other nearly enough and the goodbyes are always hard.  But we know it won’t be long until we are able to organize another family get together and get to relive old memories and make new ones.