Rhineharts, pt. 2

The Rhineharts came to visit!

Since we moved to Chattanooga they have been talking about coming, and we finally found a weekend that worked for everyone. Because of the wintery weather on Friday (thank you, snow day!!!) they got off to a later start than planned, but they made it into town just as David was getting home from work. We had been looking forward to their visit for weeks. We took them to a gourmet dinner at... Amigos. Ok, so it's a far cry gourmet (more like you-smell-like-the-food-you-eat-when-you-leave kind of place), but it is our favorite :). And we spent the rest of the night hanging out and chatting (kids: playing DSi)... the Rhineharts have always been late night people (ok, later than me... not saying much), and it had been so long since I had been able to just chat with them. Denise and I stayed up until 4am catching up and talking about anything and everything. It was SO fun to be able to talk about marriage and husbands and family with her- Denise has been so instrumental in my life and I look up to her so much.

Getting out of bed on Saturday was not so much fun. Especially when we realized our pipes were frozen! The time we have 5 extra people in our house is NOT the best for one of our bathrooms to be out of commission. David was superman and learned how to take care of the problem and fixed it as quickly as possible. However, it pushed the events of our day back by a few hours (and I had to make the pancakes...).

We did want to do a couple of the Chattanooga "musts" while they were here (though they've all spent lots of time in Chattanooga over the years). We went to the aquarium and did the River and Ocean Journeys. David and I love going to the aquarium, but it is wayyyy more fun going with kids. Not to mention, these kids are smart so they tought us a lot along the way! We spent nearly as much time between the two gift shops as we did the displays, but each kid ended up with a much-needed snake/eel stuffed toy (with which to terrorize Harley we later learned). We also went to Ruby Falls. Craig and Denise had been before, but none of the rest of us had been (that we could recall). It was really cool and even better because David had free passes.

Saturday night we made pizzas (the homemade kind- more about that later) and hung out at home. Actually, we decided it was a perfect time to break out Rock Band. Like I mentioned yesterday, the Rhineharts love music (Craig is in a band at church and all of the kids take piano lessons)! Thus, it should be no surprise that they loved Rock Band. Especially the boys. It isn't easy to get the hang of that game (especially the drums!), but Parker and Wesley killed it. We unfortunately didn't have any talented singers in the bunch, so Craig, Denise and I embarassed ourselves thoroughly. We had a blast though!

They left Sunday morning to continue their vacation at the Great Wolf Lodge in Charlotte, NC and from what I've heard, they had a blast (except that Denise spent most of the trip sick!).

We were SOOOOOO glad to have them here! I didn't take many pictures, but here is sampling of our fun weekend together:

Love you guys, so so much! Hurry back!