Taking Chattanooga by Storm

Yesterday we made a day trip to Chattanooga.  Since 2007 we have been going up there in the spring for Day Out with Thomas.  Even though the boys aren't really into Thomas much anymore, they still wanted to go this year.  I think they enjoy the tradition of going up there as much as anything else.  We had tickets on the 10am train, so we got up there a little early to have time to walk around a little before the train departed.

This is a short train ride - much shorter than the Polar Express train they have up there, but the boys complained of being bored.  When we said that this was probably our last trip for Thomas, they got upset, and couldn't understand why we would say that.  Kids...

After the train was over, and Liam spent a little bit of his money in the souvenir tent, we headed downtown for lunch.  By this point, the boys' 5:45am wake-up (not planned) was taking its toll - they were pretty much a mess (more so Liam than Zachary).  They wanted to go home & could barely act civilized to finish their meals.  Because we had planned on going to the Chattaooga Lookouts baseball game that afternoon, we decided to see if they wanted to head over to Creative Discovery for a little bit before the game.  Wouldn't you know it - that seemed to fix all the problems!

After about 45 minutes in the museum (just enough to revive them), we headed up the road a block to AT&T Field, where the Chattanooga Lookouts play.  They were offering a deal where 1 canned good got you in for free.  They also allowed you on the field for 30 minutes before the game to play catch.

After catch was over, we let the boys go pick out a souvenir.  Zachary picked out a small wooden bat & a silvery baseball - both with the Lookouts logo on them.  Liam picked out a rubber ball and a wooden bat.  Check out his bat...

Yes, it's pink.  The boy loves pink, what can I say.  As you can tell from their outfits, it was pretty chilly there yesterday.  The weather also couldn't decide if it wanted to rain or not.  We weren't totally prepared for the cooler weather, and the boys had started to hit the wall again.    Liam snuggled up into Josh & fell asleep halfway through the first inning.

We decided to call  it quits & head out after the end of the first inning.  Even though we wuld have liked to stay longer, it was fine - since we had gotten in for free, we didn't feel like it had been a waste or anything.  Plus, we wanted to get home to Herschel (we did have someone coming over to keep an eye on him, since we had been gone overnight).  Both boys were asleep within 10 minutes of getting in the car.  It was a long, tiring day, but once again, another fun trip to Chattanooga.  Chattanooga may very well be our new home away from home.

(the boys on my mom's daybed: "We are brothers & buddies!")