Another Dodd Vacation, Seriously?

Yes, last week we went on a little mini-vaca, sort of! Jon was supposed to go to Knoxville for work. When he realized he would be gone on Ashton's 5th birthday he was VERY upset. He couldn't sleep for worrying about being away from his little girl on her big day. I thought that was so sweet. So, we decided we would just load up the entire clan and go with him. It was kind of last minute, but most of the time those are the best kind!

An awesome bonus was that two of my BFF's from high school, Brandy and Matt, live in Knoxville. We hit the road Tuesday afternoon. We had booked a hotel from the internet based on the important criteria of it had an indoor pool. I had to have something to entertain the kids while Jon was at work. On our way down Jon told his co-worker who lives there where we were staying and he told us it was a really bad part of town. We cancelled that reservation and figured we'd go to Matt's and let him help us get another.

Right when we got into Knoxville we told Jackson we were going to Mommy's friend's house who is a doctor. He said he wished he had his journal with him so I let him borrow mine. He started writing down questions about being a doctor so he could interview Matt. I thought that was absolutely precious.

Thanks to Donnie's awesome TomTom we found their house easily. This was their first time to meet the twins and our first time to meet their Jack. I have to say, outside of my four, he is about the cutest baby I have ever seen. He was so incredibly happy and clapped and laughed. He actually looks a lot like his mommy in this picture, but wait... I said he was happy, except he wasn't too keen on sharing all his toys with two wild boys! I love this picture bc/ my two have on their innocent "what did I do faces".

Here is Matt with his mini-me (him, not me, obviously). They even "accidentally" dressed alike!
After a great cook out and catch up, we tried to get a hotel room. They were ALL booked! We couldn't believe it! The Rappe's saved us from sleeping in the van, God bless them (if we are coming to visit you you should probably ask for our hotel confirmation number because staying with them was so great we might start doing it on purpose!). They put us up for the night, Ashton's last night of being 4:
After a much better night's sleep than we would've ever gotten at a hotel, we hung out with Jack and Bran while the men went to work. It really worked out great (I hope they will agree) because it was a great place for the twins to play, and most of all Brandy and I got to really catch up! Meanwhile, the big kids wore out her piano. It's a good thing Brandy has a high sound tolerance and Jack is a heavy sleeper!
You know we had to do something special for Ashton's b-day. We took a trip kind of like this to Chatanooga for Jackson's fourth birthday. He had a button that he wore all around the aquarium which everyone commented on. He was so proud. So, I wanted something like that for Ashton but with an Ashton flair...

We sadly bid Brandy and Jack farewell. The next day when I asked what their favorite part of the mini vacation was, they both said Jack's laugh! How sweet is that! I hope we get to go visit the Rappe's again soon. After sleeping on their comfy guest bed, next time we're not even going to pretend to try to get a hotel :)

With Jon off work we headed off to Knoxville's zoo. We just renewed our membership to the Nashville Zoo, so we got in here for free! Ashton wore her birthday princess hat throughout the zoo, proudly!
We thought the bears were pretty cool.
We met a friendly red panda...
Interesting fact: our twins do NOT like red pandas, at least not the giant stuffed version, especially Wesley who freaked out when he was still 6 feet away (Will didn't freak out until the panda tried to give him five) ...

Daddy calms them down with snacks and laments that we did not have the video camera out when they got hysterical...
We had quite the camel encounter. After one scared me to death it decided to eat Jon's map...We were afraid we would be thrown out for accidentally feeding the camel paper, but no one caught us!
Jackson, of his own devices, acting like a monkey!

This is Ashton's scared look...
This zoo was SO cool because we were right next to the gorilla! On a side note, I absolutely do not believe in evolution but after watching this gorilla scratch then smell his finger I can see why they think men descended from them- hee hee!
Here was Jackson bonding with another gorilla. It was amazing to look into his eyes.
The birthday girl wasn't too sure about the gorillas...

My 2 gorillas in the model gorilla nest...
Jon with all his little monkeys...
The twins were so good and really seem to enjoy themselves despite the heat...

Ashton and the red panda take a nap. These animals were so stinking cute. They might be my new favorite animals...
I have no words...
Again, nothing...
Jon, who I thought I had trained better than that, left the camera to the side when we first put Will on the carousel. I hate we don't have a picture of it because he grinned and laughed like it was the coolest thing ever...

What fun...
As every farm girl knows, it ain't your birthday until you've milked a cow...
My girl loves some water spouts...

Jack on a lilypad...
Before I knew what had happened, Ashton was fully submerged fully clothed...
Nothing like toad wrangling for a good time...
After the zoo, we had a surprise for Ashton. We took her to Libby Lu for a birthday makeover. This is something I wanted to do for her and was thrilled that Knoxville had one. This is her before, cute but not fancy!

How is that for a hair do...
My girl had some sparkle and she loved every minute of it...
She chose the pop star make-over. It was really cool and came with the outfit and accessories...
I LOVE doing special things with my only daughter...

Jackson was so awesome telling her how cute she looked. He told her he would do anything she told him to since it was her birthday. She totally took advantage of that and even gave him a new name, "Farcus Diarheahead". Classy, right. That's how we Dodds roll!
Daddy was so supportive and didn't even flinch at the bill, what an awesome dad!
And the AFTER photo, F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!
We finally got a great hotel for night #2 close to Jon's work. Snuggling with my new 5 year old...

Jon snuck out to work at 5 and the kids and I had the free continental breakfast complete with off-brand-horrible-stale Fruit Loops, yum! Then we went to hang out at the pool where, of course, Ashton reenacted the entire "Fabulous" song from HSM2. I even got it on video. It was hilarious...
Jackson even got in on the action playing the part of Ryan and here he is being Troy Bolton when he enters...

In our quick trip planning, I was to hang out at the hotel with the kids until Jon got off at 2. We failed to consider that check out time was 12. That left me 2 hours to kill with all 4 and not knowing what I could do, especially with it being so hot outside. With the guidance of the Yellow Pages and TomTom, I found a local scrapbook store, yeah me! We went. The kids are really into scrapbooking right now so I told them they could each have $10 to spend. They really got into it. Jackson got all baseball stickers. Ashton, of course, found the glitteriest paper they had and wanted it in every color. Then we found a gated play area. I pulled the kitchen set across the opening and put all 4 kids in it while I finished shopping. It was awesome! We picked up Jon at work and hit the road for home. I even got back in time for Bunco that night.

It was such a great mini vacation and a perfect 5th b-day celebration for my sweet girl!