It’s been a full and lovely week. I’m sharing favorite parts with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.
1. Family all together. My oldest son, Jeremy, is visiting from out of state. My husband took most of the week off and Jesse and Jason and his family have been over more than usual. Lots of talking, laughing, feasting, playing games.
2. Jeremy’s birthday. So glad he could be here for it!
3. Outings. One day this week we visited the largest (for now) new Buc-ee’s in Sevierville. Buc-ee’s is a super-sized gas station (120 pumps!) and convenience store. They have “the cleanest restrooms in the country,” food like fresh brisket, bakery items, and their own name-brand snacks (Buc-ee’s Nuggets with various flavorings), a whole wall of Icee flavors, clothing, and home goods—you kind of have to experience to get the full impact. 🙂
I was surprised to see a lot of kolaches (rolls wrapped around either sausage or fruit filling) and-mesquite flavored meats, which I hadn’t seen since growing up in TX. Then I found out the owner of Buc-ee’s is from TX.
It was interesting–but noisy and busy. For all the food they sell, there’s no place to sit. So we got some sandwiches and drove to Seven Islands State Birding Park, a place Jim has wanted to visit, to eat at their picnic tables. There are several different trails of various lengths, but we didn’t explore much due to the heat.
There are walls of information in the barn-like entrance and signs about what plants attract which birds. :
4. Games.We play games a lot anyway, but it’s especially fun where Jeremy is here.We’ve played Jackbox games, Uno Flip, and last night an epic round of Settlers of Cataan that was so close, three of us were set to win at the end. Jason did during his turn.
5. Refrigerator messages.
The week has gone by way too fast, but thankfully we still have a few days together.
Happy Friday!
Stray Thoughts 
Happy Friday! Have a wonderful and blessed weekend! 🙂
What a wonderful fun-filled and family focused week! It’s always a joy when our adult kiddos visit, isn’t it?
Sounds like a great week. Always good to catch up with family. I can’t even imagine a 120 pump filling station. Even on our motorway service stations we’d probably only have a max of 10 maybe 12! Have a good weekend.
birthdays, brisket, birds. what more could we ask from a week! how blessed to be surrounded by those you love, friend …
Happy birthday to Jeremy! I love love love those drawings of birds. And game time must have been really fun!
Happy Birthday to Jeremy and how FUN…we LOVE playing Settlers of Catan but sadly, it’s no fun with just dave and I. We will have to have our oldest daughter and her friend over one night soon for Game Night. We seem to have those mainly in the colder months.
I love all of your faves this week….truly special blessings!!
And that state park sounds like something I would totally love to hike in!!
What a good week for you!! I understand the joy of having all the “kids” home together 🙂 At some point I want to visit Buc-ee’s! I’ve heard about them from several people. It seems like they should have some seating? I love the art on the signs at the park. Maybe they could give you ideas to use with your paper crafting?
How wonderful to have all the family together for a week! What a blessing! And Happy Birthday to Jeremy!
That park sounds like a great place! I’d love to read all the signs about birds.
Have a good week.
How fabulous to have your original family all together again! I try to take pictures periodically of just Jeff and his brother with their parents; there’s something special about seeing the four of them together without all of us spouses and kids, etc. 🙂 I still haven’t been to our local Buc-ee’s that opened near me last year. I didn’t know they had no places to sit with all their food offerings! Strange. Maybe that’s one way they keep it so clean. lol.
Buc-ee’s is so humongous–they’d need even more room if they had seating. I think the idea is to keep people moving through. But since they are set up for travelers, it would be nice to have a place to sit and eat our sandwiches before having to climb back in the car.
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