15 July 2026

 My parents invited my family and all of my siblings' family to a vacation in Tennessee this summer, and it was finally time to head down there!  Rosebud has been counting down the days for about two weeks.  She's super excited to see her girl cousins that are her same age.

There was a little alarming health issue for me on Thurs/Fri/Sat of last week, but when I finally went to the ER with it, the chest pain turned out to be strained cartilage on my ribs and the ear/jaw/throat pain was a cyst in a salivary gland.  It was all manageable with some medication, so we didn't have to cancel our trip!

We packed on Monday and got on the road early Tuesday morning.  We drove down to Pigeon Forge in a very uneventful manner in a red minivan we rented, which Mr. Brown calls 'Cherry'.

Kids had a good time, alternating playing video games on the Switch with reading books and looking out the window and other activities.

There are two Buc-ee's on the route, and we stopped at both of them!  Once for lunch and once for dinner!  That was definitely a highlight because we love Buc-ee's and miss it from when we lived in Texas.

We arrived safely at the house my parents rented.  My parents and my brother's family were already there, and cousin connections were revived.  Rosebud is sleeping in the same room with her girl cousins, and D played foosball and shuffleboard and video games with the ones his age.  Happy to see that they will probably be having fun together this week.

This morning Mr. Brown took Nut Brown and Rosebud to the water park with most of my brother's family.  D and I stayed home because he took a fall yesterday and had some big scrapes and a twisted ankle.  Grandpa took us go-carting (fun) and to lunch at a car-themed restaurant (fun) and then we did some grocery shopping for dinner and also ice cream :) . D has also been playing video games and reading his book and having quiet time, which I think is probably the best choice for him today.