Trip to Knoxville

I added to my travels the last weekend in October, going with Mommy to my cousin Daniel's wedding in Knoxville. (That means I've now visited four states in less than five months; at that rate I can see all 50 states by the time I'm five!) The leaves were positively gorgeous on the way over, which gave me something to look at while riding in the car. Unfortunately, it rained most of the way, so it wasn't great weather for stopping to take photos of the pretty views. We shared a hotel room with Grandma and Grandpa Salyers and I also got to see Grandma's brothers and sister again and got to meet cousin Sallie and Josiah (who really liked me!)

Happily, the day of the wedding, Sat. Oct. 28, was beautiful and sunny. I got to wear my new dress outfit! The wedding was very nice, although there was one moment that seemed to worry the adults. I didn't really understand it because I was busy eating the program, but apparently something called a preacher hadn't shown up and Grandpa almost had to perform the wedding! Fortunately, after they had put a flower and a microphone on his jacket, the preacher showed up so Grandpa got to come back and sit with us again.

Daniel and his new wife, Jessica, seemed very happy. They apparently haven't been eating solid food much longer than I have, because they made more of a mess with their cake than I did with my bananas at the reception!

Sunday Grandpa, Grandma, Mommy and I went to the Knoxville zoo. It was another glorious day; unfortunately, there weren't too many animals about. I liked watching the penguins; they were small enough for me to focus on them and had that great high-contrast color. I loved the waterfall at the bear enclosure as well and enjoyed the meerkats. I was mesmerized by watching a zebra's tail swish back and forth in front of its rear end. And Grandpa played me monkey sounds at one of the exhibits that I talked back to. But I couldn't really see the elephants (too big, same color as the dirt and rocks) or the big cats (sunning themselves unmoving). And while I did watch a gorilla for a little bit, we never did find a single chimpanzee - overall, the exhibits seemed nice but the animals sparse.

Sunday evening I had a well-rounded sports education as we toggled channels between football and competitive ice-dancing. Here I am discussing their relative merits with Grandpa Salyers.

On our way home on Monday, Mommy decided to drive through the Smoky Mountain National Park. Well, I didn't WANT to drive through the Smoky Mountain National Park (whatever that is) and made that clear by screaming the entire trip. Mommy said that she hopes someday I come to love the mountains as much as she does and did her best to enjoy the scenery despite the stress (moi? provide stress?) We spent the night with Aunt Frances and her sister Gloria who was also visiting. I loved Aunt Frances immediately; she definitely knows how to talk to kids! I hope I can visit her again soon.

Whew, what an eventful weekend! Our next trip will be for Thanksgiving - back to Ohio, so I don't get to cross a new state off my list, but I do get to see my cousin Selathiel again, and meet some of my family for the first time.