A Day In the Park

We spent the afternoon in the Chickamauga Battlefield Park on Sunday, with the rest of the family,to celebrate Mom's birthday. Everyone met after church, at the picnic area on Alexander Bridge Road. We enjoyed a picnic lunch of fried chicken and fixin's with sandwiches...cupcakes and cookies for dessert.

Mike had to share his chicken with Lexi and Connor. His food always tastes better than theirs. I believe Connor can get a bigger bite, if he tries really hard.

After lunch, the babes 'helped' Mom open her presents. They were opening the presents so fast, she was losing track of what was happening. They enjoy being the official present openers for birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc. Because each one is trying to open more than the other, tissue paper is usually flying in every direction. It's remenicent of being in a dance with twirling scarves.

And..........

Sometimes tempers flare and things get heated. A lot of people don't know that this is where the WWF gets a lot of their signature moves....kiddie fighting. This example is the highly complicated - let go of my bottle - manuever. Rolling around in a head lock was next, before one of the Refemommies could break it up...my camera was too slow to capture that action shot...or maybe it was because I was laughing so hard and forgot to point and shoot.

Anyway, back to Mom, since this day was in her honor. She loves to garden and got many cute things that she can display or use in her garden - some bird houses, garden flags, etc. Mike and I gave her a shopping spree on the date of her choice...I will provide her with cash for shopping and chauffeur her to any shops she desires....included will be a ride through some nice neighborhoods to look at homes, as she always enjoys this and gives us a chance to rest and catch our collective breath. If we are lucky, we might find some home tours we can join.

I was surprised to see the length of the grass in the open fields at the battlefield...they had mown around the monuments and signs, but the rest was covered with grass as high as about two feet. I guess everyone is suffering from budget cuts, or maybe they have a contract where someone harvests hay on the open fields, and they're behind because we we have had so much rain. Irregardless it was sad, the battlefield is usually so pristine and peaceful and this felt all wrong.

Before leaving, we had to go through the Welcome Center, where they have a huge gun display and some Civil War relics. They had a neat Tent display, showing the items that the officers would carry. The higher graded the office, the more baggage they were allowed to carry.

We had to visit Wilder Tower and let everyone climb the circular staircase to the top and overlook the park. The Tower was closed for several years for repairs, so good to see it open again. I can picture Rapunzel in a Tower much like this one as she let down her long hair.

The picture does not give you a sense of the size of the monument, so I added one of the top and some of the family looking down to add scale.

All the Best,