Would you believe this was my first time to ever visit? It was well worth the thirty-six year wait. The boys and I had a blast, and are so thankful that Big Daddy was able to take off work so he could join us.
The weather was absolutely perfect. Here are Jonah, Graham, Noah, Drew and Bill, a.k.a. 'Big Daddy'. ;) We watched an almost one-hour movie when we first got there to give us the history of Shiloh, then we set off to start our tour. {Would you believe that the movie made me cry? It did. It's hard to think about young men at war, and for some reason, it just got me.}
This was our first stop:
This is one of the larger monuments. In case your eyes are worse than mine, the bottom of it says 'Iowa'. They must have won the prize for spending the most money on their memorial. I like the eagle resting atop it.
And speaking of eagles, look at what we got to see! It's an eagle's nest. There were people watching the nest with telescopes, and they were kind enough to let us take a look through the lens. We could see the babies inside, and later in the day we got to see the mama fly off. It was breathtaking, and the icing on the cake to top off our perfect day.
Next on our stop was The Hornet's Nest. It got the name because bullets {or whatever the things were} were whizzing by the soldiers' heads so fast that they sounded like a bunch of angry hornets.
Also on our list of places that we stopped was this creek:
It had warmed up considerably and the boys were hot and asked if they could walk across those rocks you see in the water. At first I said 'no', then Bill asked me, "Why not?". So I let them, because I didn't have a reason to say no. {Yikes...I could do a whole blog post on saying 'yes' more and 'no' less. But that's another post and another day.}
See to the right of the little water fall? There's a bunch of sticks and stuff jumbled up together...well, that's where Noah decided he needed to get more wet, and fell in. ;) He jumped up faster than he fell, but he said the water was freezing! I believe him~I felt of Graham's foot. It was so cold that it was numbing. Poor Noah...though I don't think he minded too much.
After this stop, we visited Shiloh Church...though it's not the original. I think it burned down, so this was built to replace it:
Noah was being preacher.
And this is Shiloh Methodist Church, that meets here every week:
I do love me some steeples. I'm forever taking pictures of churches...I just love buildings, especially ones with history, or in pretty places. This one struck me as all that and more.
I caught real smiles, and thought I would take advantage of them. And no, they did not mean to dress alike.
That crazy Drew...can't take him anywhere.
The last place we stopped for pictures was at the Tennessee River.
They were over me taking pictures. ;) I told them they could be crazy. Jonah didn't want any part of that, so he just ignored me.
We ended our tour back where we started. The boys filled out their questions and each collected five Shiloh trading cards. And they bought souvenirs.
What in the world is a field trip without souvenirs? ;)
After one last bathroom trip, we hit the road.
We all munched on the homemade cookies Big Daddy made for us and had water. We talked. We laughed. The boys snored. Except for Graham. We might have gotten a little turned around a time or two. I might have almost driven off the road because the biggest ant I've ever laid eyes on made an appearance on my dashboard. And then had the audacity to disappear. {I did find it Saturday afternoon and killed it. Mwaaahaaahaaaa. That's my evil laugh.}
It was the perfect day...good weather, good food {we had a picnic at the back of my suburban!}, and great company. We always love our time with Bill~it doesn't happen all that often, so we take advantage of each moment. We're blessed, indeed.
I thank the Lord for all of our "grands"...and they all live up to their names. God is good. Love to all.
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