Bringing Up Bates"A Proposal to Remember & A Baby on the Way"
- Chad takes Erin to Whitestone Country Inn, which is where they were engaged, to celebrate their fifth anniversary. “It’s wonderful to be back,” says Chad. They have booked the Mallard Suite. “This is like the most luxurious thing we’ve ever stayed in,” says Erin.
- When Erin enters the room, she finds a bouquet of wildflowers and a little package of goodies from Chad. “I would take this over a million roses any day,” she says. They kick off their getaway with a private cooking lesson with the inn’s chef. They make a pan-seared chicken breast with a portabella cream gravy. The secret to the perfect pan-seared chicken breast is to sear it in a cast-iron skillet with the skin side down first. “I think Chad knows that I love cooking,” says Erin.
- Later, they sit inside the little country church and exchange gifts. Erin presents Chad with his beloved Bible that she had rebound. She also gives him a journal because “One of my favorite things about you is that you journal,” says Erin. “I love that you take time to reflect, and I love the fact that I can go back ten, even 15 years into your life. It’s just the sweetest thing to me.”
- Chad takes Erin on a ride in a horse-drawn carriage, just like they did before they got engaged. And then just like they did five years ago, they get off at the gazebo, where Chad has flowers waiting. “You’ve been the best mom, the best wife, and I just want to say thank you so much,” says Chad. “This is a little token of my love for you, and it’s also a little token from our three little children.” He gives her two beautiful rings that fit together. Erin is blown away.
- “…Erin has poured her life into three little lives, and...she has poured her life into me, and so one ring was from the children, one ring was from myself,” explains Chad.
- Gil and Kelly are back home with the Paine kids playing a game of Mother May I. “Gil says that it’s hard for him to picture himself as a grandpa because he still in his mind pictures himself as 24 and wrestling and running…but me, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I will keep dying my hair. I don’t want the gray hair, but I love being Granny.” When Gil was Chad’s age (31), he had 7 children.
- The East Tennessee Bates get together at a pumpkin patch to celebrate Bradley’s fourth birthday. “Wait, who’s four?!” exclaims Lawson. “I thought he was two!”
- “He’s so full of energy, and yet he’s so sweet and sensitive,” says Kelly of Bradley. “I’m Granny’s favorite cause I am so good-looking,” Bradley tells the camera, laughing.