Vacation (Part 2)

After visting The Hermitage we headed east. It was another 3 hours to get to the cabin.

We pulled up to the cabin, got out of the truck and saw this. It was creepy. Thought we were in for an awful storm, but it rained for awhile and quit. We unloaded the truck and headed for dinner. We ate at The Old Mill. Food here is unbelievably good. The corn fritters were probably my favorite. So good that I bought the recipe. Don't ask how much that one cost! Haha!! Oh, the amount of fried food that was consumed on vacation......

View from the balcony.

Another...

In the National Park headed for our favorite picnic spot. Kinda sad that we've been enough that we know where we're going.

Playing along one of the little creeks.

In Cades Cove headed up to John Oliver's house. This is where Michael, Tanner and Ainsley saw the bear. The only one we'd (they) see this time

This is the view from Mr. Oliver's cabin. Not too bad, huh?

Vacation 2010 (Part 1)

We left for vacation on August 4th at 3:15am. Yep, I said it, three in the morning. We had a booked a hotel in Nashville for that night, so we knew we had to get moving. After all it was a 14 hour drive (with no stops), and 874 LONG miles. It was great though. Woke the kids up and put 'em in the truck and took off. Ainsley went back to sleep fairly quick, but Tanner was SO excited there was no way he was gonna close his eyes. He may have taken a 30 minute nap that day. Michael and I took turns driving, so the other could try and get a cat nap. We rolled into Nashville about 5:30. Had dinner at Cracker Barrell, some shopping too, and headed back to the hotel. I made our plans for the following day, you'll see that below.

Portable DVD player saved our sanity!

No worries. For those of you who know me, you would've already known I travel with a can of lysol spray. Everything gets sprayed before we try and get comfy. Haven't found a portable steam cleaner for the carpet though.

We visited the home of our 7th President, Andrew Jackson. You can read all about what we saw here:
http://www.thehermitage.com/

This is the drive way of his home, as it would have looked in 1837.

The trees were huge. It would have taken 3 people to wrap our arms around this tree.

Looking up the driveway toward the house. The drive way was lined with cedar trees on both sides.

Sitting on a bench on the back porch of the house.

Looking out towards the formal garden.

This is the house of Jackson's long time faithful servant.

Beautiful flowers in the garden. Love them zinnias!!

In 7 days...

I will be loading up the Yukon for our family road trip to Tennessee, again! I am super excited about going back, and introducing the mountains to Ainsley. I absolutely love it up there. It is just amazing and know that a lot of healing is coming. God's presence is always visible, but here, I can feel it.

We plan on leaving Wednesday morning at 3a. We'll drive about 13 hours and spend the night in Nashville. We went to the Opry last time....not sure what we'll do this trip. Once we leave Nashville it's about a 4 hour ride to the cabin.

Tanner's 8th Birthday

We started a new birthday tradition this year. Breakfast in bed. I got up early to cook and surprise Tanner, but he got up super early. Said he too was excited to sleep. : ) So, when I had finished his cinnamon rolls I sent him to bed. He had the biggest smile when I walked into his room with the rolls, chocolate milk, fresh strawberries and cherries.

We let Tanner choose how he wanted to spend his day. So we had chick fil a for lunch. Double chocolate cake and chicken Parmesan for supper.

Poor baby got super sunburned when we took him to the waterpark the weekend before. Before you start shaking your finger, yes, I did apply sunscreen.

Nothing better than licking the cake mix off a beater.

He was terrified than Michael was going to give him real spankings.

Chocolate nut #1

We believe in starting 'em out early! Hehe

Night at the Museum 2

We went out to Nana's house for supper and cake. I neglected to take a picture of our birthday boy during dinner.

Hope you had a wonderful day. We love you more than you could ever imagine.

Cheap Entertainment

I love it that Tanner and Ainsley are amused and entertained by the little things in life. After folding a load of laundry the basket became a new "toy".

This girl loves the camera. Everytime the flash goes off she shows her smile.