Family Vacation - Tennessee - April 2012

Cousins.

Cades Cove - Smoky Mountains

Last day at Grandma and Grandpa's...

...practicing raising one eyebrow.

Post-Vacation Check-In

Well, we're home.

I know I never mentioned that we were leaving, but we did, and now we're back.

There was so much I wanted to post and share during Holy Week, but I was consumed with planning for our vacation, and somehow announcing that our house would be empty for a week didn't seem like the responsible thing to do, so I said nothing.

We left on the morning of Holy Saturday, for my sister's house across the state.  Her husband would be joining the Church at the Vigil and we wanted to be there for it.  We had prayed for so long!!  It was beautiful, and spending time with their family on Easter weekend was an added bonus.  Especially this little guy:

You understand, I'm sure.

Then it was off to the mountains to visit Mr. Smith's side of the family.  Separate vacation post necessary, but here's an idea of our views for the week:

It was a fun and much needed break, but it's good to be home.

Of course now there's the business of re-acclimating ourselves to reality.  Not easy, after 10 days with our beloved Mr. Smith around 24/7.  Ten days of treats and spoiling and fun, chore-free and exciting.

We'll adjust.  I decided today would be a buffer day, no jumping back into school just yet.  We spent the morning on the task of haircuts, all six of the boys.  Now I'm writing a meal plan for the week, so we can get some groceries this afternoon after dropping Bosco off at the groomers.  Somehow doing these regular tasks is making me feel more normal by the minute.  I just may be able to take on this crazy life once again afterall :).

Memorial Day Weekend - 2011

We had a great weekend, visiting my sister, brother-in-law, and brand new baby nephew, on the other side of the state.  With having a new baby ourselves last summer, it had been about a year and a half since we went camping, so we decided this would be a good opportunity to break out the camping gear and give it a go.  We stayed at a sweet little campground about 15 minutes away from my sister.

It's a bit like rolling dice to just pull a campground off the internet and reserve a site for the weekend.  We've done that before and been very surprised by what we saw when we got there (and not in a good way).  So we were a little nervous, but it ended up being just perfect.  On Friday night they showed Gnomeo and Juliet with free popcorn, under their pavillion at dusk.  Saturday morning the kids could tie-dye t-shirts for a small fee.  Then Saturday evening it was free root beer floats.  

I had requested a site next to the playground, but really, you never know what you're going to get.  We've stayed at one where they had 2 broken down swings and a sorry looking teeter totter and claimed it was a playground.  This one was awesome.  It had tons of equipment which was all freshly painted, and they were laying new mulch down under the climbers as we set up our tent.  There was even an old-school merry-go-round, which you never see anymore at parks.  Well, there's a reason you never see them, they're treacherous!  I lost count of how many times a child got hurt, came crying, and was banned from the merry-go-round by Mr. Smith (only to use puppy dog eyes and promises of safe playing to earn the privilege back within the hour).  It was by far their favorite thing there.  I predicted stitches for at least one of them, but there were no major injuries in the end.

On Saturday we took a day trip to a state park.  It had a hiking path to sand dunes and a beautiful, quiet beach.  I couldn't live without my Ergo for things like that.  The weather was supposed to be terrible (in fact, that almost stopped us from going), but it turned out to be perfect.  A little chilly, but nothing that would stop these boys from going into the water even in their clothes.

 Isaac had a run-in with the water...

 which led to this...

and eventually this, big brother's flannel.

Would you believe I didn't get one single picture of the new baby?!  What was I thinking?!  I guess I was too busy cuddling and staring to bother with a camera.

We cleaned up and headed home (after having dinner with the babymooners) on Sunday evening.  There were storms moving in and we didn't want to have nothing but a tent to hunker down in.  We're brave, but not that brave.