Road Trip!!!

It was our 3rd Annual Gatlinburg trip and I have to say it was our best one yet.  After dropping Ellie off, we hit the road around 10 AM.  It's the best 5 hour drive just talking, praying, listening to my collection of Lighthouse Media cd's and stopping for lunch, all without having to answer questions or threatening to turn this car around.   Luckily for me, being married to Mark means never running out of things to talk about.  It must be in the male genes because both Luke and Nash seem to be following suit. :)

Our cabin was right out of a storybook.  It was called "Lil' Bit of Paradise".  I jokingly called it "The Love Shack" which is just as cheesy as the real name.  No matter the name, it was perfect.

Love, love, love the rustic feel.  The attention to detail was unbelievable and the decor was so well thought out.

I think I have mentioned the remote I bought for my camera?  This is me setting it up and trying it out.  It works!  :) More on that in a minute.

First of all, they had me at wrap around porch, but if that wasn't enough, there was a hot tub around the back too. Brooke asked if we were taking our bathing suits.  Yep. Sure did.

It keeps getting better because there was not one, but TWO wood burning fireplaces!

So back to the remote...Mark was a very good sport while I set up the tripod and the shot.  We had a hoot of a time and if I didn't already have so many pictures in this post, I would have included the outtakes.  Hilarious!

You can bet if it was a coaster, Mark was on it.  This alpine coaster just opened about 2 months before.  It was expensive and kind of short, but so much fun.

Part of the track.

The best part is we got to ride together.  Mark was in charge of the breaks, which you operate yourself, which probably explains why the ride seemed so short.  Two words...wide open.  I did scream a little and call upon the name of Sweet Baby Jesus as one African American lady did before us.  I almost peed my pants watching that woman leave the station.  I took a video with my camera (it's fancy like that), but I'm not smart enough to figure out what to do with it after that. I really just don't want to take the time to figure it out and I wish that someone could just do it for me.  Any takers?

I held the camera up over my shoulder and took this shot of us almost at the top of the hill ready to launch.  It was so much fun!!  After this we headed out to get some BBQ at a restaurant we found last time.  No, I don't think we will tire of this place anytime soon because we keep discovering new things to add to past favorites and we love the mountains.

The next morning after consulting a ranger at the visitor's station, we ended up taking a much less traveled trail to the popular destination of Baskins Falls. When I say "much less traveled" that means that we hiked for 2 miles and didn't run into a soul.  It was peaceful, but my overactive mind wouldn't shut up about bears and no cell reception.  The trail was pretty rugged and most of the time we were almost hiking in a narrow valley which Mark pointed out we would be sitting ducks for an Indian attack if it were back in the day.  My anxiety was pretty high because I really didn't know what we'd do if we encountered bears on the trail. I like to live life with a plan.  :)  Mark did not soothe me when he asked how fast I could run?!!  We didn't see any bears, but  I was ready to turn around and head back before we reached our destination when we finally heard the beautiful sound of children laughing. We were so close to the falls we couldn't turn around!

The view was beautiful so it ended up being worth the anxiety attack after all.  The hike back was grueling with so much of it uphill. When I wanted to give up and stop, I offered my steps up for specific prayer intentions. That made it so doable and very worthwhile.  My legs were burning and we were sweating despite it being on the cool side.  I told Mark that my backside should look like J. Lo's when we were finished because I'm pretty sure if we were in a gym, it would be equivalent to 2 hours on the stair climber.  Do they even have those anymore?  You can tell I haven't seen the inside of a gym in a few years.  :)

Mark was so close to the falls that his clothes were getting wet.

We set up the tripod and tired to get a picture of the two of us up high, but the remote only has a 16 feet range so we had to bring it down a notch, literally.  :)  The remote thing is trickier than it seems with trying to make sure it's focusing on us and all, but I was so thankful to have that option and it was fun too.

This  huge mass of quartz was just hanging out alongside the trail.  I didn't know it was quartz when I took the picture, but we later found it on the internet when Mark was researching more about some other hikes.

After we were sufficiently sweaty and tired, we stepped across the road to this field which contained remnants of an old homestead.  I don't know anything about this because Mark didn't want to bother to stop and read the plaques.  The story of my life.  Right, honey?  We almost missed the Dole Plantation in Hawaii because of him.  It's a good thing I'm the kind of gal who forgives and forgets.  Right, honey?

After freshening up back at the cabin, we headed out to take the Aerial Tramway up the mountain to Ober Gatlinburg.  It's a total tourist trap, but it was fun to do once.

That's what we rode in, standing up.  That part was awkward and I've come to realize that as I age, I'm afraid of heights.  It wasn't scary, just crowded, which was also weird.

At the top we took the chair lift to another alpine coaster.  It wasn't nearly as fun as the first, but still worth doing.

Mark went all out and I took my time to enjoy the scenery which is why he beat me down to the bottom and got some pictures of me.

We picked up some fudge for later and headed back down the aerial tram to eat the best Mexican food we've ever had at No Way Jose's.  It's in front of the aquarium if you're ever in Gatlinburg.

On our way out of town the next morning we were determined to check out Clingman's Dome because our friends who recently went to Gatlinburg themselves, highly recommended it. The drive to the dome was amazing itself.  As we wound our way up higher and higher, the temperature got colder and colder.  By the time we got to the base of the dome, the car said it was a balmy 35 degrees.  I got all the clothes I could find out of the trunk and put them on before starting the ascent on the paved, but very arduous path.  "At 6,643 feet, Clingmans Dome is the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is the highest point in Tennessee, and the third highest mountain east of the Mississippi."  

It was so worth every jagged breath my lungs sucked in to see the frost bitten trees and plants glistening in the sunlight.

We made it to the top!!  It was even colder than 35 degrees and the wind was fierce. But look at the view!! It was really a religious experience because every thing I saw spoke of the glory of God which He created just for us to enjoy. It was breathtaking.

This is the hand rail surrounding the observation deck.  Even that was beautiful!

"Sing to him, sing his praise, proclaim all his wondrous deeds.  Glory in his holy name; rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!" Psalm 105:2-3

Mark "hiked" the Appalachian Trail...if walking 20 feet on the trail counts.   :)  After hiking 4.6 miles the day before, I recoiled at even the idea of hiking such a trail.  People have to be out of their minds!!  According to the aerial tram driver from the night before, there is a base camp near here that hikers make reservations for two years in advance.  It has no electricity.  If I could be helicoptered in, I'm so there.

We were trying to make it home at the latest by 6 so we could pick up all our girls.  Brooke and Stella were at an AHG meeting and I had to collect Elles from her temporary housing.  I am a homebody through and through, but I appreciate going away just the two of us. When Mark and I are tired and the kids are driving us crazy, we'll smile and say, "You wanna talk about Gatlinburg?"  It's our happy place.  Just putting together this post make me long for next time.  Thank you to the Grandmas who made this trip possible!  I'm  going to go ask Mark if he want's to talk about Gatlinburg.  :)

Keep scrolling for my monthly update!!

Ain't Nobody Got Time for That...October Edition

Sorry for the delay, peeps!  I blinked and this month was over.  Everyday I am shot out of a cannon into a day that is packed to the gills with life and then I flop back down at the end of the day and wonder why I didn't get to any of the "extras" like this here blog post.  I could promise it won't happen again, but that would probably be a lie.  :)

Outside my window... a cloudy 57 degrees.

I am thinking...it will be Advent before I know it and then Christmas will be upon us!

I am thankful...that Mark and I were able to get away by ourselves for a few days to the beautiful Smokey Mountains.

I am going...INSANE!! Okay, you may have caught me on a bad day :), but Mark has been working a lot + time change + Ellie taking 30 minute naps + Nash and Stella fighting= insanity.  You may know that math isn't my strong suit, but I've been pondering this equation the last few days and I am trying to track down the last day I wasn't acting like a crazy person.  My night in shining armor should be returning like Cinderella, just before midnight tonight. #thismomneedsabreak

I am wondering...how long it's going to take to get used to the time change?  Seriously.  I used to marvel at how it wigged my kids out, but now I am taking a beating.  It must be because I'm now closer to 40 than 30?

My favorite things...Saturday night Hallmark Channel movies, Trader Joe's Gluten Free Pumpkin Pancakes, and Starbucks hot chocolate with Reddi Whip.  These, and Jesus are how I'm still alive this month.  :)

A note about the Hallmark movies: Mark works almost every weekend and after 4 PM Mass on Saturday afternoon, dinner, and the bedtime routine, I am beat.  I put my feet up and stare comatose at the TV screen.  What I love about these movies is that there is the cheesy romance element without unmarried people sleeping together.  My standards for movies has changed dramatically over the last few years so there are hardly any that I can actually watch.  Thank you, Hallmark Channel.

I am pondering...So many people have this view of the Catholic Church as the Church of Don'ts.  Don't use contraceptives, don't get divorced, don't sleep with your girlfriend/boyfriend before you get married,  no same sex couples, no abortions, etc... With our limited vision and comfort/happiness-seeking-above-all-else-tendencies we have a hard time understanding that the moral parameters put in place are so that we can be happy now and be happy with God for eternity!  It's not God saying "don't do that", it's more a "I've got something so much better planned for you if you'll just trust me!!"  He's got an amazing plan for YOU.  Do you believe that?

In the kitchen...I made some really tasty beef carnitas in the crock pot.  Who knew Pinterest could be so useful?  You all knew that about 5 years ago, but I'm just finally getting with the program.  It's a game changer for sure!

In the schoolroom...I realized that while Luke has become a great reader, he's some how shaky on his short vowel sounds. Ooops!! We are also working on memorizing (among other things) the mealtime prayer "Bless Us O' Lord" in Latin, Roman Numerals so we know which Pope or King we are actually reading about, and the 10 Commandments (and how the Protestant version differs...added #2 about idols which Catholics always have included with #1 and then combine #9 & #10 (coveting wives & goods) to overcome the addition of #2 so there aren't 11. Now that would just be awkward!)  If watching episode after episode of Wild Kratts on Netflix counts as science, then we are also studying Zoology.  :)



I don't ever want to forget...how appreciative Nash is when we go somewhere fun. He says all the time, "Fhank you Mommy for taking us!"  Love the speech mix up with the "th"!


A favorite quote or two for today..."You need a heart which is in love, not an easy life, to achieve happiness." St. Josemaria Escriva

"Sadness does not come from suffering itself, but from the failure to look upon Jesus.  St. Thomas teaches that this infirmity of the soul is a vice provoked by disordered self-love.  In addition, it can lead to many other problems.  It can be likened to a diseased root which will produce only bitter fruit.  Sadness can be the cause of lack of charity, of a reckless love of comfort, of a surrender to temptations of the senses." In Conversation with God, 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, pg. 314


Plans for the month...finish up my Christmas shopping.  Yes, thanks to you, Amazon, I'm almost finished with shopping for the kids.  I want Advent to be about Jesus and not so much shopping.

I am praying...for families affected by depression and for healing for Nash's eyes so he doesn't have to have eye surgery.


And now to the good stuff, the pictures...  :)

 My mom and I took the kids to a fall festival by my parents' house at the beginning of the month.  The whole thing was free put on by a local cemetery/memorial gardens.

 It was freezing so the kids played a few games, we got some tasty popcorn and also grabbed free popcorn before heading back to eat Chinese take out at my parents' house. MSG has never tasted so good.  :)

Brooke turns 10!  Double digits!!  Her Great Aunt Mary told her now she should get double mints when she goes to Skyline, so Mark told Brooke that will happen when Mary takes her.  Bummer for Brooke, she lives out of town.  :)

Above, Brooke is opening her birthday present from Mark and I which was a new sewing machine.  I love the kids' reactions.  My mom spent the night because she was going to show Brooke how to use it the first time.  This gift is a hit!  She uses it all the time.  If I can get my act together, she's going to take sewing lessons at the YMCA from a fellow home school mom.

 Brooke is really growing up!  She is a voracious reader.  She'll burn through a stack of library books in no time.  She likes to read for a few minutes right when she wakes up in the morning and then before bed each night.  I'm a little jealous.  :) She's also obsessed with dogs.  She's probably read 30 library books on everything from breeds to dog tricks and now all the kids love to play pretend "pets" since we have no real animals of our own.

These two turkeys were getting along famously last week and now this week that are at each other's throats.  I want to lock both of them away in a dungeon until they can be friends again.  This sister is learning to read now!  We are just beginning, but Stella is very excited to learn.

 My total attendance for the 2014 KI season was a whopping 4 times.  Mark and the kids probably went 30.  This past Sunday Mark was working and it was the LAST day for this year so I took the kids myself.  We wore winter coats and boots since it was in the 40's, but I had a surprisingly exceptional time.  I am thinking it's the heat and the long lines that I really hate, not the park itself.  I know, Mark is so relieved.  He told me in a text "that's why I married you" because I took the kids by myself on the last day.  That was easy!  As you can imagine at 40ish degrees, there was no wait for any of the rides.

 This is Nash's favorite ride...Woodstock Express.  He calls it "The Dipper" after some roller coaster we rode in West Virginia this summer.  We all think it's so cute that he calls it this that we go along with him.  On Sunday when we rode it, the worker thanked us for riding "Woodstock Express" and Nash went, "Woodstock Express? What the heck?"  I laughed and asked him what it was called and he said emphatically, "The Dipper!".  He is so cute!

 We did lots of Halloween themed crafts this month thanks to Pinterest.  :)

 Brooke's pumpkins freaked me out because she used all magazine clippings which combined animal features with human.  Creative, but a little disturbing.

 Oh, Elles!  How we love thee!  She's been sleeping better at night, mostly waking up once and she sleeps all night sometimes.  How I wish sometimes were all the time!

 If only I could show you her sweet face!!  Her smile takes over her whole face and she smiles all the time now.  Gone are the twice a week two hour visits with her birth parents and in it's place are two 4 hour visits supervised by her paternal grandparents.  I'm so happy that they get more time with her.  3 months of seeing your baby for 4 hours a week is just sad.  Her worker is still thinking she'll go back with her parents in January.  It will be so bittersweet for sure.

 A wasp/hornets nest in our front yard.  One day it just appeared out of nowhere.  I learned a little about the difference between bees/wasps/hornets.  Bees don't nest in hives in trees.  I learned this from our very knowledgeable home school community.

One minute all is well with Stella and then it's not.  She's having a meltdown because she lost her "pole position" (see above) due to a scooter malfunction so she threw a huge fit.  She's having some serious middle child issues lately so I'm trying to make some one-on-one time for her.  We played an intense game of "The Allowance Game" at rest time today. I hope she felt a little more loved. :)

 More crafting. This craft was not Pinterest inspired.  I picked up these wooden masks a few years ago in the dollar bins at Michael's and never did anything with them.  I remedied that and they turned out so cute.

This sweet moment is not staged.  If it were, Mark's jacket would not be laying on the back of the couch, says the picky perfectionist photographer. How do you like that alliteration? :)  Everyone loves baby Elles, especially the boys.

 Before the leaves blew off the trees, the view out the back was stunning.  The windows were just filled with yellow leaves which made me feel so happy.

 Nash had a check up for his eyes and now we are on to patching his eye 1-2 hours a day in the hopes of avoiding surgery for Strabismis.  The doctor is not very hopeful, but we are giving it a go and praying for a miracle. He is such a good sport!

 It would seem based on my pictures that our entire curriculum consists of crafts.  This is not true, however, I doubt you'd be even less interested in us drilling math facts.

 We tried a different fall farm experience that was closer to home this year.  We went last Wednesday in the afternoon so it wasn't very crowded.  Blooms and Berries Farm Market was not as expensive as other places we've gone, but it also was not as interesting.  The kids still had a good time and I'm all about less expensive.  This was by far the favorite thing, this water pump game.

 There were plastic ducks to pump across to the other side and then there was the race to see which side had more water.  Luke still says he wishes we had one at home.

 Mark wins, just in case you were wondering.

 Super fun giant tube slide.

 This was the other gem, the cow ride.  The wheels went around and around, causing the kids to bump up and down.  Even at 10  Brooke thought this was fun.

 Ellie slept the whole time, snug as a bug in a rug.  You can't tell from the beautiful sunshine, but it was cold and windy and I forgot a jacket. Nice one!

 Mark retired from his job of pumpkin carving and handed the tools onto the kids.  They used a kids' pumpkin carving kit and they turned out pretty well all things considered.  :)

Chief was dressed up as a football player, but he's adorable when he's not wearing a costume!  He also ate all the food the kids dropped on the floor so that was a bonus.

 Argh!  It was mutiny on Halloween as we were overrun by 2 pirates and 2 ninjas.  The weather was c-c-c-c-cold and a little rainy, but nothing is going to keep these kids from candy.

 Luke, is that you under there?

 Jake and the Neverland Pirates pulling a John Travolta.

 The 10 year old ninja, Brooke.  Why a ninja you might ask?  I never really got to the bottom of that one and as far as I can tell it was inspired by some silliness with friends.  I didn't care because the ninja costumes were $15 from Kroger and a few extra bucks for the swords.  I just really don't get excited about costumes.  I actually dread them.  The deciding, the going to buy them, the expense.  It's just not my bag which is why when they dressed up on All Saints Day for our parish Bonfire, they had to work it out on their own.

I would show you a picture of the saint costumes, but I didn't even get one of Brooke dressed up as Blessed Jose Sanchez del Rio, Mexican boy martyr.  Luke was a repeat St. George from last year and Nash, his dragon.  Stella was St. Kateri Tekakwitha which was an easy, all ready owned Indian costume.  I didn't get a picture because I was just fortunate to be there, alive.  :)

As the story goes, Mark was supposed to go, ended up going into work the day of the bonfire and I had to get 5 kids ready for Mass, bag up the costumes and get cold weather gear gathered because it was in the 30's that night, all by myself and be at 4 PM Mass on time.  Thankfully, Brooke was all over the costumes and packed them up so I only had to make sure I got everyone dressed and we had the boots and such. It was well worth the fuss because we had a delightful evening with roasted hot dogs for dinner, the kids won the costume contest (it helps that they were the only ones who entered.  :)), the fire was perfect, Elles was a little saint, and we got to sing with the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi.

 Back to Halloween...my sister, who was dog sitting for my niece, came over unexpectedly.  The kids were excited to see Chief and I was so happy to spend time with my sister.  She braved the cold and sat outside with me by the fire to hand out candy.

At the suggestion of some fellow home schoolers, I decided we'd educate people as well as wreck their teeth with too much sugar.  I attached this message to our candy...Did You Know?

   Halloween means “Holy-Evening” before the day we celebrate All Saints Day.  The evening before All Saints Day became known as All Hallows’ Eve, or All Hallow e’en, celebrating all those who have made it into heaven!  We hope you have a very holy evening.  God Bless You!

Starting the fire, in the rain calls for... charcoal and lighter fluid? Why, yes, it does!  No matter the methods, the fire was roaring outside and my parents were inside keeping Elles warm and happy.  Nice work, honey!

This girl is a sweet pea.  She is a lot of work, as babies are, but she is so precious. Elles has started to grab for toys and is able to happily stay awake for longer periods of time.  Just this past weekend, she got let out of baby jail.  No more swaddling for this big girl!  Now if I can get her to sleep in a crib by the end of the month, victory will be mine.  

Hope you all have a wonderful Turkey Day!  See you back here before long for pictures of our Christmas tree.  Yes, I just went there.  :)

May the peace of the Lord be with you!