Last day of our va-cay

We rolled into town about 12:30 this morning, threw the boys into beds, let the girls stay up and enjoy some sister time and unpacked enough so Andy could do a quick load of laundry and repack for his work trip. He left this morning around 7 to fly to South Carolina (ironically, our vacation was probably 3-4 hours from where he is going). Needless to say, it is 9:15 and half of us are still in our jammies. I've got my good coffee and have started in on the piles of laundry that we have accumulated.

We started out day yesterday by going to the aquarium in Gatlinburg. I love a good aquarium and knew the kids would love it too. They had fun on the moving path underneath the big aquarium, touching horseshoe crabs and touching jellyfish. Kinley was tired and didn't enjoy the fish like the rest of the kids. We ate lunch and  then decided to drive into the Smokies. Sure, it was 1pm and we had a good 6-8 hour drive ahead of us, but, darn it, we were going to hike at least one trail.

After some indecision on my part, we settled on taking the nature trail path and met up with a guided tour to Cataract Falls. The hike was under a mile and the kids survived, although, by the end, they were tired. The weather was great, the walk was fun and the park was beautiful. We will have to devote more time to the Smokies next time. 

And, we will be back. Hopefully next year.

I bet we left the park around 3:30. (Liam was confused and mad that there wasn't a park to play at. He didn't understand that the park we were at, wasn't a park with swings and slides.) We stopped about 6pm to eat at the same McDonalds we stopped at on our way down. I knew they had a play center and the kids were excited to stop. We stayed there for maybe an hour and then drove the rest of the way home, stopping for gas once we hit Indy. I think Kella and Kinley were the only kids that slept during the drive. Everyone was glad to be back home and we will spend the rest of the week getting our schedule back on track.

 School starts up again on Monday. :-(

Our trip, day 2

We could stay here for a week and not do everything we want to do. We could also spend some serious $$. We split up this morning: Andy and the boys went to a place called Magiquest, and I took the girls shopping. 

Magiquest is this attraction where you can role-play being wizards completing different quests. There was also mini golf, a mirror maze and a laser line thing to go through. The boys had a blast and wanted to go back immediately.

The girls and I went to a Christmas store and a store at the outlet mall. I got Kinley an outfit or her 10 month pictures and Kella picked out an outfit and some jewelry. They were tired and hungry after that, so we went to meet the boys.

After lunch, everyone got to swim. Kinley loved it and kicked her little legs like a swimmer. Then we took a little rest in our rooms.

We got to see a show this evening: Lumberjack Feud. It was fun to watch and all the kids enjoyed it. I was worried about Liam for a bit since he was tired and when he's tired he doesn't want to do anything or be anywhere. It took about half the show for him to start enjoying himself. Even Kinley was pleasant for most of the show. After the show, we had dinner. Then the littles came back with me to the hotel and Andy took the older boys on a souvenir hunt.

It's been another great day. I'm glad we came. It's been fun watching the kids have fun.

Spring break, week 1

We are starting our second week of spring break.

The first week was pretty low key.  The kids play around the house, went to karate twice and scouts.  Marcus and Cale completed their Bible quizzes for LTC.  The grown-ups had to work and Andy had to go out of town over the weekend while I worked 3 nights in a row.  Thank goodness Grammy Linda came over to keep the kids in line.

But, now...

...now we are into our second week of spring break and there is some excitement here because we are actually taking a family vacation!

We are going to Pigeon Forge, TN for a few days! The kids are super-pumped.  Not to sure if they're excited about going somewhere or going to a hotel with a pool.

Andy and I are kicking around some ideas for activities while we are there.  I would like to go the aquarium and take a hike in the Smokies.  I think Andy may take the boys to see a dinner theatre show.

Whatever we do though, I'm excited for this chance to make some memories together.

Thoughts from our trip, day 1

We made it to Pigeon Forge about 830 tonight. We left home probably around 1045. We stopped twice, once for lunch and once for a bathroom and snack break. I only freaked out once on Andy when we went to the wrong hotel and had to turn around and backtrack to where we are actually staying.

The drive was uneventful. Lots of hills. Beautiful scenery. Long. The kids watched Frozen, Captain America, a Wiggles show, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 and almost all of Kung Fu Panda. Thank goodness for the DVD player.

The kids were excited to drive through Pigeon Forge. We pulled in around dusk and all the attractions had   their lights on. Ewan thought we should move here. I don't see how we are going to get to do everything the boys will want to do. I think we may have to make this an annual trip.

Andy took the older three boys out to eat dinner late-930. They went to a burger place nearby that I don't think is a chain. When they get back, I think they want to go swimming-the pool is open till midnight.

a little bit of outdoor fun

Holy smokes it's warm enough to play outside!  I'm beginning to think that spring might actually be on it's way here.  The bright sunshine is coaxing the children to come outside.....

Kella definitely has her own sense of style-rocking out her brother's snow boots.

Liam was excited to have his picture taken/

The warm-ish weather is bringing out the neighbor kids, too.  Now everyone can play together again.

Favorite superheroes

I just polled the male-folk to find out who their favorite superheroes are. I'm a sucker for what I call "fun facts".  The results are....

Andy: Wolverine

Marcus: Martian Man-Hunter

Cale: the Beast

Ewan: Green Arrow ( although at first Ewan named his favorite super villain: the Brain)

Liam: Spider-Man 

Happy Monday!

Kinley is 10 months old

Kinley has moved on into the double digits-10 months old on March 31st!  It's hard to believe that she is that old, but it's fun to watch her develop.  I have given up trying to feed Kinley baby foods and have gone to finger foods.  She is very happy to feed herself and likes the "grown-up" food flavors.  

She is still taking 2 naps a day.  I try to let her nap in the crib, but then at bedtime, Kinley sleeps in her pack-n-play, in our closet.  I would love to move her to her crib permamently, but Kella is such a light sleeper and wants to sleep with the bedroom door open....

Favorites:  Baby Einstein videos, Thomas the Train (she loves those faces), play with her toys, scooting around in her walker, her thin receiving blankies, her thumb, snack foods like saltines and pretzels, her momma!

Dislikes:  being bored, not getting picked up right away

Poor girl-she has sensitive skin and her little cheeks get  chapped easily in the cold weather.  Her skin doesn't like scented lotion right now, either.  We use the non-scented stuff.

Crawling yet?  No.  Kinley gets about halfway into a crawling position and then forgets what to do with her back foot.  She gets scared/frustrated and then starts to cry.  We try to tell Kinley that at this age, all of her siblings were crawling, but I don't think she cares much.

She can manage to manuever herself about to get to what she wants.

Look at how long her hair is!  Definitely longer than Kella's was at this age.  Red, but not as bright and very fine and whispy.

Can't wait to see what this month brings!