S. Family Vacation 2013

We arrived safety to my parents house, after driving the 6 hours to Ohio. 

We stayed the night there and left the next day for Tennessee with my parents. I am so glad that we stayed the night there. T and K did great for the 6 hour trip, but I am not sure how much longer they would have been able to hold out. 

We also got to be with my Grandma L. for a day. 

There was lots of catching up to do!

Pa-paw and Aunt A. took T. and K. on a ride. 

They loved it!

On the way to Tennessee we rode together with Dad and Mom, that helped keep T. and K. busy.

The next day we drove around and looked at the scenery and walked around in Gatlinburg some. 

My Brother, Sister and their friends came down the next day.

We stopped at a wooden bridge and took some pictures. 

It is so beautiful down there.

Notice T holding K's hand? I didn't even know he was till I looked at the photos later. Kinda awkward... Oh well, it's kinda cute too.

K got to try chocolate ice cream for the first time, and loved it! (can't you tell?)

T really didn't care much for the ice cream, but he enjoyed walking around in the little shop.

Titus and I went hiking on Monday all by ourselves! 

My parents took care of T and K for us.

 It was the first time that I had been away for K that long. She did really good though!

We had so much fun hiking up to a waterfall, then on up to the top of a mountain.

It was a little over a 8 mile hike.

The big waterfall

Hiking to the top. 

I had never been any place like this before. There were shrubs growing up on both sides of the trail, forming a kind of tunnel/canopy over us. We were walking in what looked like a dried up creek bed. (not sure I would have wanted to be there when it rained.) 

The trail opened up the farther we went.

It was breathtakingly beautiful! 

There were lots of flowers on top and LOTs of bumble bees too!

On the way down we stopped and sat on a log to catch our breath and had a friendly guy sitting 

beside us.

When we were hiking back we saw a turkey just walking through the woods. (I got all excited about it and told my family when we got back, and they proceeded to tell us that they had seen a wild mama bear and her two cubs on the drive back to town.) Kind of a bummer for us. Oh well, I am just as glad that we didn't see a bear out there. 

I am going to do a second post because there are so many photos that I want to share...

I am sorry if the pictures don't load very fast. I am trying to figure out a way to do a batch edit to downsize the picture quality. I thought it was figured out, but now I am realizing that it's not. :(

S. Family Vacation 2013 Part 2

The next day we went to the Ripley's Aquarium.

T was always on someones shoulders! 

Ma-maw and T watching the Jelly fish.

T was more interested in the moving walkway than he was with the fish. 

Pa-paw, K and the penguins.

We went to the Knoxville Zoo the next day.

T was laughing at a bird taking a bath.

We watched some mischievous apes.

 K loves her Pa-paw!

 T got tired before we got to the end. 

 This little guy was super friendly. He loved kids!

I kinda quit taking pictures when I realized that I had taken over 500 in less than a week... 

I think I have narrowed them down to 300 or so now. 

What we did the rest of the week:

 Titus and I along with my sister and her boyfriend went to town a couple of times while Dad and Mom watched the kids for us. We got ice cream, rode go-carts and then went back to the cabin and played lots of pool. 

 T learned to say several new words:

Well, well, well,

Hello, 

Pa-paw,

No, no, no,

and probably lots more that he won't say for me now. 

K is crawling all over the place and eating anything she can get in her mouth; she has also pulled up a couple of times! 

Pause

I would love to hit the pause button to life right now. 

My babies are barely babies anymore!

But... If I did that I wouldn't see them grow, and that is half of the fun.

The weather has been so nice lately. 

K decided to smile for Mama. To bad it is too late to use these for her 6 mo pictures...

She has decided that it is too boring to stay in one place all the time, so she has started crawling/scooting. She is getting everywhere now.

I keep thinking that any day her two bottom teeth are going to come in, but so far they haven't. 

She has been eating pear and apple sauce and has been loving it.

 I'm having a harder time convincing her that carrots are also good. 

"Hey Brother, whatcha doin?"

T really enjoys playing with rocks and stick.

 If you come to our house you will find lots of base ball sized rocks on our back steps. He has went around collecting them and we are getting quite a pile. I don't have the heart to tell him to move them, in fact, I think I may leave them there forever. (Of course, I am one of those sentimental Mamas' who hates to clean off the little hand prints on my windows and mirrors, they are gone way to soon anyway.)

Our tulip tree bloomed last week, so I had to sit K in the petals. 

She loved it, and enjoyed tasting them. 

(I hope that they are not poisonous.) 

"See my stick, sis?"

T has been loving the swing!

He also has been handing me clothes when I hang them out on the clothes line.

K decided to try some push ups!

T loves the flowers... His favorite thing to do is to pull off the blooms.

 (Don't you love the outfit!? I was having him sit on his little potty chair pretty often and got tired of pulling off his pants and a diaper. He is still a long way from being potty trained, but is no longer scared to sit on the potty chair now! I am going to work on one thing at a time.)

Being a Mama is hard, blessed work.

Thank you, Mom and Grandma for all that you did/do for me. My children are showing me a little more every day what it means to be a Mom; and all the sacrifices I need to make for them, and all the sacrifices you made for me. 

Because I never felt like I was a burden to you, I think I find it easier to see my children as the blessings they are.

~

My bleeding hearts are blooming this week!

This past week I tried to do some sewing projects, but I ended up taking my sewing machine in to be worked on because it was not working right again. (I just received a call today about it and it is ready to go again!) Yay! When I get home from vacation I hope I am still in a sewing mood. 

Instead of doing a sewing project this week, I did a different kind of project that includes paint and Mod Podge! I hope to have time to do another post this week and show you what I did.

~

I need to start packing clothes and fixing food for our vacation in TN.

I think this is going to be the funnest vacation yet...

We get to be with my family, and T and K are at such fun stages.

 Dad and Mom have offered to babysit T and K so that Titus and I can have a day together. 

We are planning on going hiking all day. (I am so excited!)

We also have some tentative plans to go to a zoo and aquarium. 

 I have looked forward to this so much. We am only with my family (for this amount of time) once a year, which makes it all the more fun.

Have a Blessed, spring filled week!