Old Friends and New

Several months ago I received a friend request on Facebook from an old college friend named Brian. I also "friended" his wife, Jess, and discovered she had a blog too! One of the amazing things I have learned about this bloggerverse is how easy it is to grow new friendships and enlarge old ones when we can glimpse into each others' everyday lives. Jess quickly became a new favorite "blogging buddy" and when we planned our South Carolina trip, it included a lunch layover to see Brian and meet Jess and their kids.

Because Jess is such a good blogger, she had her camera whilst mine sat in the diaper bag and she (with the help of Kelsey and her son, Jayce) snapped some photos of the occasion. Rather than taking the time to download and repost them here (sorry, Dad, your laptop is slow!) you'll just have to check out her blog to see them for yourself.

By far, my favorite part of the visit was the very beginning when Brian came up when we got there and gave Ben a hug. Yes, you read that right. Ben. A hug. From another man. Not a relative. (Try not to go into shock, people!) I've been laughing at the look Ben had on his face for the past 3 days! It turns out I like Jess just as much in person and their son, Jayce is even more adorable than he looks in pictures. (We missed Jaina due to a camp she was attending, but never fear - we have plans together tomorrow, too!) As we left Jayce even consented to fling his arms out and give me a hug which I absolutely adored. It turns out that Ben likes them all, too - even Brian, though he'd like him better with a handshake instead of a hug. Which is good since we'll be hanging out with them most of tomorrow, too.

Desperation

How do you calm an active, frustrated one-year old who wants to get out of the car and just can't understand that we're almost there???

TWIZZLERS!

I know, I know... red food dye and sugar rush. But frankly my dear...

Family Reunion and Laurel Falls

This past weekend we had a wonderful family reunion at Deer Valley Cabin in Sevierville, TN which is about 20 minutes or so from Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. It's a large cabin that can sleep up to 20 people. Our group was a little over 20, and my sister Dorothy and her family camped in the back yard by choice. For the record (and a little plug for the owners) it is a fabulous cabin, comfortably furnished, and reasonably priced. I would go back there in a minute, and if you're planning any group get-aways to the area I would highly recommend it.

For some reason, I was very remiss in my picture-taking throughout most of our weekend. I did take this one when Connor fell asleep on my niece, Savannah:

However, pictures were taken by others and if I can get my hands on some I'll post some of the better ones here. We gathered on Saturday for the first full reunion since Niel had gotten home from his mission to Peru about 7 1/2 years ago. We were missing a niece and nephew, but otherwise had a full house. The highlight of our reunion was probably our talent show on Sunday night. Who knew we had such skill? Austin wowed us with his guitar abilities, Niel by balancing a broomstick on his nose, and Tristian with his break dancing - and that's just to name a few! Beth sang, Ben told Jeff Foxworthy jokes, and my mother made us laugh while demanding the rent. And we cannot forget our judges (Dorothy, Jimmy and Savannah) that handed out awards at the end and made us all laugh a little bit more. I love my family and can't wait till next time!

On Monday, Ben and I wanted to go hiking with the kids to a waterfall. Dorothy and Jimmy wanted to do the same, so we made our plans to make an easy 2.6 mile round trip hike to Laurel Falls. Although we planned on an early start, we didn't actually go to bed till around 3:00 a.m. the night before, so it was past 11:00 by the time we finally hit the road. Once we got to the falls and found a parking spot way WAY down the road, we started our hike!

Tristian, Olivia, Kelsey and Gwendolyn posing on rocks on the hike up to the falls.

Same people (plus Jimmy), different rocks.

Once we got up to Laurel Falls, we sat down for a rest and a snack.

And the kids got to take off their shoes and play in the water.

Except Connor. Poor fella, he had to stay in the backpack most of the time. He just couldn't be trusted...

But don't feel bad for him. He got in plenty of flirting time with his cousin, Gwendolyn, on the way back down.

Are We There Yet??

Last Friday was had finally counted down to our vacation! I really liked being able to leave in the late afternoon/early evening because it meant that I had all day to pack the rest of our luggage, toiletries, and food. As we prepared to go, a couple "blog-worthy" things happened. Actually, it was an incident and a picture.

First, the incident. I had taken the kids to Walmart in the morning for a few last-minute grocery items and lost the girls. Actually, they lost me to be more precise. Kelsey had to go potty, so Olivia was going to take her and come right back. I had told them where to find me (and of course they hadn't listened) so when they came back and I was a couple aisles away, they couldn't find me. I started getting worried and went looking for them, and they had gone to a cashier up front to see if they could page me over the intercom. Well, the intercom wasn't working, so they took them over to the dressing rooms sit and wait for me. Meantime, I had gone to the front to get them paged and happened to get there the same time as an employee that had come up front to figure out what to do about my kids. I told them that I had couldn't find my kids and this guy said that they had them - a girl and a boy, right? I responded that no, I had 2 girls. He looked confused. Then I told him that my younger girl had short hair and was wearing a camouflage shirt. That explained it. When I finally got the girls back with me and we had all calmed down enough to finish our shopping, I told Kelsey that the guy had thought she was a little boy. She then looked at me, utterly surprised and said, "What? With MY eyelashes?" I told her he just hadn't been looking very closely...

And now on to the picture. I know babies fall asleep in high chairs all the time, but Connor had never done it for me before. Isn't he cute?


We finally left our house a little after 4:15 and made our way to Ben's office to pick him up and drive out of town. The first leg of our trip was to Tennessee to a family reunion with my side of the family. The plan was to drive to Nashville and get my brother and his wife from their hotel, shower, and head on to Sevierville (near Gatlinburg) for the reunion. We made really good time so ended up pulling into a rest area about 40 miles outside Nashville with the intention of sleeping a little. That plan didn't involve 2 bickering girls and a muggy Tennessee morning. After a couple hours of torture, we gave up and went to breakfast and Danny's hotel. Since we got there early and woke Danny & Jessica up, we waited outside while they showered and dressed. Connor didn't like the grass, so sat with his legs as much in the air as he could.

In exchange for "shower privileges" we took Danny and Jessica to one of their favorite restaurants for lunch - Steak 'n Shake. And no, Danny's teeth are NOT green. He's just a goof-ball.

And, as for our kids... observe the greatest inventions in the world: the portable DVD player and a headphone splitter. At times, it was almost peaceful...