Summer happenings......

This spring and summer have been a whirlwind!  The next day after we got back from our Smoky Mountain family trip we celebrated McKenzie's 25th birthday!  Daniel came up with a plan to surprise her.  He took the day off of work and took her on a canoeing trip.  While they were gone the girls and I got the house ready and everyone surprised her when they got home. She definitely was surprised!

 

 

The pool was full of lots of young families with small children! It was sweet seeing all of her young mommy friends.

 

Macheus was so cute... he picked these flowers and brought them to her on his own.

Her childhood best friend made this gorgeous cake for her!

This family has meant so much to McKenzie and all of us over the years.  They are some of the dearest friends we have!

                                                           Sisters....

                                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then the next day a few of us took off on another work trip with Marc.... this time to the beautiful Savannah!

The architecture firm that has been overseeing Marc's new high school took us and the board to the famous "Pink House" restaurant.  The food was good..... but the dessert was amazing!

Madeline doesn't get to travel with us much because of her piano teaching job, but she was able to this time.  It was nice because she kept the little guys at the hotel and we were able to just take Myles with us.  He is such a handful at home but always behaves like a perfect gentleman when we take him out.  The people at the dinner were so shocked at how well behaved he was.  If they could only see him at home! :)

 

Another one of the evenings the construction management company (that just so happens to be the company that Daniel and Matthew both work for now)  that has done the building project took us on a dinner boat cruise.  The kids really enjoyed it.

 

I really enjoyed Madeline being with us!

As you can see.... the theme was Mardi Gras.  Not my thing but the boys thought the masks were pretty funny.

And boy did they eat.....

One of my favorite places to visit.

Myles loved the alligator.  He said it "tasted just like chicken".  Isn't that what they always say about any "strange meat"? :)

 

 

You can't go to Savannah and not visit the squares!

 

 

I loved the hotel we stayed at this time.  We have stayed all over that city!  Some of the hotels on the river are really nice but this one was like an apartment!  Madeline and I loved all the room!  We literally stepped right out to the pool too!

 

 Well.... I wanted to get these pictures saved on my blog and now I'm headed to bed!

~Goodnight.....

Busy days...

About a month ago we got our baby chicks! I think we ordered three different kinds this year.  Malachi has taken over the care of the  chickens and selling the eggs.  He is quite the little entrepreneur!

 

Starting them off on some sugar water.....

This grocery cart cracks me up.  I think I blogged about it at Christmas.  It was the ONLY thing that Myles asked for. He has found many uses for it including gathering eggs and unloading my groceries.   The sweet manager at Publix saw to it that he got a cart.  He is counting down the years until he can work there like his big brother did.  Matthew just laughs and says he hopes he has higher aspirations. But hey... it served him well for  a season! :)

 

It is blueberry season!

 

I've been finishing up the last of mine in the freezer so we were ready!

We put seven gallons up in the freezer the other day, ate a gallon fresh and they are busy picking again today!  Hoping to pick a bunch more!

 

Madeline's little kitchen helper.  Keepin' his hands busy!

 

 

Madeline made this beautiful blueberry pound cake and went visiting our shut-in neighbors down the road.  Sharing with them and her brothers.... it will be gone by bedtime!

 

We have had so much rain this spring1  Everything is green!

 

~Until next time.....

Family Vacation

We travel so much with Marc's job but this trip was just a fun family getaway! Marc planned this months ago and it is weird that it is over!  Matthew didn't get to go with us because of work. :(

We stopped and ate a picnic that Madeline so sweetly made for us. :)

It was fun to stop when we went through Cherokee, NC.  The last time we stayed there was when Mariah was a baby!

With all of the rain that the southeast has had this spring everything was green and the rivers were full!

 

We stayed at a hotel on a river in Gatlinburg.

 

The boys thoroughly enjoyed having the pool to themselves most of the time that we were there!

And the slide was an extra surprise for them!

We drove over to Pigeon Forge one evening to go to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede.  We took McKenzie there for her tenth birthday... that was a long time ago!

It didn't disappoint.  The kids all enjoyed it and the boys were so excited at the amount of food they got! :)

Listening to a country group while we waited for showtime.

Macheus humored me with a picture with one of the dressed up girls.

We bought the awkward souvenir picture last time we went so we got it this time too.  Sweet "Baby L" is behind the heart emoji.  I look forward to the day that we can show his sweet little face!
 

Looking at the show horses.

We spent one day at Dollywood.  As far as amusement parks go this is one of the nicest!

 

The kids ran from ride to ride. I rode the train and this one ride with Mariah. I made the mistake years ago riding a roller coaster with the kids and was sick all day. 

 

I love their faces in this next picture... especially Marc's  :)

We had one downpour in the afternoon but it moved out pretty quickly. 

Marc still goes strong when it comes to the crazy rides!  Glad he can do it with them!

I watched them all ride the swings from the ground.  Made me dizzy just watching!

Looks like he is eating the person in yellow. :)

These aren't in order but the next picture is at the end of the day after they all got soaked on a water ride.

Mariah absolutely loves Dolly Parton.  She enjoyed seeing things about her life while we were there.

We spent another day at Cade's Cove.  I think this was my favorite thing from the whole trip!  The ride was beautiful and it was so peaceful riding through it.  We saw a total of five bears! One was on the side of the road and the others were in Cade's Cove.

Pictures don't do it justice.  It was breathtaking!

Boys..... always climbing....

Looking into the grist mill grinder.

 

There was a man in the church playing music on some old stringed instrument.  (I can't remember what it was called.)  Mariah has been taking violin lessons this past year so she enjoyed visiting with him.

 

This next picture was at the top of a mountain that I ran one afternoon. That was a slow but hard run!

Such gorgeous views...…

Thankful for more sweet memories made with my people.....

~Goodnight