Anniversary Trip

David and I took a little trip down to Gatlinburg, TN for our third anniversary. We hope it was the beginning of more traveling of this beautiful side of the country. We were completely unaware that Gatlinburg was such a big tourist attraction, but everyone here rants and raves about it so we thought we’d check it out for ourselves. Jameson spent a couple of nights with the gracious Lynn family, making friends with their lil girl, Kerith, hopefully inspiring her to walk soon! We enjoyed a movie, The Proposal, sleeping in, yummy food, shopping around (not buying anything), and a mild white water kayaking trip… I am prego you know, so we had to scale it back a few notches. It was such a relaxing time, so nice to get away before school starts and eventually baby #2 gets here. We are looking forward to camping in the beautiful smoky mountains with the fam some day. Here’s a few pics.

 

I would say our cabin was "very" secluded, three sides were forest...

 

The very small, winding, no lines, unmarked treacherous road to our secluded, off the map, cabin... gorgeous though!

Our view of the Smokies one morning

 

The weather was perfect. It rained once, while we were inside eating dinner and it promptly ended as we were paying our bill...

 

Don't let these beautiful pictures fool you, this road was s-c-a-r-y.

 

Good ole on the car self portraits... sweet view.

Yep, we bought the souvenir photo just so we could show you all! It was a really fun adventure...

Friday Family Night

Occasionally, when our options for having fun are narrow, we’ll take a little trip over to the Dog Park at Cherokee Park. Jameson is completely entertained by the dogs and we’re entertained by both Jameson and the dog owners. We just want to say, “Kids are so much cooler!… and No! Those are not your kids!” A few times back we met a couple walking their dog around the outside of the fenced area. They exclaimed, “We’re thinking of joining, ya know, he needs to be socialized…” We just abut lost it Rolling with laughter in the car ride home. Animals are so far below the human race and our culture has personified them in the most hilarious ways. Now that all the dog lovers are scowling, please understand that I am not a dog hater. I love other people’s dogs, for short periods of time, and have loved my own dogs in childhood. But, there is a level that is just not right when it comes to a human-animal relationship…

 

This one barked a little too close, but the relationship was quickly healed.

 

Friends again

This Will Make You Happy, and I Know It…

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a super great Saturday celebrating our nation’s independence. It gloriously started with J sleeping in till 9, which put us getting out the door a little later than expected, but nonetheless perfect. We picked up some lunch and carried it out to a picnic bench at our neighborhood’s “old-fashioned” 4th celebration, equipped with old cars, carnival games and yummy food. There were also some great bluegrass and Jazz bands playing. This was our second year attending. Check out last year here (and we got another shot with the same old car you’ll see later)

 

He had so much to look at... cars, dogs, balloons....

Holidays are a great reason to shell out the sweets

This is an exact representation of David and My differences in choice sweets.

 

Same old car... but who's that huge kid?

Lovin chocolate ice cream

I only have 15 more years before this becomes a reality

So after all of that fun we headed back home for a good ole nap, which didn’t really impede on any fun because the rain was doing that all on its own. It rained last year too but this year it actually made things nice and cool. We were worried that the rain would make all the firework shows be cancelled, including our own personal show, but alas, our friends in Shelbyville had a little dry spot so the festivities continued!

 

Very fun and interested

But not so sure when they started popping...

More fun with Daddy

 

Off to some hard level ground for the ground "flowers"

 

The Grandstands

Daniel and Isaiah

Kerry and Isaiah

We didn't have any fountains so a bunch of sparklers taped together worked for us.

In Kentucky ground fireworks and sparklers are legal, over in Indiana anything goes. David works over there and he said that they were selling small sticks of dynamite….3 for the price of 1… um, okay….