Finally back from all Vacay's

I didn't take any pictures the rest of our vacay because we spent it largely at a waterpark, and that is just a recipe for disaster.

As you probably already know, the Tuesday before Chicago we went to King's Island, then I worked the weekend, packed us up on Monday and we left for the Windy City. Again, cannot emphasize enough how amazing it is! We returned home Friday, I worked the weekend. On Monday of last week, I packed us up differently, because we were going camping, and we headed to Holiday world on Tuesday!  We set up camp, went to the park Wed, and Thurs. Then packed up and came home Friday.

What a day Friday was. My belly was yucky...probably from lack of fiber, it was really hot, and we were all exhausted. We stopped in Edinburgh (where I wish I could have enjoyed shopping), had lunch and hit just a few stores. The heat was making me feel worse, not better. So we headed on home. Now our car had been doing this weird shaking constantly, but it was very pronounced when you were going slow. Nothing really new was happening, but I told Jon, there is a loud roar, it seems louder. He agreed, and then our tire blew out. and not just a little blow out, but huge. I have a pic, but it isn't uploaded. Jon got us safely to the side of the interstate. We had to EMPTY the trunk as we had been camping, to get the spare. Then we drove to the closest Walmart and replaced 3 tires. We had replaced one before we left for Chicago because it had a slow leak. We figured it was better to just replace them than to risk another blow out on the way home. I had to unpack the trunk again, It took 2 grocery carts to hold all the stuff. They were suppose to call us when it was done, they didn't. They weren't very friendly either. So we wasted an additional 40 minutes or so because they didn't page us, which normally may not have been a big deal, but we were all tired!   We stopped at Wendy's in Indy to eat supper. I dumped an entire medium cup of rootbeer on the floor. The guy looked irritated too, but I didn't mean too. When we finally got home it was late, it had taken us 3 times longer to get home than it had to get to Holiday World. I decided it was best if I didn't go to work on Saturday. So I stayed home, and slept until 930 am. I never sleep that late!  We got up, worked in the garden a bit. I went to take a shower, and guess what, NO HOT WATER! Are you kidding me. So Jon, tried to work on it, but the pilot light wouldn't stay lit. Well, I refused to pay  holiday weekend fees, so today we are waiting on a repairman. Of course, it may be tomorrow because I have a meeting at work later. I have been heating water on the stove for baths since Saturday. Here's hoping it is something simple! Saturday afternoon, we headed to my parents, we still needed to celebrate father's day with my dad. We had a lovely visit.

For the 4th, we worked around outside, I tried transplanting some of the carrots I thinned, some died, some look just so so, but I figured, if they died I wasn't out anything.

Then we went to New Castle to my inlaws for an impromptu cookout, and fireworks. Our kids are not all that into fireworks, at all. In fact, they complained a large portion of the time. We got home after midnight...wow are we all tired.

This morning my alarm went off at 5 am. Rebecca was being picked up by my mom, and they are headed to Tennessee to see Dixie. I had Rebecca mostly packed, but I heated water this morning, and got her cleaned up, and had her pick some things to take with her. She was excited. Hope they have a safe and fun trip.

Jon will be getting ready for the fair, so my boy and I are going to have some time together. He was excited about time with mommy!

Even with all the obstacles, we had a great time on our vacations!! I am glad however to be back home, I have so much to do to get back to normal, it will probably take the next week to do that, but it was so worth it!

Have a blessed day!

Two weeks...

from today is the first day of school. Time is flying so!! It seems like just yesterday I had 11 pound baby boy who is now going to be starting kindergarten!!! Still big for his age. He is just over 48 inches tall, big enough to ride the Vortex at Kings Island...and love it. And just in case you haven't seen the vortex, here is a picture of the ride.




Yes I let my 5 year old go on the ride, and I was sitting next to him, and yes going up the hill I did double check our safety harnesses to make sure everything was secure, about 3 different times ha! I was in my early teens when I first rode the Vortex, my husband was 17! Jon mentioned multiple times how Ryan was 12 years younger than he was when he first rode it! The first time I rode it I was with my cousin Autumn, and we had just eaten lunch before hand, that was back in the day when eating before riding some rides didn't matter. I am however getting older ha!


Anyway, back to school starting. I am not so patiently waiting on the supply list for my kiddos. I called Walmart this morning and they had 4 school supply lists, but not for our elementary yet...sigh. Someone I work with said their kids came home with a supply list at the end of the school year. Now I think that is brilliant. I like to be prepared, and since I don't want to buy stuff we don't need I haven't bought anything. Well, I have about 10 boxes of crayons I got on clearance last year, but I know those are a given. ha! But if the Rebecca needs specific color of folders, etc, there is no reason to buy a bunch of what we don't need. Ryan I know will be bulk stuff, kleenex, clorox wipes, etc.

I do have our school clothes shopping done for the most part. Both kids got new tennis shoes from Mamaw, and backpacks too. Ryan will probably need some jeans, but I won't be worrying about that until the temperature is out of the 90s!


Our summer was action packed HA! Vacation was in Tennessee, and we in our usual fashion, we had no real set plans, we had talked of going onto North Carolina to the beach, but we were having so much fun, we stayed in TN.

We went up the mountain to Clingmans dome, the highest point in the Appalachian Mountains.

This is Ryan stating he can't go any farther!! We were only about half way up the trail!! ha! There was a couple who were hiking it as well, who though that was hysterical, and said they could totally sympathize! Honestly, my heart was beating like a wild drum, and I was short of breath, and had a few moments where I was sure I was going to die right there, but I didn't, and I certainly didn't vocalize that at all.


Almost to the top!!!


This is the sign that states it is the highest point. Go us


A view from the top...it was a smoky day!!!


And a photo to show we all four made it to the top.



We played putt putt.
This is what the kids do while they wait their turn!! ha







No pics of me playing putt putt, I did play, but I am so bad at putt putt, we don't need documentation of that!ha!

We rode go-karts!! together, which obviously I can't take pics of us riding while driving, but the kids decided to race on their own!!!







We went to cade's cove and stopped and played in the water.








Before we came home we also went through the forbidden caves. Incidentally, when you are in the middle of a cave tour, don't ask if there have been any earthquakes...sheesh!!! (I didn't, but some lady did, and I wanted to choke her right there, seriously I have children I don't want freaked out!!)






We went to the Cincy Zoo, the Duke energy Childrens Museum, the Indy zoo, fishing and Kings Island twice!

We have really enjoyed being together!!!

Rebecca got a new bike, and is working on no training wheels and doing amazing!!! And has lots of bruises to show for her efforts!!!

Hope you have a blessed day! And sis, no high expectations for more posts this week! ha!

What we're up to Wednesday

We have had a busy week. We went to Holiday World last week Wednesday through Friday. We camped, and spent a couple days in the park. It was a good time. Ryan could ride all the stuff he couldn't ride last time, but soon they both will be took big for the kiddie rides, probably before they are ready to stop riding the kiddie rides.

I didn't take a lot of pictures because on Thursday we did a few rides then spent the day in the water park. And on Friday thanks to my sunburn I didn't carry my bag so i had no place to put the camera.

My girl has some seriously dirty feet, this is what happens when you run around a campground bare foot. There were bumper boats, the mini drop zone, and the turkey whirl. Jon doesn't mind the spin you in circles rides, I on the other hand do not handle spinning very well. So bless my hubby's heart he took the kids on the spinning rides.

Holiday world is ready and prepared for people with food allergies. They have a generic menu that tells about the main food allergies, but each location for food also has a book with the actual ingredients for people like me who need more than just a "it doesn't have milk in it" I like to read it for myself. Milk comes in so many non obvious forms too, that taking the info from someone who doesn't know the ins and outs of it makes me nervous.

Camping was great. I didn't take any photos of that and I'm not sure why. We were on a bit of slope so our bodies ached a bit from trying to not roll down the tent Ha! Roasted marshmallows and smores were delish. I have to say that my chocolate candy bar which of course isn't what anyone else would define as chocolate at all is only so so to just eat, but on a smore it was more than fabulous!!!


Looking forward to more camping in the future, I wasn't sure I would really like camping, as I kinda like indoor plumbing and air conditioning, but it turned out to be just fine. I think that when it is just us too, I will like it even more.


In other things kind of going on this past week, I realized just how grown up my girl is getting.

Here she is on the last day of school...June 2.




And here she is just last week. Only 2 weeks later. Don't mind the mess we were packing and somehow we always destroy the house in the process ha! She and Ryan have both grown about an inch since 3/22/10. Sometimes I want a pause button.





I was sitting at the table and was just struck by how grown up she is looking. I am not the only one noticing it tho, her grammie had said a similar thing a few days before. In another year we are going to be entering the tween years, sigh, and then puberty...heaven help me, and teen years. sigh. Time is moving too fast!

I refuse to borrow trouble, so for now I'm going to enjoy today, take more pictures and make lots of good memories with my kidlings, while they will still let me call them that!!

Hope you have a blessed day.