Our Fifth Visitors!

Well, it was that time again for our fifth visitors to visit us this summer, and believe it or not, but we still have more scheduled to come this late summer/fall. We had the honor of hosting my sister Joy and her husband Jason from Sunday night to Thursday noon. What a blast we had!!! Joy and Jason were heading to Townsend TN for a weekend with Jason's family so it was nice they came early and spent several days with us. Sunday evening we enjoyed Brusters Ice Cream as usual whenever we have company. Monday nick was off to work for the day so Joy and I went to Goody's for a few items, and Hobby Lobby too. Jason hit the local Fitness center and then the boys and Jason played out in the sprinkler for awhile. Tuesday nick took off work and we went to the lake for 7.5 hours. Lots of skiing, wakeboarding, tubing(which is so Jason's sport as he is so good at it:)) , eating and swimming. Couldn't have asked for better weather.

Jason even got up on the ski's. Way to go Jason!!!! Keep it up and you will become a pro.After Jason took Elijah on the tube he was then brave enough to go himself without crying or wanting off. He just kept tubing all by himself finally!!!! It took him all summer long, but alas he is loving the tube....GO ELIJAH!

Wednesday we took the boat out once again for 4 hours. The waters were as smooth as glass which made for some wonderful skiing and tubing. Here is joy as she screams cause she is so excited to be on smooth water.

Jason and Elijah at the tube again but on smooth water this time. They just glided along. Thursday at noon our fifth visitors had to leave as they were heading to Townsend for Jason's family's vacation. What a wonderful fun filled time we had. Thanks so MUCH Joy and Jason for coming to visit us. Come anytime you feel like making that LONG trip:) We love you lots.

Atlanta's VBS Weekend

This past weekend we went to Ridge Haven in North Carolina for the Atlanta VBS weekend. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed the speakers so much. Thanks to Kerwin and Sara Edelman and Rich and Sam Gramm for coming to speak to us on where our treasures are. It was an uplifting weekend and a much needed weekend. Here are some pictures.This is the building in which all the families stayed in. It was nice being all together at one building and having the lounges right there for our use.This was the dinning hall in which we ate our breakfast, lunch and dinner. Really great food!! As you can see we had matching t-shirts for the weekend. The swimming pool was a BIG hit for the kids and even the adults after a hot game of volleyball or basketball. Elijah being very brave here. He was swimming the whole weekend without his life vest. We even did a little hiking one afternoon. Here is Caden making his way down the steep gravel drive with a little help.Elijah and his really great friend Chloe. Such a cute little couple don't you think:) HEE HEEThe sunday school class (older children) sang a song and put on a skit for us on what they learned over the weekend. Good job kids.Us girls ( Lana, Sara, Sam, Chloe, and myself) standing around chatting. It was such a blessing to meet you Sara and Sam.Both above pictures are of the game Bid. Lots of fun.

Hair Cut!

Well, I decided to try short hair for awhile. My long thick hair was just getting to be to much and to hot and heavy, so I decided to hit the salon. Here are a few shots of my new hair style. Its so much cooler and I am starting to get use to it. Its hard to go from long hair to short hair.

Really Late/ Fourth Visitors

Ok, Ok, so I have not updated this blog in forever. I know. What else I know is that I should have posted about our fourth visitors this summer about 2 weeks ago. Yep, Im that bad. I however do not have any proof they were here since I failed to take any pictures, but my memory is serving me quite well on how fun we had and how much I love having them come visit us. On July 18th around 6pm our dear friends Philip and Lana and their 4 kids came to visit us. They were previously in Nashville and were kind enough to route thru Knoxville on their way home. Friday night we got a babysitter and left Caden and her three youngest with the sitter and headed out the door to catch some smooth lake water. It was smooth and a gorgeous evening and to top it off we pulled the boat right up to a dock, hopped out and up to Calhouns we went to eat dinner. Needless to say Lana and I didn't feel very good afterwards and Im guessing it had something to do with their BBQ sauce as we both had that on our food. Got home around 11pm with kids mostly in bed...all but Caden was sleeping. Go Figure!!! Saturday we hung around here, Lana and I went to Goody's to check out clothes, etc and then came home and ate lunch. Then it was time for P & L and Co. to leave and head back to Atlanta. We truly had a GREAT time and thank you so much for coming. Let us know when you want to come again:)

Celebrating America!!

We had a nice 4th of July weekend. On the 3rd, I took the boys and went to our church function they have every year for the community. There are jump houses, free watermelon, face paintings, fireworks and much more. The boys had a great time and enjoyed seeing fireworks. I had invited our neighbors and was so thrilled when they showed up:) Ended up being 4 neighboring families that showed up. Two of which we invited and I think they might have invited the other two families which was great. (pictured is my dear friend and neighbor Gina who just had a baby girl and her son Dylan in front. Then another neighbor girl named Zoe is also pictured holding the watermelon). On the 4th we headed out onto the lake early with our neighbors and did a little skiing and wakeboarding. We then got out of there before noon to avoid the chaotic mess on the lake of all the boaters. That evening we headed over to some friends of ours Paige and Andrew Craft and enjoyed an outdoor bbq and yard games. Our plans were to head downtown from there to enjoy fireworks at the worlds fair park, but it started lightening and we decided to just head home. When we got home we headed over to our neighbors for s'mores cause it wasn't lightening here of course.

Elijah got to squirt whipped cream on dad's face and stand back and throw cheese curls at his face to see how many stuck.....Elijah and Nick won!!!

On the 5th we had a relaxing day. Didn't do to much until the evening when we took the boat out around 7pm down to Tellico lake for the Loudon Fire works that are on the lake. Tons of boats parked for fireworks. The fireworks weren't until 10pm, so we took some games, and food on the boat and had a fun family night. The boys enjoyed it, thought it was pretty cool watching fireworks on the water.

Today (6th) we went to church this morning and came home in time for Elijah and Nick to head out with a coworker to go fishing. They are still gone right now as I am posting, but am hoping they bring home a fish dinner:) Well, they did....they brought home lots of dinners. We can easily make several meals with all the fish they brought home. Thanks "my boys" for the yummy fish dinner we had tonight. Hope y'all had a wonderful 4th celebrating America's birthday!!

Our Third Visitors!

We had the honor of having nick's family in town for nearly 4 days. Nick's parent came and his sister and her two children came. Unfortunently Nate was not able to join us and we hope that someday he can come visit. We had lots of fun. Friday we attempted to go out on the boat for the day but got caught in a storm literally!! It was pouring down rain on us and we thankfully had this tiny little bimini top to all crowd under(minus nick who was out on the lake attempting to wakeboard). Wish I had a picture of us all under the top. We then saw lightening so we headed home:(. Of course when we arrived back to the house it hadn't rained at the house and it was warm and sunny. Go figure! We went out to eat that night at Lakeside Tavern which was wonderful, just a bit of a wait. Saturday we hit the lake again this time with a sunny day. We were out from 10am-4pm. Lots of swimming was had by all. We hit brusters up that night for a delicious treat. Sunday we went to church, then out to eat for lunch at Jason's Deli. It was great. Kids played a ton outside in the sandbox all weekend. We really had a wonderful time. The family left on Monday monring early. Thank you Dad, Mom, Kelli, Avery, and Alivia for coming to visit us. We really enjoyed your visit. Love you!!!

Here are a few pictures (lots of them were from kelli's camera) of our extended weekend.

The boys talked grandpa into sleeping on the floor with them the first night.Elijah and Avery all ready for bed. They are such great buddies.Caden was so sweet to Alivia the whole weekend. He made sure the big boys didn't take toys away from her, and he was even willing to go as far as feed her her bread at the restaurant. To Cute!!! The rest of the pictures are when we were out on the boat.Alivia did amazing on the boat. She didn't mind her life vest, and she fell asleep for about 2 hours and then even after she woke up she still just layed on the seat of the boat and enjoyed the movement and noise surrounding her. Thanks again for coming!! Let us know when you would like to come again:)

Atlanta's June Potluck

This past weekend we had a wonderful time spent partially in Atlanta, GA and partially in Wedowee, AL. Every june is a church potluck at a lake in Alabama. The entire church is invited and its so much fun. Its a saturday event and then we ski, tube, wakeboard, swim and just plain have fun. Here are many pictures of the great time we had.

This is Philip and Lana Steidinger whom we stay with everytime we head to atlanta. What a great looking family! And thanks for always hosting us when we come.This is Kelly Camp(her parents own the cabin on the lake). She is giving Caden a canoe ride and he was thrilled.My very dear dear friend Lana whom I have so much in common with and just love to death. Thanks for being such a wonderful friend....I love you girl!!! We have known each other for officially one year and what a wonderful year its been.Daddy giving Caden a ride on the tube. Figure they could go a bit faster with an adult riding. Caden loves it so much.And this is MY BRAVE ELIJAH jumping off a 20 foot platform. He jumped three times and the last time unfortunently he wasn't "pencil" straight and did a belly flop and lost his breath. Poor guy, but none the less he had fun the first two times.This was the only way I could get Elijah out on the tube...we went so slow I hardly had to hold on.