Trick-or-Treating Country Style--Be glad we didn't go on a John Deere!

This year we wanted to be a princess, a knight and a prince. Thank goodness E-bay is a handy thing to use. When you live in the country trick or treating is called drive and treating. When you have to put a three kids in a car it is quite a challenge so we try to do it as little as possible. We walked back to Mamaw and Papaw's house. When we went got there Mamaw announced to Papaw that they had three strangers at the door. Katelyn said "Don't you know who we are? Mamaw-It's okay, it is just us Katelyn, Kyle and Kolden. We are just pretending to be a princess, a prince, and a knight." It was really cute! Mamaw always has a camera ready and this year she showed the kids how to pose for a picture. Kolden posed his sword and shield in the same place for the rest of the night!

We went through the field to Aunt Darlene's house to visit. We met Wonder Woman there! Emma is Darlene's other great niece who is also 4 years old. Then we went on into town to visit with Gram-Jack's Mom. The kids see her at church and talk to her everyday when Carole calls to check in on her. They were really excited.

That is when we knew country kids don't understand trick-or-treating. Every house we stop at we go in a visit for a couple of minutes before we leave. Gram wanted to show the kids to her neighbors. We walked over and a man answered the door and tried to hand them some animal crackers. Kyle just walked past the man and went right in the house. The man was a bit taken back, but then Gram's friend came in the room and invited us in and I wanted to hide under the nearest rock. I quickly tried to explain and tried to tell the kids, but it was late and I am not sure I made any sense to them. I will probably forget to mention it next year too!

And yes if you must know we cheated on carving the pumpkin this year. We had just gotten back from vacation and ran out of time. So each kiddo got a giant light up pumpkin for the front porch!

The Smoky Mountains-Our first family vacation

It all began as a side comment in a conversation. Mom and I were talking about what she was going to do on her vacation. I suggested a cabin in Tennessee. They fell in love with the first cabin we found!! We ended up booking the "Cubby Bear Cabin" in Pigeon Forge. I felt a little weird when we began to plan this vacation, we had paid for the cabin, but had no idea where it was. That was a weird feeling not being able to map the route completely- it irritated Chad, since he got a new boy toy, a GPS system. We got to the cabin just before it got dark and it was beautiful.

This house was going to be our house for the next 6 nights! We were so thankful that we had a cabin rather than a hotel room. Imagine 3 kids who needed to run!

We went to Cades Cove on the first day. It was pretty, but all we saw were deer. I can see those in Indiana! The next day it rained, so we took the kids to the Aquarium in Gatlinburg. They loved the tunnel and saw some amazing animals from angles they could not have even imagined. On Saturday we got up and drove over Newfound Gap Road all the way over to Cherokee North Carolina. The trees had really started to change over there. We missed seeing the Native American village, so the kids didn't get to experience any of the Native American culture.

We then traveled on a one lane dirt road to Cataloochee. It was our best chance of seeing the elk herd. We were indeed sucesseful we saw about 15 of them. They so large it was amazing. The kids got to feel elk fur, hold antlers and learn about them from a Park Ranger. That was really neat to see.

On Sunday we left Daddy at home to ride up Cherokee Orchard Road to the Roaring Forks Motor Nature Trail. It is some beautiful scenery on this one way 11 mile road. It was a bit hard on the kids because they did have to stay in their car seats a lot. We finally put in a movie so the adults could enjoy the scenery and the kids would be happy too. I guess at four they are not always going to watch mountain scenery for 2-3 hours! Dad and I got to see a large male bear, but motorcycles scared it off before anyone else was able to see it. Dad had told the kids if they saw a bear that he would buy them a bear. They were determined to see a bear. Dad and I even went back later to drive the loop to see if we could see any later at night. We were not successful in our venture! We decided that on our last day there we would hit the visitor center and the sign into the park, because that is tradition. The best sign for pictures is the one on the Gatlinburg Bypass. As we drove up the hill past the sign, to look at the overlook Chad and I saw a black fur ball scamper across the road. We drove closer and parked the car. The bears were right outside the car on a hill eating berries and nuts. The kids got to see at least one of the 3 baby bears. We stopped at the Sugarlands Visitor Center and Dad bought everyone a bear to remember their first bear sighting on vacation. We knew then it was time to head home and on Tuesday we got up and packed the truck and headed home. It was a long drive but well worth it when you see the smiles on their faces!

Apple Picking at Tuttle's Orchard

Dad decided that we needed to make out annual trip to pick apples today. We walked with the wagons and picked 4 bags of apples. Some of the apples had marks on them. We ended up having to pick a few with marks, but found out they were marks from a hail storm this spring. They don't change the taste of the apples, it just makes them look blemished! We had trouble keeping the kids from eating the apples. I was afraid that we were going to have to weigh the kids and pay for them.

Where do normal people find the time?

I am having a hard time with all of the time right now. I feel guilty when I am at work. I feel guilty at home when I am cleaning, cooking, or doing laundry because I feel like I should be spending as much time with the kids as possible. Thank goodness that Mom and Dad live close and can give us a break. Dad takes the kids for a walk or just to get out for awhile most evenings. They really enjoy the time and it usually gives us time to get dinner fixed. If we have a few minutes of time to unwind it really helps us handle the three kids better. We seem to have more patience and can enjoy our time together.

Mom and Dad braved Chuck E. Cheese's with the kids...

We headed to Chuck E. Cheese's today. The kids had seen a commercial and had been singing "where a kid can be a kid" for about a week now. Dad decided to brave it and bring the family along. They had never been there before. It was hard for them to play some of the games. We tried skee ball once but when everybody ducked because the balls were flying, we quickly moved on to something else. The problem with a lot of the games is that they are for taller and older kids. We did find a few they really liked. Katelyn liked the rides that moved. Kyle liked the ones that gave out a lot of tickets. Kolden liked the action games, so Dad had to sit behind him and steer the wheels and push the buttons. We split our time so that each one of the kids had some "special" time with Mom or Dad. They really like that. Their favorite thing was the ticket muncher- the machine that counted the tickets. Then we got to head to the counter and order prizes. We sure spent a lot of time choosing our crap-I mean treasures. All in all it was a great afternoon and we were really surprised at how good the kids did. We spent $30 for lunch and 2 1/2 hours of entertainment for 5 people.

July Gibson Reunion

We had a reunion on my Mom's side of the family, the first one in 35-40 years. It was good to see all of the family, but honestly I didn't know many of the people. The kids seemed to have a good time. Daddy had to stay home and get better, he had an ear infection. All of the kids were on antibiotics for ear and sinus infections. I was very pleased with how they all acted for being sick. There weren't many children for them to play with, but a couple. I wanted to chat with the family members about old pictures and family history, so Papaw was left to fend for the children at times, you can see how that turned out!!

Papaw was supposed to be watching, but he did not think the boys would follow suit when he got himself a slice of chocolate cake! Good Job Papaw!

We combined the long drive with a trip to the Grissom Air Museum in Peru, Indiana. We had a great time looking at all of the planes. Kolden just couldn't believe that there were that many "fighter jets" in one place.
Kyle just wanted to sit in the planes and shoot anything that moved. Katelyn was a bit more independent--She wanted to do everything for herself. (hmmm Wonder where she gets that?)

A new beginning...

In my spare time, I have decided this may be easier to share info with folks who live far away. So we will see how this works.

We have had our share of the summer colds and it could very well absorb the entire month of July. Kolden had a double ear infection and eye infection, Kyle had a left ear infection and an eye infection and Katelyn had a sinus infection and eye infection. Not to leave anyone out Daddy had a sinus infection and possible double ear infection and Mommy had a sinus infection and ear infection! I wonder what we all did before medicine?

I am not sure where my summer has gone. It seems as if it was yesterday that we got out of school and now seems like tomorrow that we are headed back. I also feel like I have gotten nothing done this summer. Thank goodness I have Carole here to help wrangle the kids. I feel like I have so much to do and never enough time. I am in my summer habit of staying up late again and I will have to quit that again soon so that my body can adjust, but it is so much easier to do stuff when the kids are sleeping!