Gatlinburg and Snakes and Hail!

We had a GREAT time away, but were thankful to get back home to Dave.  We had an uneventful drive to Charlotte to stay for a few days at LeAnn’s for Eli’s birthday party.  He had a cool Laser Tag party.  Eli also had a few days of school left.  Here is a picture of all but Josh and Sam at a 50’s diner we went to for brunch in Charlotte.   

  Here is Sam at the diner.

The day Eli got out of school… LeAnn and I, our six kids and Lucy (her English Shepher dog) loaded up the suburban and drive to Gatlinburg.  You can already imagine how it was driving with 6 kids through the mountains- which makes me nervous anyway.  Just the other side of Ashville it started to rain.  It got harder and harder and we started to hear little “plinks” on the windshield.  LeAnn and I looked at each other and said, “Surely this isn’t hail?!”  In a second or two it was hailing and rainng so hard you couldn’t see the road right in front of you.  We were scared to pull over, thinking someone might hit us.  So, with kids carrying on and Lucy barking with EVERY thunder clash, we inched along the side of the mountain about 5 miles an hour.  When it was all said and done, I have little hail dings all in my windshield, but we were safe.

We arrived at the cabin where the kids had a blast in the creek.  They fished- Payton’s favorite.  Wouldn’t you know, Woody, with the home-made rod caught the most fish.  Maybe Chad could try this…. 

One day we all walked down the mountain/hill to Memaw and Grandaddy’s cabin, but decided it was shorted to just cross the creek to get back to our cabin.  I was deathly afraid of snakes and everything else that might be in the water, so when we got to the other side, I hurried up the steps to get back inside.  As I came up the steps and passsed by the first door to the downstairs, I caught something out of the side of my eye.  When I turned to look at it, it was about a 3 foot long snake sprawled across the door.  I screamed, jump on a bench and took off.  Yuck!  The kids were all screaming too.  As Grandaddy and Chris came to rescue the snake he slithered under the deck.  But, I was constantly looking for those things the rest of the time there and thinking one was going to get into my bed.   Needless to say, there wasn’t much sleeping on this trip.  Not to mention, one night racoons on the porch woke me up at 3am.  It sounded like they were playing in the kitchen.  I was too scared to get up, so I just sat up in bed watching for something to walk by my door in the kitchen.   

    

Off on our Mom Adventure

The kids and I leave today for our week+ long vacation, if that is what you call it.  It will be Dave’s vacation anyway.  We will drive to Charlotte today to stay with LeAnn and Chris for several days.  Tomorrow is Eli’s “Laser Tag Birthday Party”.  He turned 8.  We will stay there until Tuesday because Eli is still in school until then.  Then, all 8 of us… me, LeAnn, Josh, Kendall, Payton, Eli, Woody, Sam-plus Lucy the dog, will drive over the Gatlinburg for the rest of the week.  That should be “fun”…all 8 of us in my car.  Memaw, Grandaddy, and Tic-Tock will show up Wednesday.  I am looking forward to sitting on the balcony of the cabin and listening to the creek pass by.  I will post pictures when we get back home.

I filled my car up last week and it was $100.  I was down to a little less than 1/2 a tank, so I filled back up all the way yesterday- another $86.  Yuck!!!  I am sure anyone that has ridden with me knows that this kills me.  I NEVER put more than $30 or $35 in because I feel like I am wasting money, so my car usually sits near empty.  The kids all shout when the gas light starts to ding, “We gotta get gas”.

We will miss Dave greatly while gone, but he is going to be very busy.  We will also miss Cassie and Sammy.  I hope they are well taken care of.  I don’t think Cassie will notice too much that we are gone, but Sammy will probably miss us a lot.  She is the sweetest little dog, or I should say “young” dog.  We will get back the day before Father’s day, just in time to celebrate with our daddies.   

Update on Lucie- this past week she passed the 3 pound mark and doctors and nurses are all shocked at how well she is doing.