Yes! We are still alive!

If you are still reading my blog, Thank you! I know I haven't posted in a year but life is busy!

So, summer was fun filled but over too soon. Here are the kids 1st day of school pictures.


Austin started 3rd grade with Mrs. Wagner. He was so excited and he is doing wonderful! He is getting good grades and has excellent behavior at school. He is also playing fall baseball, hopefully I will get some pictures up soon.















Emily started 4th grade. I think she likes it for the most part except that she has a lot of homework. She is doing a running program again and is training to run a 5K later in the fall. She is a great help around the house too!

So, Casey won a trip to Asheville, NC at work. YEAH CASEY! So, Casey and I got to go to Asheville to the Biltmore Estate for 4 days and 3 nights. It was nice little break and we had a fabulous time. Thanks to grandmother and Pop who took care of the kids during our getaway.

Right before school starts we always try to cram as much as we can into the last week of summer vacation. This year we went to Clingmans Dome in the Great Smokey mountains one day. It was beautiful!

Again, thanks for checking my blog after me not posting for a year! Hopefully, I will do more post this year.

Last week of Summer Break AND...

So, the last week of summer break, my friend and I decided to go out for an adventure EVERY DAY and we did, literally! We went somewhere all day, every day. We had such a blast playing all week. Here's a look at what we did!



DAY 1: Beach Park- I don't have any pictures of this but just close your eyes and imagine a lake with a swimming/ beach area and kids swimming and splashing. We were there for hours. The kids loved it.



DAY 2: CADE'S COVE- an area in the Smokey Mountains with an 11 mile one way road, primitive houses, hiking trails, streams to play in, black bears, deer, wild turkey's and all sorts of other things.

Austin playing in the river

Aaron making faces at me. We were in the car a lot!

On our hike, Owen got tired of walking and he got in the basket of the stroller. He fell asleep! I couldn't believe it. I thought he was tricking me at first.

This is most of our group outside of one of the houses. They were supposed to be taking an "Old Time" photo.

This day was filled with playing in the rain, wet hot dogs, sunshine, kids being statues, running around in just swim suits, deer, wild turkey and...

BLACK BEARS!
This is actually a cub. The mom and another cub were in the same tree! We saw about 7 different bears this day. It was pretty cool.

DAY 3: SWIMMING POOL & Backyard Science

The kids did some "science" experiments in the yard this day. Cornstarch w/ water and...

eHhL89s/Spfoy4CRAuI/AAAAAAAAAKg/_BwUy6jpQXY/s320/2009+August+006.jpg" border=0> Coke with mentos! They loved this one!

DAY 4: DOWNTOWN, fort kid park, muesum, and the fountain

Austin sliding down a piece of wood?!

Fountain downtown. The kids had fun with this!

DAY 5: ZOO!

Emily and Aaron playing in the water area of the zoo.

Emily, Owen and a few others in the gorilla nest.

89s/SpflArRq-ZI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/hYcWggdPYCU/s320/2009+June+057+(3).jpg" border=0>Austin dressed up as a monkey in the "We play Zoo" area.

DAY 6: CADE'S COVE (again)

I think Casey was jealous that we saw so many bears so we went back to Cade's Cove on Saturday with him and Grandmother and Pop.

Owen in a little stream. (By this day, Emily and Austin were tired of playing in the water so they just watched.)

Emily, Grandmother and Pop waiting for hot dogs to cook.

DAY 7: Sunday= Church

Day 8: THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!

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="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-hb9P1MvggL-ZVA1de3wFocZ3l-P2hl2X4U3lF9-5Er_lRGlpTh2JoiX7RJtNxYBxuCjOALKUjZC3fPbKJDaR_cANwEc7nWCA2LHs84H0EYPT3XsaBHly27I1TS7ePAIXXA4IxKMupK4R/s320/2009+August+110.jpg" border=0>
Emily ready for 3rd grade.

And so, we are finishing the secound week of school and I am so glad we had so many fun adventures over the summer. I have to say I am kind of sad the kids went back in school.