Gatlinburg Vacation Part 1

We drove to meet Grandma and Grandpa Joyner and Aunt Becca in Gatlinburg, TN to stay in a rental cabin together for a week and a half. It was awesome!

McDonalds on the way

Traffic is always slow in Pigeon Forge on the weekend!
The orange sections of our blue route show the slow traffic.
It just about killed us to creep through Pigeon Forge when we
were almost there!

 We had a wonderful three-bedroom cabin in Gatlinburg. It was located off stoplight #3 in Gatlinburg and way up the mountain. The last road to the cabin was at least a 45 degree angle straight up. I didn't know if our car could do it!

It had a billiard table

Anna and Lily enjoyed the Living Room

A view from the couch to the table with a peek
at the wraparound porch.

Grandpa spoiled Anna by walking her to sleep

There was a wall of windows to catch the amazing
mountain view from the living room.

The view from the porch.

The pool table was on the upper landing beside the master
bedroom suite

"So how do I play this again?"

The entryway hooks artistically
photographed by Rebecca

The gas log fireplace located outside on the porch.
There was another gas log fireplace inside too.

The porch view

Becca caught an amazing sunset on camera

James gave Lily a taste of honey.

Swimming in the hot tub on the porch

Anna enjoyed the toy bag more than the toys

I love Becca's new camera and portrait lens!

Rocking on the porch

Grandma Joyner time!

Garden Pictures

Our garden is doing so much better this year. That is thanks to Mom Bryan for her Square Foot Gardening book, Aunt Pam for her horse and chicken fertilizer (marvelous stuff!) and Vanessa for her Florida Gardening book. 

Updated pictures:

The sweet potato vines are huge and growing every day. There isn't any more room inside the fence, so I'm setting them free. I can see the enormous sweet potatoes in the ground even without digging for them! I plan to harvest them next week. 

These are our green pepper plants. On the left in front of the post is a huge green pepper. 

One of the four tomato plants is reaching giant proportions. I removed the netting so it could be free to grow. 

I Did It!

I just finished Tim and Becca Lewis' video presentation. It took at least five hours today to finish it. I've been working on it every second that the girls allowed - and they have been very well-behaved today.

It lacks an opening picture of Tim and Becca, but I thought I'd give you a preview. It is very small, but you will get the idea.

I am thrilled that it is done!! (Except getting the correct picture, putting it in place, exporting the movie for a couple of hours, arranging the opening screen menu buttons in iDVD, burning a DVD, making extra copies of the DVD, either making a label or writing on it, and previewing it for accuracy.)

Update as of August 6: Here is the revised version of their presentation. The song is at the end and there are several different pictures.

Steve's (Second) Birthday Party

Adam Mitchell (left) and Steve (the birthday boy) got to enjoy Adam's super-fast jet-ski up and down the river. 

Anna enjoyed bouncing very much!

Lily loved all the playground equipment. 

Cousin Ethan and Lily got to play together. 

Baby Keith (Steve and Emily's baby on the left) and baby Carlie (John and Nessa's baby on the right) are only two weeks apart and spent their play time in the packnplay. Maybe another time they will be able to join Lily and Ethan on the playground. 

After we moved the party to Uncle Steve's house, Uncle Nate read the big kids a story. 

Nessa brought her hand-crank ice cream maker. She and John whipped up a batch of delicious mint chocolate chip ice cream. 

I got to try my hand at it. They sent some ice cream home for James since he had to work that night. 

I helped out in nursery this morning during church. Emily (my co-worker) and I grabbed a moment to get our children's picture. Poor Keith was crying because he was tired and ready for a nap. They are the same size even though Anna is four months older than Keith. 

Sewing Project

Mom Bryan asked me to make this for her co-worker's baby shower. I had put ties on onsies before, but I had never tried a solid tie with a striped shirt before. Walmart didn't have plain un-decorated solid onsies for sale. 

I thought of a simpler way to sew it too. I used the same method we have used for embroidery machine appliqué. 

The shed is here!

Anna's hat, Steve's party, and Our shed

James taught Lily the alphabet song while pointing to each letter. 

Lily enjoyed looking at my cookbook. 

Anna - all dressed up for church. 

Becca Alexander is only two weeks older than Anna. I call them the church twins. 

Dad Bryan played blocks with the grandchildren at Steve's birthday party Sunday night. Lily had just knocked down their tower. 

Alyssa was trying to make Anna laugh with the bear. 

I didn't get any pictures of the birthday boy!

James bounced both girls on his knees. 

Our shed!

Yesterday afternoon the shed salesman came over to check our site for obstructions - we are cleared for delivery! He told us that our shed is on the lot so we went by there on the way to revival meetings last night. The door on the end will access my chalk art section. 

Can you see the rain clouds coming? We made it to church before the worst of it hit.