Day 772

Today the kids and I put this together!Thursday 6/24

Day 771

Today we bought one of these.

Wednesday 6/23

Day 770

Saw this gorgeous sunset on my way home from the HCHS/NWA Alumni choir.

Day 769

The BEST post vacation dinner you can imagine!!!! It was sooooo good!!!! I even had blueberries for dessert.

Day 768

Hannah is such a trip! She had a great time playing on this old toy today. She like to rock it as hard as she could....until it flipped on her.

Day 767

Must have been pictured out because I didn't take one today! Marc did, but it was just fire. LOL This was our first official day home. I spent time loading and editing photos and updating this blog. My mom and Donnie also came over. We had ribs and a fire. LOL I know, such a boring post after 13 days of sheer fun and lots to do.

Day 766

Day 13 of vacation-

This morning we all slept in...this was a first! We slept until about 9am central time. I think the whole time we were gone we had problems adjusting to eastern time. LOL Most days we didn't end up eating lunch until 3 or 4 and dinner at nearly 9. I guess that is the joy of vacation! Uncle Donnie was waiting for the kids to get up. He had told them he would take them for a ride on the tractor to the deer feeder. He loaded up the deer feed...and us and we set off. There wasn't enough room for all of us, so Josh sat with Uncle Donnie and drove the tractor. It was pretty cool!

Here is Caleb "helping"

We finally set off on our final drive. It wasn't a long one, so that was good. The trip odometer read 2354 miles when I pulled into the driveway. WOW! That is a lot of miles for 13 days! Out of that I drove at least 2000 of them. Not because Marc doesn't drive...I get car sick AND I can't stand his driving. The one long stretch he did do gave my new car its first bump. :( He ended up running over a huge piece of tire. My bumped is now messed up. :( The whole time we were gone Marc belly ached about wanting seafood SO we had seafood for dinner. I also willingly handed over my keys so I could have some kind of fru-fru drink! :) It was good :)

Day 765

Day 12 of vacation-

This morning we started out in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Turns out there is the Vicksburg National Military Park. I had no idea! It is the location of the Siege of Vicksburg during the Civil War. We skipped the Civil Rights Museum in Alabama for fear that the kids would be bored. This was a drive through thing that had a boat. We got to see the USS Cairo. It was an ironclad gunboat that was used in the Civil War. It was in the Mississippi River and was the first boat to ever be sunk by a torpedo...at least what they called torpedos at the time. No one died, but the boat sank and remained at the bottom of the river until the 1960's. It was later restored and put on display. It was a very neat thing to see. Then we headed over to my Aunt Mary's house.

This was one of the monuments we passed

We got out to look at one of the union cannons
This was the largest monument we saw. It was for the soldiers who fought from Illinois.
Inside the Illinois monument

The boys...even the biggest one thought the cannons were cool!

This cannon was on the USS Cario
The USS Cairo



This shows the original wood



The USS Cairo bell
Part of the cemetery
I think this was the Tennessee monument. The monuments for the Confederacy were not nearly as ornate as the monuments for the Union.
Marc took this as we drove across the Mississippi River
We arrived at Aunt Mary's in the afternoon. I did not follow her directions and could not find her road on the GPS in my car. My old GPS had it, but I just didn't know the correct abbreviation...at least the one my car was using. I used a cross street, then punched in where I wanted to go on the map, but still didn't like the directions. I used my phone instead! LOL All I had to do was make my blinking blue dot arrive at the red dot...just not the way it directed me to go. We got there much faster than anyone expected. LOL

Aunt Mary brought Austin over and we went for a walk in the woods....until I started getting attacked by the HUGE Texas mosquitos!

After our walk we all stayed up way too late. The kids played video games. Aunt Mary and I talked and the BIG boys watched the Celtics lose.

Day 764

Day 11 of vacation!

This was a boring day. I drove...and drove. We started out in Alabama. We stopped in Meridian, Mississippi and at at the WORST Chili's ever....I wanted Chick-fil-a! It took 20 minutes for the waitress to even take our drink order. I won't go into it, but NEVER EVER go there! Then I drove some more. I was tired and ready to stop around Jackson, but we just switched drivers. Marc drove us to Vicksburg, Mississippi and we found a hotel. We chilled for a while. Then we ate dinner and went swimming. I worked with Caleb some without his lifejacket. He did better.

Here are the kids helping leave our hotel! I like Hannah's job.

This is Caleb at Cracker Barrel. He was a cute handful...at least everyone around us was laughing at him. I was a little more annoyed. This photo is of Caleb being dramatic. He said he was going to just die if he didn't get a drink right away. This is his dead face.

Day 11

Day 763

Day 10 of vacation:

Time to make our way back home....the long way. We decided to drive through Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Looked like rain....again! It was a very nice drive though. The views were breathtaking! I can't imagine how it would have looked on a clear day. We made a couple of stops before it began pouring down rain.

Josh was the only one who got out of the car to look.

Then it started to rain a little.
We didn't get out anymore. THEN we got to the Newfound Gap. It didn't matter how hard it was raining, we had to get out and look.

Can you see the rain in this photo? It is pouring!
Just amazing!!!!

Then we got in the car and kept driving. We stopped in Suwanee, Georgia at Five Guys Burgers and Fries for lunch....or was it dinner. Who knows, it was almost 4pm!

Then we kept driving some more. We saw a sign for Turner Field and I just HAD to drive by. Turns out the Braves had a game that night. We discussed going to it, but Marc said it was "nearly 100* out there." My reply was SO...then I heard a loud clap of thunder, so we kept driving!

If you follow my other blog any then you know we ended up somewhere in Alabama for the night.

The kids had sword fights....

and I spent an hour in the fitness center!!!!

Day 762

Day 9 of vacation-

We went back to Dollywood for the morning and early afternoon.

While Marc, Josh, and Samantha were riding this rollercoaster....

Hannah was doing this.....
and Caleb was doing this.....
This was fun! I rode this the day before, but I can't stand walking around wet, so I passed. Hannah missed it yesterday because she was asleep. She got to go on it today. She liked it! You basically have water gun fights with the other boats and spectators who are shooting water at you. You can also aim at targets. If you hit them they will either shoot back at you OR get the people on the other side of the boat wet. So fun!
We left early and went back to the cabin. Our LAST day in the cabin! It was the FIRST day we had clear skies! Check out this view!
Then it clouded up and rained...again!
We all sat out there and enjoyed the view for a while
A few posts back I mentioned a cancelled wild west show. We were kind of bummed about that. Never fear! I found something else to do! We made reservations for the Dixie Stampede. It was so much fun! Not sure how I felt about the no utensils thing, but I made it work.

We got dinner and a show. Each side of the arena was separated into the North and the South. Marc loved the fact that we were on the side of the North. Throughout the show there were different competitions and things like tiny pig races. Whichever side won would get a medal and flag. By the end of the night there were lots of medals and flags, BUT the south won. LOL This is something I would definitely do again if/when we go back!

Then we went back to the cabin and I got us packed up. Let me explain this last photo though. I was chilling on the bed. In the photo you can see into the living/dining area. See the couch? See the chairs? The little ledge next the chairs is the opening to the downstairs area. At the bottom of that ledge is the very bottom of the stairs. The kids would sometimes drop things down there....come to think of it, that is what Marc would do with his dirty laundry! LOL Anyway, it was about 11:30pm and I see Josh walk over there and drop a "bomb" to the lower floor. LOL Such is the life on vacation...... they were supposed to be asleep!