fall family fun extravaganza 2013
i wish i was getting in the car tomorrow and repeating last weekend. what a fun trip. i am ridiculously blessed with a fun, cool family. really, its almost not fair.
my parents took all the kids. (well...) and they fed them crap the entire trip. they had a junk bend for lunch. it was full of chocolate, ranch pretzel bark, chex mix, m&m's (of all sorts), all the candy you could imagine, choc covered raisins, i could go on...
mom and i came up with gift bag ideas for each kid. with all their favorite "normal" people snacks and then random snacks specific to each kid - like olives for allie and gabe. but i'm not sure they did that.
mimi, poppy and the kids all left before us. so the cabin was good and broken in when we arrived :)
josh and claire stopped by the grocery store so they were a bit behind us. jay and i are kinda like the "other kids" in the family. they don't really rely on us for much...haha. kinda sad.
vasa was first to greet us! with his bouncy white hair and big ol smile. he couldn't wait to show me everything!! i adore his happy "heyyyy buddy! i love you buddy!" greeting.
my dad came out with him and told us we would most likely want the downstairs area. we may have been tricked. sure it was fabulous with 2 bedrooms, a huge den, porch leading out to the lake, and an air hockey table. but goodness the family above sounded like a heard of elephants at every step.
so like pack mules (aka parents!) we unloaded all of our things and started checking out the place.
it was PERFECT. picture this with me...
big log cabin with a huge dine-in kitchen (table that sat all 11 of us), den with fire place lots of seating, and a breakfast nook that ended up being our card playing area :) then a wrap (almost) around porch with rocking chairs, a chair swing, etc. the middle floor had a master bedroom and bathroom, and another bathroom off the kitchen, then the upstairs had 3 bedrooms with tons of beds. i didn't count. and 2 bathrooms that i saw. the garage had a charcoal grill and a ping pong table. umm...who knew my husband was forrest gump?! he is good at ping pong!?
mmk, out by the lake there was a pantoon boat you could rent, canoes and a fire pit. we definitely made smores and played pudgy bunny that night. oh yes....i won that mess! 9 marshmallows thank you. i wanted to vomit. i almost choked to death laughing at my brother shoving them in his mouth really fast. hilarious.
after THE LONGEST UNO GAME EVER (played by the girls) most everyone went on to bed. josh, claire, jay and i stayed up and talked for a while. it was fun. such fun people! we laughed a lot.
i didn't sleep AT ALL the first night. jay snored A LOT. and we were in a room with 2 double beds. do you think we slept in a double bed...?! oh LAWD no! we like our space haha. so i couldn't just kick jay to make him stop snoring. i had to get up and hit him. well, i did a couple times then i just yelled.
even worse...my not so tiny husband was on a bed with an apparent potty training mattress cover b/c every time he rolled over (which is constant and violent on a normal bed) sounded like someone crinkling thick plastic. good grief!!!!!!!!!!!
i was so ready to get up by morning. i should've moved to gabe's room or the couch.
anyway, the next morning we showered and climbed the stairs to the aroma of fresh chocolate chip pancakes. YUM. josh was up and making some good breakfast. we got a late start on breakfast though b/c my dad took a wrong turn trying to go buy syrup. nothing comes easy with our crazy family.
we ate and filled ourselves with coffee and headed to some festival.
i won't lie. it was kinda lame. ava and i hung out most of the time. i tried to act like it was interesting but she was on to me. the saving grace was good lemonade and funny things that happened...i'll share later.
i'm sure (in fairness) this festival was exciting to some people... Lord only knows who.
highlights were NOT ...
- the band that played and sang. oh dear me.
- the petting zoo. jay said it'd take minutes to complete it.
- the moonshine man. except jay was captivated!
- the deep fried oreos. sounded good. everyone said it was too much.
- parking
highlights were...
- no joke, the cleanest port a pottys EVER.
- when the old lady in the wheelchair got loose and started rolling downhill. (josh and i were NO
help...laughter took over.)
- when the duck dynasty looking guy came over to us and said..."see at er helicopter up er? it films us.
yeahhh joker gets paid $75 an hour. imma get me one of em." thankfully josh smiles and acts interested.
duck dynasty continues..."y'all er had deep fried oreos? gotta get chu one. yeah they over er at the que-so-
ka-dell-ya stand." my eyes got big. josh & jay looked straight at me in fear of what i might do.
i simply walked away. it took all the Jesus in me.
so after leaving that joyous festival, we went to eat. b/c ya know it'd been an hour.
we went to a tex mex place and sat outside. it was fun. we were spread out but we didn't mind. gabe and vasa (who are best friends) took off to explore the surroundings. we weren't concerned. it was fenced in.
until....vasa came running back to us and said "i just saw a snake." we assumed he meant a big worm. just in case we asked where? and where is gabe? with the snake of course...
he wasn't kidding. josh and i took off to grab gabe and yes....there is was. a big black snake.
don't tell me black snake is "the kind i want." no, there is no" kind i want." thank you.
some kitchen guy came out and got it. it was so gross. my mom has a picture.
oh fun. one of my dads closest friends, Donnie met us for lunch and came back to the cabin with us. it was so cute to hear him and my parents laughing on the porch.
i was NOT laughing inside watching UGA play football. oh my.
josh and i watched football while jay napped downstairs with g, claire napped upstairs and the rest of the kids played.
just before supper was our talent show. SO FUN. josh and claire were extremely creative and wrote a song talking about each member of the family. seriously too clever.
dad had all the kids bring him something from around the cabin (just random things) and he did an object lesson about Jesus with it. very cool. if i'd tried it...it would've been sad probably blasphemous.
mom made elephant toothpaste, some sort of flying thing and a duck call.
the girls did insane gymnastics and sang a song with vasa. they also made us play a guessing game.
then, the lesleys did their act.
IF my mom's iphone which i am NOT IMPRESSED WITH would download our video i'd share it with you. but we are having a hard time making it work.
iphones do not impress me.
after the show, we grilled chicken, roasted veggies, baked potatoes and prepped for supper. which of course meant another trip to the store for sour cream.
we played a few card games and then the adults stayed up watching football and dumb youtube videos.
we also told funny stories from the day that my parents had missed. i laughed so much it hurt.
the next morning, we ate homemade coffee cake, some egg creation my dad made, drank a lot of coffee and started packing up.
allie asked me to ride with her. so i did. we watched leave it to beaver and talked about life.
vasa wanted to ride with uncle jay. so those two rode together. jay said it was hilarious. vasa would repeat things jay said. cute. then one time vasa said, "i cant say that. my english isnt that good yet." cute.
we planned to leave at 10 and go pick apples. it was the busiest apple picking place i'd ever seen! but it was fun. who knew my favorite apple was a corail. YUM. seriously. so darn good.
jay, gabe and i left after the apple picking. g was ready for a nap and we were stuffed on apples.
the family headed to a corn maze. not sure what fun we missed at that! but i've never been any help with those in the past. :)
i loved it. i love my family so much.
here's a few reasons why:
there's an obnoxious amount of love in our family.
we love to laugh.
we all love tea.
we truly care about each other.
we learn a lot from each other.
we text, email and talk often. (i don't call...let's just be real.)
dad - is norman no matter what.
mom - works harder than anyone i've ever known.
josh - can make me laugh like no other human
claire - is full of wisdom and such quick wit!
ava - simply delightful
allie - there's just NO ONE like her!
dd - sweet sweet heart. but she will cheat at card games
vasa - will steal your heart at first glance
jay - most peaceful, gentle amazing man i know.
gabe - seriously, my heart. there's nothing i don't love about him.
so that's us. i love it.
i wouldn't want to do this life with any other group! :) thank you Lord.
my parents took all the kids. (well...) and they fed them crap the entire trip. they had a junk bend for lunch. it was full of chocolate, ranch pretzel bark, chex mix, m&m's (of all sorts), all the candy you could imagine, choc covered raisins, i could go on...
mom and i came up with gift bag ideas for each kid. with all their favorite "normal" people snacks and then random snacks specific to each kid - like olives for allie and gabe. but i'm not sure they did that.
mimi, poppy and the kids all left before us. so the cabin was good and broken in when we arrived :)
josh and claire stopped by the grocery store so they were a bit behind us. jay and i are kinda like the "other kids" in the family. they don't really rely on us for much...haha. kinda sad.
vasa was first to greet us! with his bouncy white hair and big ol smile. he couldn't wait to show me everything!! i adore his happy "heyyyy buddy! i love you buddy!" greeting.
my dad came out with him and told us we would most likely want the downstairs area. we may have been tricked. sure it was fabulous with 2 bedrooms, a huge den, porch leading out to the lake, and an air hockey table. but goodness the family above sounded like a heard of elephants at every step.
so like pack mules (aka parents!) we unloaded all of our things and started checking out the place.
it was PERFECT. picture this with me...
big log cabin with a huge dine-in kitchen (table that sat all 11 of us), den with fire place lots of seating, and a breakfast nook that ended up being our card playing area :) then a wrap (almost) around porch with rocking chairs, a chair swing, etc. the middle floor had a master bedroom and bathroom, and another bathroom off the kitchen, then the upstairs had 3 bedrooms with tons of beds. i didn't count. and 2 bathrooms that i saw. the garage had a charcoal grill and a ping pong table. umm...who knew my husband was forrest gump?! he is good at ping pong!?
mmk, out by the lake there was a pantoon boat you could rent, canoes and a fire pit. we definitely made smores and played pudgy bunny that night. oh yes....i won that mess! 9 marshmallows thank you. i wanted to vomit. i almost choked to death laughing at my brother shoving them in his mouth really fast. hilarious.
after THE LONGEST UNO GAME EVER (played by the girls) most everyone went on to bed. josh, claire, jay and i stayed up and talked for a while. it was fun. such fun people! we laughed a lot.
i didn't sleep AT ALL the first night. jay snored A LOT. and we were in a room with 2 double beds. do you think we slept in a double bed...?! oh LAWD no! we like our space haha. so i couldn't just kick jay to make him stop snoring. i had to get up and hit him. well, i did a couple times then i just yelled.
even worse...my not so tiny husband was on a bed with an apparent potty training mattress cover b/c every time he rolled over (which is constant and violent on a normal bed) sounded like someone crinkling thick plastic. good grief!!!!!!!!!!!
i was so ready to get up by morning. i should've moved to gabe's room or the couch.
anyway, the next morning we showered and climbed the stairs to the aroma of fresh chocolate chip pancakes. YUM. josh was up and making some good breakfast. we got a late start on breakfast though b/c my dad took a wrong turn trying to go buy syrup. nothing comes easy with our crazy family.
we ate and filled ourselves with coffee and headed to some festival.
i won't lie. it was kinda lame. ava and i hung out most of the time. i tried to act like it was interesting but she was on to me. the saving grace was good lemonade and funny things that happened...i'll share later.
i'm sure (in fairness) this festival was exciting to some people... Lord only knows who.
highlights were NOT ...
- the band that played and sang. oh dear me.
- the petting zoo. jay said it'd take minutes to complete it.
- the moonshine man. except jay was captivated!
- the deep fried oreos. sounded good. everyone said it was too much.
- parking
highlights were...
- no joke, the cleanest port a pottys EVER.
- when the old lady in the wheelchair got loose and started rolling downhill. (josh and i were NO
help...laughter took over.)
- when the duck dynasty looking guy came over to us and said..."see at er helicopter up er? it films us.
yeahhh joker gets paid $75 an hour. imma get me one of em." thankfully josh smiles and acts interested.
duck dynasty continues..."y'all er had deep fried oreos? gotta get chu one. yeah they over er at the que-so-
ka-dell-ya stand." my eyes got big. josh & jay looked straight at me in fear of what i might do.
i simply walked away. it took all the Jesus in me.
so after leaving that joyous festival, we went to eat. b/c ya know it'd been an hour.
we went to a tex mex place and sat outside. it was fun. we were spread out but we didn't mind. gabe and vasa (who are best friends) took off to explore the surroundings. we weren't concerned. it was fenced in.
until....vasa came running back to us and said "i just saw a snake." we assumed he meant a big worm. just in case we asked where? and where is gabe? with the snake of course...
he wasn't kidding. josh and i took off to grab gabe and yes....there is was. a big black snake.
don't tell me black snake is "the kind i want." no, there is no" kind i want." thank you.
some kitchen guy came out and got it. it was so gross. my mom has a picture.
oh fun. one of my dads closest friends, Donnie met us for lunch and came back to the cabin with us. it was so cute to hear him and my parents laughing on the porch.
i was NOT laughing inside watching UGA play football. oh my.
josh and i watched football while jay napped downstairs with g, claire napped upstairs and the rest of the kids played.
just before supper was our talent show. SO FUN. josh and claire were extremely creative and wrote a song talking about each member of the family. seriously too clever.
dad had all the kids bring him something from around the cabin (just random things) and he did an object lesson about Jesus with it. very cool. if i'd tried it...it would've been sad probably blasphemous.
mom made elephant toothpaste, some sort of flying thing and a duck call.
the girls did insane gymnastics and sang a song with vasa. they also made us play a guessing game.
then, the lesleys did their act.
IF my mom's iphone which i am NOT IMPRESSED WITH would download our video i'd share it with you. but we are having a hard time making it work.
iphones do not impress me.
after the show, we grilled chicken, roasted veggies, baked potatoes and prepped for supper. which of course meant another trip to the store for sour cream.
we played a few card games and then the adults stayed up watching football and dumb youtube videos.
we also told funny stories from the day that my parents had missed. i laughed so much it hurt.
the next morning, we ate homemade coffee cake, some egg creation my dad made, drank a lot of coffee and started packing up.
allie asked me to ride with her. so i did. we watched leave it to beaver and talked about life.
vasa wanted to ride with uncle jay. so those two rode together. jay said it was hilarious. vasa would repeat things jay said. cute. then one time vasa said, "i cant say that. my english isnt that good yet." cute.
we planned to leave at 10 and go pick apples. it was the busiest apple picking place i'd ever seen! but it was fun. who knew my favorite apple was a corail. YUM. seriously. so darn good.
jay, gabe and i left after the apple picking. g was ready for a nap and we were stuffed on apples.
the family headed to a corn maze. not sure what fun we missed at that! but i've never been any help with those in the past. :)
i loved it. i love my family so much.
here's a few reasons why:
there's an obnoxious amount of love in our family.
we love to laugh.
we all love tea.
we truly care about each other.
we learn a lot from each other.
we text, email and talk often. (i don't call...let's just be real.)
dad - is norman no matter what.
mom - works harder than anyone i've ever known.
josh - can make me laugh like no other human
claire - is full of wisdom and such quick wit!
ava - simply delightful
allie - there's just NO ONE like her!
dd - sweet sweet heart. but she will cheat at card games
vasa - will steal your heart at first glance
jay - most peaceful, gentle amazing man i know.
gabe - seriously, my heart. there's nothing i don't love about him.
so that's us. i love it.
i wouldn't want to do this life with any other group! :) thank you Lord.
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