What a Relaxing Mini-Vacation! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Friday, June 6th At Wyndam's Recreation Center, the kids loved swimming in the pool!

Savannah coming up for air! Isn't this funny?!

Hanging out with Daddy!

Later Friday afternoon, we went to Whitewater Falls! Is this view gorgeous or what?! This was taken on the way to the falls.

Whitewater Falls- at 420 ft. this is the tallest waterfall in the East.

As close as we could get to the falls- Savannah wanted to take our picture.

Fairfield Lake, Cashiers, North Carolina

Bald Rock Mountain at Fairfield Lake less than a mile from the Wyndam Resort.

Saturday we went to Fairfield Lake. What a face!

Savannah liked the lake better than the pool!

Saturday we also went to Silver Run Falls! Someone volunteered to take our picture!

Silver Run Falls is one of the many waterfalls in this area!

We also went to Cashiers Sliding Rock. Conley going down Sliding Rock for the first time!

His reaction after his first slide down the rock!

As hard as Conley tried, he couldn't convince Savannah to slide with him!

The water was freezing, but they sat still on a rock for me to take their picture!

Savannah enjoyed just looking for rocks and other shiny objects!

Another of Conley sliding! He did this many, many, many times!

Arrival at the Biltmore on Sunday morning! It is a spectacular site! We also visited the winery and the barn.

At the Barn there was this old wagon to get in and pose!

Conley loved the barnyard animals. He found a baby chick and held it for quite a while!

Savannah fell in love with the lambs! There were four of them and they were adorable!

This is at the winery! It was so beautiful how they just grew over the pergola!

Savannah resting in the gardens! It was a very hot day!

Conley searched and searched the conservatory for a Venus Fly Trap but couldn't find one!

In the garden area on the way to the conservatory. I'd love this in my yard!

The kids were so amazed. Their jaws were wide open when they saw the house! I have to share something really funny that Conley said. When touring the house, we saw dumbwaiters used to transport food to the Vanderbilt's and their guests. Conley thought they meant "dumb waiters"! I am still laughing about that one!

Didn't make you wait long, did I?

Yesterday was a very busy day! Savannah had field day at her school. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any pix of her events because I was busy working the concessions. She placed 1st in the 200 relay- left everyone else in the smoke! Then she had her final tennis scrimmage after school. Her team lost by only one set. She has really enjoyed playing. Her coach told her she has shown alot of improvement in just a few weeks. Next school year will be more competitive. She wanted to play volleyball, too, but they conflict with each other. We just can't do practice every night of the week, which that's what it would be if she played both sports. Conley had his play and awards program last night. The play was based on a book they read about Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head traveling the country. They learned about geography and history by having their colored and laminated Mr. Potato Head travel to see a friend or family member in another part of the country. Conley sent his to Aunt Beth and Uncle Zach in Alaska. Beth went all out! Mr. Potato Head even got to go with them to Guatemala when they picked up Gabriel. Conley was so adorable! He knew all of his lines, plus everyone else's. Mr. Cheatam is a volunteer in the multi-age class. He is a WW2 vet and comes quite often to their class with all kinds of old gadgets along with stories of the "good ole days". All the kids love him! Mr. Cheatam played his harmonica while the kids sang God Bless America. It was so sweet! Conley's friend, Baylee, was Dolly Parton. She had on a blonde wig and had balloons tucked into her dress. Hannah, Conley's best friend, was the Statue of Liberty. His friend, Nick, was Ben Franklin. After the play, they did their awards program. Conley received the Friendship Award- because he's friends with everyone, the Certificate of Excellence for being in the top three for AR points in Reading, the Spelling Award, All A Honor Roll, and The High Standard of Academic Excellence Award for maintaining a 102 grade average all year long. Even though Savannah's age group doesn't give awards like this-I have to brag on her, too! Savannah was also on the All A Honor Roll all year long and her teachers all told me that she is one of the sweetest kids they've ever had. Savannah has been in the Beta club all year and has been involved with helping other students and teachers as part of that program. As you can tell, I'm so proud!!!

I know, I know- I'm slow again!

I'm sorry for not posting in a while. I'll try to do better! The school year is winding down- only one week left and the kids are extremely excited. Savannah has her last tennis scrimmage this Thursday until the fall. Conley has his play and awards night this Thursday evening. If you weren't aware, Conley is the lead in his class play. He will be portraying Mr. Potato Head so I'll be sure to upload photos from that! Savannah's field day at school is this week, Conley's was last week. We were finally able to go to Cades Cove this past weekend. It wasn't very crowded- surprising since it was Memorial Day weekend. I guess people just aren't traveling much due to gas prices. We saw lots of deer and cicadas. Conley was fascinated by them. We also took the kids to see Prince Caspian. It was a very good movie- different from the first one but still very good. Gregg and I worked in the yard all day yesterday. We are almost finished with the landscaping around the house. We put in stone, pea gravel, and black mulch. We need to have another load of mulch delivered along with one more container of stone. We'll still have plenty more landscaping to do, but at least that part is almost done. I'll post pix when we get finished. I'm sure our neighbors are happy to see us working on it. Rascal got a hair cut a couple weeks ago. We had all the "fuzzies" removed so hopefully now we won't have that problem when he grows out. He looks kind of funny, though! Enjoy the photos and I'll be sure to post more soon!

Fun At Epcot

Hopefully the computer will work more efficiently today. While visiting Gregg's parents we went to Epcot in Orlando for a day and Arnold and Vonda went with us. It wasn't nearly as crowded as we anticipated since it was spring break. It was much cooler than we thought, though. Luckily there were a couple of jackets in the van from the trip down so the kids were able to keep warm. I ended up buying a sweatshirt because the wind was freezing. I never would have spent the money on that thing if it weren't necessary because it was way overpriced. We had a great day in spite of the temperatures. Savannah commented that Epcot was both fun and educational! Ha Ha! It had been many many years since we'd been there. The kids bought souveniers with the money they earned doing chores before going on the trip.

Slow to Post- Sorry!

Now it's time to play catch-up! It's been a very busy month! My parents came to visit us before flying to Alaska to meet their newest grandkids. We kept their little dog, Cici, for them. They were there for five weeks! They saw lots of snow and spent all their time doting on Gabriel and Donavyn. It was kind of a rough visit for everyone- Dad got sick, then Donavyn was sick with a kidney infection and had to be admitted to the hospital, then Beth got sick, then it was Mom's turn. After that, Gabriel decided he needed to be included in the chaos, so he threw a temper tantrum and slammed himself into a table- pushing his new top front teeth back up into his gums. OW!!! He survived after a short trip to the ER. Zach, unfortunately, was missing in action while the party was going on. He was on deployment for three weeks. We're just glad everyone is all better! While Mom and Dad were away, it was the kids' spring break, so we put the pups in a pet resort and went to Brooksville, Florida to visit Gregg's family. We had a good time, but as usual, it went by too fast. We celebrated Easter with them. Conley learned how to shoot a shotgun- which belonged to Gregg when he was a little boy. Savannah and I were able to see some old friends, Leigh Anne, Cora Lynn, and Savannah. They moved to the Tampa area last summer from Washington State. It had been years since we'd seen them, so that was great! Well, I'll post more from our trip tomorrow. The computer is very slow to load tonight.