Pigeon Forge {Day 2}

We drove up to Gatlinburg on Sunday to check out things there. It was about a ten minute drive from Pigeon Forge.

We walked around and looked at some of the shops. Here are the kids with my parents.

James & Hannah in front of a Christmas display.

We told the kids that we might see some black bears. Not exactly what they had in mind.

We ate lunch at the Loco Burro. Hannah rode the mechanical burro afterwards.

Here the kids are posing with the burro.

After we were finished with downtown Gatlinburg, we decided to drive through the Smoky Mountain National Park. We were on a mission to see some real bears. While driving through the park, we saw a bridge and decided to park and explore. The grandparents chose to stay in the van and rest a bit.

Here is Hannah on the bridge.

Hannah and me

Chris and me

The kids (and Chris) decided to go climb around on the nearby rocks.

Hannah

I made them pose together for a picture.

Here's a view of the bridge and the stream. It was absolutely beautiful!

 We got back in the van and drove around some more. We found some wild turkeys.

While driving around we saw a bunch of cars pulled over to the side and people getting out to look at something across the road. So we decided to see what they were looking at and we got to see our black bear! 



This picture is a little better. 

I had really hoped that we would see a bear in the wild. I was very happy that we saw one so early in the trip! We went back to the Smoky Mountains for hiking later in the week and we didn't see any wildlife other than some squirrels.

Pigeon Forge {Day 1}

My parents invited us to Pigeon Forge for Thanksgiving Week. They got 2 beautiful two-bedroom condos through their time share. Spending the week in the Smoky Mountains sounded very appealing, so we accepted the invitation without any hesitations.

We didn't leave Powder Springs until nearly 5pm on Day 1 of our trip. The 4 hour drive to Pigeon Forge was pretty uneventful. We stopped for dinner at a restaurant called Little Rome in Chatsworth, Georgia. We arrived in Pigeon Forge around 9:30 pm.

Our accomodations were at the Lodges of the Great Smoky Mountains which is a Grand Crowne Resort property. I took these pictures of our condo as soon as we arrived and before we had time to mess it up!


View from the front door looking into the condo.

The living room and dining room.

Another view of living room.

The dining room and kitchen.

The kids' room.

The kids' bathroom.

Master bedroom.

Master bathroom.

This is a picture of the building we were in. I took this the next day, but thought it should be included with the pictures of the interior. This building contained 4 separate units. We had a 2 bedroom on the top floor. My parents were directly below us. There were also 2 one bedroom units in our building.

This is the balcony and our view.

Since we arrived fairly late, we didn't do much other than hang out at the condo and visit with my parents.

Scrapbooking Goal {Week 15}

It is so nice to be back on track. Let's see how long that lasts! :)


All of the layouts for this week are in James' portrait album. This first one uses a kit from Out on a Limb Scrapbooking.

Another Out on a Limb kit for James' first time on the swim team. He was only 4!

The page on the left uses Creative Memories supplies. The page on the right uses printed paper from Me and My Big Ideas.

The only embellishment that I used for this layout was the soccer ball from Deluxe Cuts. I couldn't find the website for Deluxe Cuts. I vaguely recall that they closed up shop a few years ago. However, I still want to give credit for their item.

Goal Update: 124/288 pages

Advent Calendars

One of our Christmas traditions has been advent calendars. Once the Christmas decorations are up, the kids get so excited about Christmas. The advent calendar helps them to count down the days before Christmas.

We've done the chocolate advent calendars, as well as the pricey Lego ones, but last year we did something different. I bought 2 wooden Christmas tree advent calendars with little drawers. The kids painted them and then Chris & I filled them with little treats and surprises.

With December 1st right around the corner, I had to get going on this year's calendars.


Here are the kids' advent calendars.

An empty drawer.

Here's a key next to one of the drawers to give you an idea of the size.

There's really not a lot of room for treats and such. I had forgotten how small the drawers where when I went shopping last week. 2 of the 4 different candies that I bought were too big! I guess they will be used in the stockings. (If they last that long!).

I buy little lego sets such as this one. Even though it's small, it won't fit into a drawer.

I divide the pieces up into a few separate drawers. I made sure not to put any of the "give away" pieces in the earlier drawers, such as Harry Potter's head or wand. I like to make them guess for a few days! Then the instruction sheet goes in the last drawer in the sequence.

I put dollar bills in some of the drawers, earrings for Hannah, "coupons" for extra video game time, etc. in the drawers. The kids get so excited to see what they have each morning.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving, so I just wanted to take a moment to say that I am thankful for my family & friends. In fact I am so thankful for them, that I am going to end this post right now and go spend some time with them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Colorful Cauliflower

I finally took the family to the Dekalb International Farmers Market recently. We had a nice (and inexpensive) lunch there before we did our shopping. We went on a Saturday and I don't foresee any future trips to the market on a Saturday. It was CRAZY! I think I'll have to stick with mid-week trips.

We let the kids pick out interesting produce. Hannah found some purple cauliflower. And right next to it was orange cauliflower. Purple and orange are her favorite colors, so I let her get one of each.

Here are the colorful cauliflowers.

I just cut them into small pieces, tossed them in some olive oil and sprinkled sea salt and pepper on them, then roasted them in the oven for thirty minutes or so.

It was one of those meals where everyone ate all of their veggies!

Fall Decorations

I don't decorate a whole lot for fall, but as soon as Halloween is over, I put up fall decor. I've really only started doing any fall decorating during the last couple of years.

Here is my mantle this month. I'm not as pleased with it as I am with my Halloween decorating, but it's alright. That's about all I do for fall.

I'm looking forward to getting the Christmas decorations out next month!

Leaf Me Alone

I love the fall season. The weather is a bit cooler, the nights are longer, and the trees are so colorful! But I have had it with these leaves!


This is a picture of our deck from the kitchen. It doesn't look too bad in the picture because I swept the leaves a few days earlier. However, someone keeps bring leaves into the house.

Here are some leaves on the kitchen floor.

These leaves have made their way into the living room.

Under the breakfast bar

In the guest bathroom

And by the front door.

I am almost certain that this is the culprit.

I can't put the entire blame on Snickers, but I do believe she brings most of them inside. The ones by the front door probably came in with one of the kids. And the dog doesn't usually go into the guest bathroom, so I'm not sure who is to blame there.

It's time to go sweep some leaves.

What am I Reading?

I put my name on the list for Mary Kay Andrews' latest book months ago and my turn finally came up! It was entertaining, but I didn't enjoy it as much as some of her earlier books. This one took place in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Just what I need, another mystery series to get sucked into! Well, this one involved cupcakes, so I couldn't resist. So far there are only 3 in the Cupcake Bakery series by Jenn McKinlay , so I think I can handle that. This was a cute book. There were some cupcake recipes included which I may have to try. 

I finally finished Killer Deal. You may remember me saying that I stopped reading it a few weeks ago because I had peeked at the ending and didn't like what I read. Well, after finishing the book, the ending wasn't that bad. That's what I get for peeking! It's my own darn fault. I think I have one more to read in this series.

Currently I am reading The Strange Case of Origami Yoda which is another title in the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl that James is participating. James had asked me if I had read any more of the books on the list and was disappointed that I hadn't read anymore.

Happy Reading!