2nd Annual Family Camping Weekend

This weekend was our second annual Family Camping Weekend with our church. It was great to see how many people turned out. On Saturday, there were fun things planned like a marshmallow toss, a pumpkin seed spitting contest, a mummy wrap, pumpkin carving contests, and much more. That evening, we had a worship service with music and a message from Pastor Scott. Thanks to Dan and Cyndee who work so hard to make this a fun weekend for families. :)

Janna helps Ian on Levi's little bicycle. Go Ian!!

Brandon and Levi take a break from the cold and watch CARS inside the camper.

Levi loved being outside all weekend! He was a big helper to daddy!

Levi "hanging out" with the big kids, Brandon, Andrew and Megan. They were great helpers with Levi and he loved feeling like a part of their group. Thanks guys for letting him tag along all the time!!

Dan and his kids Caleb, J'Dyn & Joshua. Dan and his wife Cyndee organize the camping trip every year. Thanks for doing such a great job and having a heart for families!!!

Brigette and her boys Brandon and Andrew...they are like our second family!!

Eric & Levi making goofy faces!

Levi loved walking Katie all weekend. I am surprised he could hold on to her leash that well!


This weekend was the first time Levi rode his bike. He's scooted along on it before, but this weekend is when he actually started peddling and not relying on mommy and daddy to push him along. He LOVED bike riding. It's what he wanted to do from sun up to sun down!

Go Jill! She's a pro at catching marshmallows!

More silly faces with Levi and Daddy!

Goofy pictures of the marshmallow toss. Dan is really getting into it!!

The Mummy wrap. Look at all the fancy mommies!!

The cake eating contest...Go Andrew, Josh & Tom!! Looks good!

Janna leads in worship...

Mommy & Levi at the worship service.

Pastor Scott came to deliver a message at the worship service about bringing people to Jesus.

Happy Fall Ya'll - kind of...

Usually when I think of Fall, I think of hot chocolate or cider, pumpkin patches, changing leaves, corn mazes, a chill in the air...

However, this year, our first "fall" event was more like 90 degree weather, sweaty kids running around with runny noses from allergies, and an evening ending with ice cream instead of hot chocolate! We went to a place called Deere Farms that had fun stuff for smaller kids to do. There was a hay maze, a big bouncer, a hay ride and pumpkin picking. It was a lot of fun despite the hot weather.

.

.

.

.

(Disclaimer: You'll notice there are no pictures of the Bush's even though they were there. Gretchen kept covering her face and making horrible moaning sounds when I'd try to take her picture. She had a cold!)

Jami posing in front of the entrance.

Levi & Corbin playing on the hay stack maze.

Levi & Hope in the maze. This will be an adorable picture one day for the slideshow at their wedding! LOL
The kids all enjoyed sliding down the hill in a big tube.

Steve, Jami and their little cutie, Cooper

Levi and Corbin enjoyed throwing walnuts down the hill.

Daddy & Levi on the hayride out to the pumpkin patch.

Mommy & Levi on the hayride back to the farm. Levi is carrying his prize pumpkin!
Jami & Cooper...Cooper wants to get down and find a pumpkin!

Daddy & Levi showing off our pumpkins!

Matt, Melanie & Corbin on the hayride.

Here is our tractor driver. Levi kept calling him Papa. Maybe we should get Papa some bib overalls!

Emmy turns 1

Last night was Emily's first birthday party. I can't believe she is already one! Where does the time go? Emmy had no problem digging right into her cake. In fact, she quite enjoyed it!!

Matt is old

Matt turned 34 on Saturday and to celebrate, we all went to the Italian restaurant Amerigos for dinner. Here are some random shots of the evening.

The old man

Matt, Mini-Me Corbin and Melanie - Isn't Corbin the spitting image of Matt?

Matt's mom made a scrumptious strawberry pie for dessert!

Matt & Matt - Matt wants Matt to quit talking and blow out the candles!! Melanie (Martha Stewart) made a Grasshopper pie. Yum!

The whole gang...

Diane & John...Melanie's parents

Carolyn & Keith...Matt's parents

Corbin pretty much stole the show all night! Isn't he a cutie patootie?!

Adam & Dana - I kept trying to get a good picture of Dana all night, but she kept throwing up the menu or her napkin. This is the best I got! I'll get you one of these days, Dana!!!!

Tracey & Eric - Eric ordered an incredible salmon dinner that was smoked on a cedar plank. We were all quite jealous when his plate arrived. He had no problem diving right into it!

Eric (probably laughing at one of Matt's many stories); Josh & Janna [Janna informed us that there was mouthwash in the huge bathroom so we all went for a swig after dinner!]

Paul & Gretchen - aren't they cute??!

Like Father, Like Son

I told Levi to go use the potty before bed. Here's what I found...

Fun pics of Levi

Here are a couple of cute pictures that we took before our Gatlinburg trip. Levi is growing up so fast! He plays the guitar and says "Levi singing songs to Jesus". So cute!

While we were on our trip, Levi stayed with "B" two nights and with Gretchen and the kids for one night. I was really worried about how he would do, but he did awesome! He called us each night on the phone and told me about how he would go potty at school and what he did during the day (mostly "play" "bus" and "trains"). Thank you, Brigette and Gretchen for your help with Levi. You guys are awesome and there aren't too many people we'd leave our kid with!! :)

Check out the end of our trip on the post before this one.

Levi singing songs to Jesus

Daddy is taking a snooze while Levi watches Cars. He loves sitting on Daddy to watch tv.

Day Three and headed home...

Wednesday was a gorgeous day. We spent the morning at Cade's Cove (looking for bears!) and then ate lunch at this little hole in the wall BBQ joint. I was a little concerned that we'd hear banjo music and asked if I should call home to tell them where we were! LOL It ended up being some of the best BBQ I've had. That evening, we ate at Linebergers Seafood in Gatlinburg. It was good food! After dinner, we headed back to the cabin and got in the hot tub and played cards. It was another fun year on our annual trip and we're already looking forward to next year! Thanks, Matt & Melanie for being such great friends and for keeping the tradition with us. We love you!!

Here's why they are called the "Smoky" Mountains!

Here's the Core Four at Cade's Cove. (We won't go into detail about how I almost knocked the fence over trying to get this picture!!)

Eric & Tracey at one of the cabins. It's a really good thing I didn't grow up in the olden days...no electric, no running water, growing your own food...that doesn't work for me!

Matt is always trying to figure out different things about cabins so he can incorporate it into the cabin he is in the process of building...Melanie is really happy about that!! LOL

It was such a gorgeous weekend. The scenery was beautiful and the weather was perfect!

Yes, BEAR poop! All weekend, we heard "Oh, you just missed the bear that passed by!" Here is another one we just missed! You can tell it is bear poo because it has berries in it!! TMI??

Back at the cabin, we watched another movie in the theatre room. We rented Ironman and The Cleaner. Both were really good movies!

Here's a shot of the cabin. To the right of the cabin is our hot tub on the screened porch. In the guest book, people wrote about how a bear walked up and pushed on the screen trying to get in. Of course, we didn't see this, but it supposedly happened the two weeks prior to us being there. Melanie left her breakfast outside trying to persuade the bear to come for a visit, but I guess he knew it was a trap!

The annual picture by the fireplace.

Thursday morning, Matt is very happy to be headed home!