Mississippi SURPRISE!!!

Since we were already halfway (or so we thought) to Mississippi when we were in Gatlinburg, we decided to swing down to visit Dallas's side of the family in a covert trip! We surprised them all!

It was Dallas's sister's birthday!! Christy, who is battling ovarian cancer, was totally shocked! It was great to see her and her husband, Mitch, alongside all the cousins!

Here's Naomi and Dallas-Paige being silly at Christy's birthday party!

Here's the whole fam! This restaurant was good, but incredibly DARK inside!

We had a great time with family that we rarely see!

Grandma and Grandpa Hills with all the cousins!
Thanks for your Southern Hospitality, Hills family!
We hope to see y'all soon!!!

Gatlinburg-2011

My mom and dad took us to their timeshare in Gatlinburg, TN for our final hoorah of the summer! It was a great getaway! We ate bar-be-que, looked for the black bears that Gatlinburg boasts of, hiked to a waterfall, ate more bar-be-que, enjoyed some live bluegrass music at the pottery place, watched pots being thrown, and the list goes on and on...and we ate more bar-be-que.

Here's a sample of Alewein Pottery's gorgeous pottery! My mom secretly purchased a gorgeous water pitcher for me, and my dad bought me these matching "salsa" bowls.

We loved this "live music" sign!

...but we loved the live music even more! They even let us join their band!

Tate played the..."dancing man?"

...then Naomi played while Darby danced.

These are the only black bears we saw aside from the stuffed bears Grammy bought for the kids. After spending a week there, I was sorely disappointed that we did not see any live bears, but only sort of. One doesn't want to REALLY have an "encounter" with a bear, after all! However, I'm not entirely convinced that all this "black bear hype" is not one big marketing ploy!

We drove up a mountain to a ski resort and went down the Alpine slide! That was a lot of fun, and the view from the top was amazing!

Here is our big, happy family (excepting Darby...she was "hot" and wanted "water")

Still, there MUST actually BE black bears in those Great Smoky Mountains, because when we went on our hike (where I was SURE we were to see some bears), we first walked past this sign.

My dad and mom. Isn't this spot just gorgeous?!!

Tate and Naomi jumped around for a minute before we continued on.

The scenery was fantastic!

We finally made it to the waterfall and were not disappointed! It was beyond gorgeous!

...and Tate swam underneath the waterfall for the first time with only a small amount of convincing!

Naomi, however, could not be convinced.

If you've ever been to the South, you know Krispy Kreme is famous for it's "HOT, FRESH, NOW" sign! I swerved through traffic to make sure we made it there before the sign went off! Our kids experienced their first ever "Hot, Fresh, Now" Krispy Kreme donuts!!

Tate peeked through the windows at the hundreds of donuts!

Darby wanted "more."

"Happy all around." Isn't THAT the truth!

Tate was one happy camper, and Naomi was too busy eating to notice anything else!

Dallas took Tate and Naomi to "Hillbilly Golf" while Darby took a much needed nap. They took this little tram thing up the side of the mountain and golfed back down.

Then they went to Parrot Mountain.

This reminded me of the time Naomi was bit by an ostrich...yes, an ostrich. But, I'm not going there...I don't need any nightmares tonight!

This bird had some strange affinity for Tate's neck. Dallas said it sat there licking his neck for several minutes.

You can call him "birdman."

Our last night, we went to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede, where Tate and Naomi posed with the Southern Belle out front.

This guy was from Pennsylvania! Go figure.

Darby loved all the horsies!

Thanks for a great vacation, Gramps and Grammy! We love you!

TATE IS EIGHT!!!

Tate is eight!
For his birthday, Daddy gave him a BB Gun!
(Naomi's face is probably mimicking my own first reaction to giving him a gun, but I'm over it)
He learned how to shoot at Boy Scout Camp over the summer.

Everyone in my family loves Spongebob...much to my demise.
So, I laid my hatred for the poor sponge aside for one day and went nuts!

Then, the kids slid down the biggest, longest, steepest homemade slip-n-slide I have EVER seen!
(our backyard is STEEP!)
I underestimated how fast the kids would be going.
We clocked them coming to a grinding/flying/flailing/tumbling hault at about 30mph.
(joke)
(sort of)
This thing was probably about 70 feet long.
Now I know why slip-n-slide puts a disclaimer on their directions that you should not assemble the slide on a hill.
...and remember how slip-n-slides used to be WAY longer when WE were kids?!!
We went retro.
We live on the edge.
At Tate's party, we almost died on the edge.
That's how we roll.

Here's the birthday boy taking the first slide of the day!
(I thought about sending someone else's kid down first so the birthday boy did not die on his birthday, but thought that was not the best neighborly choice.)

...and sister cautiously slid down, too.
(note: You cannot actually see the top of the slide here. There's another 20+ feet up there.)
(note 2: No fancy camera tactics were used in the making of these pictures! This is the actual hill)

Happy Birthday, Tate!
We love you!
We are proud of you!
(I promise we were not trying to injure you OR your friends at your party.)

Disclaimer: If you try this at home and are injured, you did NOT see this idea here first!