you know...

you have used your children as the subject of too many experimental "photo shoots" when...

...their aunt comes for a visit over Mother's Day and your six year old asks her aunt to take a picture of her, gets her face right up next to the lens while the picture is being taken, asks to examine the picture on the digital screen, and then comments: "Aunt Janet, I think you should retake it without the flash." (The picture above was the one retaken without the flash.) :}

weekend getaway

Ok, so here's the "rest of the story". I have a couple videos I would LOVE to upload for this post, however, I can't seem to get them to upload. :( Which is why it took me so long to write this post. So for now, I'll just stick with the pictures, which are still pretty cool in and of themselves. :)

To help celebrate Daniel's graduation, this past weekend my parents, brother, and I went up to Gatlinburg for the weekend. Mom and Dad had never stayed in a cabin up there in the 25 years we've lived here! How that happened, I'm not sure! So Daniel and I fixed that. Actually, it was a weekend of a lot of firsts for them!

Neither my parents nor my brother had ever eaten at the Hard Rock Cafe so that's where we went Friday night. I had this incredibly delicious non-alcoholic drink and got to keep the glass! Daniel got a glass just like it. I like Hard Rock...however it was definitely a, um, experience for my parents! Not exactly their kind/volume of music.... :}

Saturday morning we just hung out at the cabin for a while. Daniel tries his best not to be caught smiling when a camera is around...but I caught him! :} The cabin was beautiful and clean and decorated very well - not completely crowded with "Smoky Mountain" type stuff (for example - no plaid couches :-p but instead nice leather ones like the one in this pic!).

Then it was off to explore Gatlinburg. There was a fine arts festival going on out in front of the aquarium and we all enjoyed wandering around that for a while. It was pretty hot in the bright sun though so we cooled off with some refreshing drinks...and a sno cone later - yum! :)

Mom and Dad's next new experience was the Ripley's Aquarium. Mom even crawled in to view this fish tank from the inside! :) I had been to this aquarium before, but I still enjoyed going. The tunnel is probably my favorite part, although I think mom enjoyed the moving sidewalk more than the sharks and fish swimming above our head! Lol.

Next we headed up to the tram station that would take us up to Ober Gatlinburg. Michael met us there to hang out with us for the evening and he had never riden on the tram before. It's a fun ten minute ride up and we even got to see the, er, happy bears (sorry, inside joke...ask me in person if you want to hear the story...heehee) that they have in a large outdoor cage at the top. The two attractions we had come to see up at the top ended up being closed due to a storm moving in so we hung out and walked around the small little indoor mall and watched the skaters on the ice skating rink. We wandered in to one store where Michael discovered they sold all kinds of flags for almost every country! He uses these in his classroom since he teaches history and geography and was ecstatic to discover that the flags at this store were even cheaper than the ones he had found at a local store here that were 40% off! Soo, after loading up on several flags and even getting one for free from the very nice store owner, Michael was a very happy teacher. :)

After that we headed back to our cabin while Mom and Dad went grocery shopping for dinner and missed the most incredible, best part of our weekend! Daniel and I gave Michael the "grand tour" of the cabin and ended up on the upstairs balcony. Daniel went back inside while Michael and I sat on the rocking chairs just chatting for a couple minutes. I was in mid-sentence when I looked over, spotted something moving, gasped, and about scared Michael to death! This is what I saw:

BEARS!! There were three in all and we think one was the mama bear and two were cubs...although, more like "teenager" cubs by their size. It was sooo very cool! It's hard to explain the path they took without being able to use my hands to help describe it :) but they made a huuge circle around three cabins - ours being the middle one.

Pondering upon which way to go next.... :)

I love this pic! :) I know they are wild and not safe at all...but this one just looks so cute and furry - just like a teddy bear. :) This was the mama bear. The two cubs went down in the woods and behind our cabin...but the mama bear used the tree that you can juust see in the right corner of this pic as a scratching post (which would be one of the videos I can't figure out how to upload!!) and then...

...walked right behind our cabin...

...and over to the next cabin where by this time, the family staying there had caught sight of them.

Then the two other bears joined the one to watch the guys taking their picture for a minute before continuing on around the back of their cabin and around to the front. At that point we ran to the front porch to watch and I turned on the video part on my camera (the other video I want to upload!) and we watched as the mama bear stood up and completely tipped over the "bear-proof" trashcan in this cabin's driveway! It was amazing and kind of funny! The trashcans are actually placed in a metal "cage" that is locked, so the bear didn't actually get into any of the trash - but it took a lot of strength just to knock it over!

Anyways, it was a fun weekend and hopefully it won't be 25 more years before Mom and Dad stay in another cabin in Gatlinburg! :)

oh the places you'll go!

Saturday, May 9th was graduation day for my brother. He graduated from Pellissippi with his Associates in Graphic Design. I am not a skilled enough photographer to figure out exactly how to take great pictures inside Thompson-Bowling Arena, but at least at least I have some pics to remember the day.

Walking across the stage to get his diploma!

Smile! (Aww! I can see a glimpse of baby Daniel in this expression! Seems like only yesterday.... :) )

Ok, so this is a totally random incident from the day, but there was a family with another son graduating that had formerly been registered with mom under her homeschool umbrella program. (This guy's brother was the one graduating.) My mom found them while we were swimming upstream attempting to locate my brother and after greeting the mom, informed this guy that, "You look exactly like the boyfriend I had when I was 18!" Which cracked me up because for one, I have heard about that particular boyfriend now and then growing up and two, it was amusing to see the kind of guy my mother dated! Soo...I snuck a quick picture of him! Heehee!

Aha! There he is. We loved that he wore a red shirt - made him a lot easier to find! :)

Sheesh, we're getting old! We're both out of school now and officially adults! (A little scarry....) :)

Ecstatic over his graduation present - a refurbished (read: cheaper!!) Apple laptop computer! When going into graphic design, an Apple is a must, evidently. :)

There is more to this post but since it is after midnight, it will have to wait until tomorrow...keep reading! :)

R is for triceratops

Ok, this post is a week late in coming but better late than never, right? Last week was a great week - I went out a total of three times!! It was a record! Monday we went to the playground at the church across the street, Tuesday, the baby and I went to my mom's house while the girls had school, and Friday, we went to the zoo!

My kids' cousin, Pamela has been here for the past few weeks just hanging out with her dad and my girls' dad and I had asked her if she got bored just hanging out with the guys and she said, "Um, yeah, I think I've been to every car store between Knoxville and Gatlinburg!" So I invited her to go along with us. Lauren spent the night Thursday night so she would be there to help me out also and on the way, we ended up picking up her little sister, Reegan, much to my kids' delight.

We're here! After lunch at McDonald's, we were off to explore the zoo and stopped by the rocks at the front for a quick picture.

Lauren and my baby checking out the first animal we came to....

...a very lazy, sleepy bear just hangin' out on a branch! :)

Next we went into a little building where they have a new place called "Wee Play." It has all kinds of interesting stations for kids to play with and lots of small animals for them to see - like mole rats (ew!), bunny rabbits, guinea pigs, lizards, small eels (snake fish as the baby called them), and.....

...a boa constrictor snake!! lauren walked right by this guy and jumped as she turned around, realizing the snake he was holding was real! :) Everyone was brave and pet the snake and thought it was pretty cool.

One of the play stations in the Wee Play place.

Ok, this little guy was very interested in watching us while nibbling on a snack so I had to take his picture. So many times when I've been to the zoo in the past, he has been hiding away in his little home so I was kind of excited to get to see him. :)

The real animals aren't the only fun things at the zoo, I mean, who hasn't wanted to ride on a Lion's back?? :) Reminds me of Narnia and when Lucy and Susan ride on Aslan's back.

Ok, so truthfully, this was probably my middle child's absolute favorite animal find while at the zoo! She LOVES those fuzzy little caterpillars and last summer carried some around and named them after her cousins, Kate and Margot. :)

Reegan enjoyed being a helper and pushing the stroller around for a while and I was happy to let her! My girls always made sure they were walking right next to her the whole time.

Next we went to explore the monkeys and gorillas and there is a board along the sidewalk with buttons you can push to hear the different monkey sounds. The baby did NOT like this and jumped into Lauren's arms to keep safe. :) He and I went to the zoo just the two of us back in the fall and he burst into tears that time, so just holding tight to Lauren was an improvement! :)

Here was yet another fuzzy caterpillar, however, that is not the main story behind this picture, but what happened about 45 seconds before this was taken. On the left side of this pic, just above the log wall, is the top of a trashcan. We were walking along with the little girls right in front of us when the baby decided to look at something on the other side of the little wall. As he leaned over to see inside the trash can, an enormous, furry, frightening creature, obviously escaped from some cage, jumped out squealing and ran away! Lauren, Pamela, and I all three yelped and jumped back...and then jumped forward to rescue the baby.....from a squirrel! HA! Scared us to death for just a few seconds! The baby wasn't really phased, just took a step back and then went on to discover the caterpillar. Go figure.

Next the kids walked down these rocks pretending to be some sort of animal, however, I have forgotten which one. :)

Red pandas have always been at our zoo, but they now have a home in a new cage and location in the zoo. I had to take a picture of it - they are just so cute and were always my favorite animals at the zoo when I was a little girl. :)

"Look, Kiki! It's a triceratops!!"

"Haha, yeah, actually that's a rhino, buddy."

"Yeah, that rhino's a triceratops!"

Another animal to ride on! Only this particular day at the zoo we couldn't actually find the real version of these large turtles. Oh well.

Wow!! It's a...... really large stuffed teddy bear?! (You can see the teddy bear lounging on the rocks in the left of the picture) A few minutes later a kind lady pointed out the real animal in the cage but it was perched high on a shelf curled up in a ball and sound asleep and I am still not sure what it was!

We also go to go in a quiet building that had barn owls in it. Personally, I think this was one of the cutest owls there! ;)

Aww! Four baby birds in a nest! And being squished, just like real baby birds! :)

Ok, so I was hot and a little sweaty and look just oh-so-great in this picture, but it was cute of the baby happily sitting "top of head, Kiki, top of head!" :) We had an awesome time at the zoo and loved being out and exploring all the cute, funny, and sometimes a little scarry, animals that God has created for us to enjoy. :)

all grown up

Well, our little baby birds have all grown up and flown away now. My kids loved checking on them every day the past couple weeks and it was interesting to see them change and grow.

The first picture that Lauren took was taken on a Friday. This picture was taken the following Monday. A pretty big change!

This one was taken a few days later. You can see the one bird's little leg in the top right corner.

This is the last picture we took this past week. They look like little birds now! "Real" feathers and all! :) I'm not really sure what kind of birds they are though. Anyone have a clue?