Sprinklemania

Tonight's evening activity was decorating sugar cookies! Fun! And Yum!



Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go clean up icing and sprinkles.






Jessica...are you happy now?

What's this?? A blog?

Colorado Greenery has been resurrected, again!

Dedication to my blog clearly isn't one of my strengths, but I'm back for a quick post because Jessica will be on my case soon and because my sweet mother-in-law, Becky, requested. :) It's a small miracle that I was able to remember how to find my blog and hook up the camera to download pictures!

It's been a season of many changes for us, as you already know. Rho's new job started in April, the kids and I arrived at our new home in Longmont on August 1st, Corban started public school, and Kaela started Kindergarten. I'm very happy with our new home, though it needs our attention in several areas. After putting up blinds and ceiling fans, repairing the sprinkler system, planting grass, pulling gobs of weeds, and having the front porch repaired, we started our first major project--the kids' bathroom. Rho has ripped the carpet and wallpaper out, textured the walls and we're now trying to achieve the right shade of yellow after a miserable first attempt that reminded me of newborn pooh. Sorry, but it's the best description I can think of! Rho will tile the floor and hopefully be able to put the potty back correctly! It's quite an undertaking to do home improvement! We seem to have very nice neighbors and I feel quite at home here....more so than I did after 5 years at our first house!

The kids are doing great. Corban's transition to public school has gone so smoothly. I worried for no reason. He's doing great academically and has yet to have any complaints. The girls and I had some rocky moments early in our school year, but, if memory serves me right, getting started has always been rough! Things are going well now, but it's definitely time consuming! Karis needs more patience with reading, but she's making progress and I'm hopeful that she'll learn to enjoy reading. Kaela is psyched to do school on most days and usually wants to do more than I ask of her. I wish I had the time! Corban played lacrosse again this fall and Karis is about to finish up soccer. Corban decided that Boy Scout's wasn't his thing, but is continuing with Bible Bowl. He'll start violin lessons again soon, I hope, when we find a new teacher.

Sadly, I haven't taken many pictures since we moved, but here are a few to show you that our kids are turning out to be just as weird as Rho and I.





















































And here they are showing that they can be normal and pretty cute, too!

Just Pictures

The girls sitting at the neighborhood beach access walkway.














Stopping to smell some beautiful flowers.














The Green girls in a giant red chair.














The kids learn about dragonflies during an educational outing.














Corban does his best dragonfly impersonation.

Just Pictures

I've been meaning to post pictures in my Outer Banks blogs, but don't feel like messing with them now. So instead, I'm just posting pictures separately.

















The kids feed turtles at the neighborhood pond. There were SO MANY turtles!















The pool at the house was a huge hit with the kids.















The very large home we stayed in.

OBX Day 6

Jack and Kathy, Shannon's parents, left early this morning. When we awoke later, it was cloudy and sprinkling. We decided to visit the Wright Brothers Museum. Interesting, but a little dull for the kids. Went for lunch at a pizza place. Eddie took the 3 boys straight back to the house for swimming. The weather had cleared and was very nice. Mom, Dad, Shannon, girls, and I made a couple of stops for souvenir shopping. Then returned home and joined the pool fun. Decided to make one more trip to beach. It was high tide. Eddie and Cam caught some good waves. Made sand castles. Returned to house for dinner. Started packing a little. Headed out again for shopping since earlier stops were not successful. Bathed kids. Got to bed late.

Left on July 4th around 7:15. Stopped for breakfast and lunch. Had a scavenger hunt competition between the two vehicles. Find roadkill, a school bus, a car with a kayak on top, etc. Arrived home around 7:00. Unpacked UHaul, ate a bite, put kids to bed. Pretty pooped.

OBX Day 5

I was awake pretty early this morning for some reason, but I didn't mind so much. I grabbed "Twilight" and made the most of my time, even though my eyes were barely opened. I'm having a hard time putting that book down. In fact, I finished it today and can't wait to get to bed and start the second one. After reading for a bit, I heard a bunch of commotion and soon the kids were rushing into my room to get dressed for a treasure hunt! I knew that Shannon's parents were staging a treasure hunt down at the beach, but didn't realize when it would be. I got up quickly, threw on some clothes, and we were all out the door with 2 metal detectors, shovels, and buckets. Jack, Shannon's dad, was already at the beach and had "called to tell us all that he met a guy down at the beach who told him there was probably a lot of things to find at the beach today" for some reason or another. Jack was there, guarding the hidden treasure that he had burried. The kids scanned the beach with metal detectors, all 5 of them dropping in the same spot whenever it went off. Corban dug up the first treasure, a gold dollar coin, I believe. He was SO excited. The kids were way excited now. They continued to find special coins, sea glass and special shells. All the treasure was put in one bucket to be divided up later. I don't think any of the kids caught on! After treasure hunting, we came home for a late pancake breakfast. Afterwards, the kids went swimming while the grandparents watched. I laid on the front deck hammock and enjoyed more "Twilight." Shannon wanted to go to Duck, a town just north of us, to poke around in some shops. So, when she was ready, 4 of us (Shannon, her mom, Dad, me) drove to the Waterfront Shops in Duck which are located on the Currituck Sound. It was a nice little outing. We got back for a late lunch. Mom had already fed all the kids. After the rest of us ate, I suited up for swimming and went to the pool. Kaela was the only one interested at first, but soon the others came out to join us. We played some fun pool games and I watched as everyone had some special pool trick to perform. Corban and Cameron like to do this game where they pretend to be someone in the family as they are jumping into the pool. It's funny. For example, they might swing an imaginary golf club so hard that they fall into the pool. That's their impression of Jack, Shannon's dad. For my Dad, they pretend to be asleep and snore and fall into the pool. For me, then pretend to clean everything before they fall into the pool. :) I will take this opportunity to report that I have NOT cleaned anything since I've been here, though it could use it. The baseboards on the stairs are covered with dog hair and it pains me not to clean it. There's a vacuum downstairs calling me, but I resist. Anyway, I'm rambling now. So, after swimming all afternoon, we were ready for dinner and enjoyed a beach boil meal with potatoes, shrimp, sausage, and corn on the cob. It all gets cooked in one big pot with some seasoning called Old Bay. It was yummy. The adults enjoyed some time on the upper deck, the ocean breeze making a very pleasant evening. We had some birthday cake then, celebrating George Bush's birthday. I don't really want to go into that. It's just some joke going between my dad and Jack. After that, we went to the beach to fly the kite I mentioned from the other day. It went up easily this time and the kids each took a turn flying it. Then, of course, we did more crabbing! I'm pretty sure I'll have crabby kids in the morning after all these late bedtimes! Fun times, though, and the day was made even better with the good news of the house inspection going well! Yea!!

Oh, I learned today that there are people out there in the world who make paper from elephant pooh! Yes, it's true! I was poking around in one of the little shops and saw a shelf of products from a company called the Elephant Poo Poo Paper Company. I'll prove it later with pictures, though I'm sure you could look it up if you wanted. Funny!

OBX Day 4

We woke up early today with a plan in place. Leaving the house around 8:15, we headed south on the island to a state park called "Jockey's Ridge," a sand dune area. Our goal there was to fly a nice kite that Eddie had gotten. We were glad to have gotten there as early as we did, because it was already hot. After a good effort, it was determined that the kite was too complicated for kite novices. The girls didn't really enjoy the dunes and I had to endure a good bit of complaining from them. Kaela, like a scene from a movie, was actually crawling up the dune! Oh, the drama. I intentionally hiked away to the next dune over just to get away from them for a bit. It was worth the sweat and effort. I even found a toe ring in the sand. I wished that Cameron had found it with his metal detector, but he was pleased enough that I gave it to him. After rinsing the sand off and refreshing ourselves with drinks, we headed further south to the Bodie Island lighthouse, one of 5 lighthouses on the Outer Banks. As we were approaching the lighthouse, Kaela said, "I can't believe we're going in the president's house!" I explained that we were going into a LIGHThouse, not the WHITEhouse! So cute. Anyway, we walked in and looked up at the winding staircase going to the top. Pretty neat. Other lighthouses allow people to climb to the top, for a fee, of course. Afterwards, we grabbed lunch at a Subway and then took the kids to play putt putt at a cute pirate themed course. It was hot, but fun. Kaela dropped her ball in the water, but did not have a melt down, thankfully. I was able to get another ball easily. It was the girls' turn to ride in the Jeep, so they were happy. The Jeep people stopped at a hammock store, the van people continued on, and all who wanted ice cream met at Big Buck's for some creamy, cold yumminess. Everyone needed some veg-out time when we finally got home around 3:00, so we watched some cartoons and hopped on laptops. Habits die hard, don't they? We hung around the house until dinner and went to eat at a local place called Sooey's. The kids got frisbees for plates and ate poorly because of the late ice cream treat. Oh well. It's vacation! Upon our return, the kids hit the pool for a little while and then we all went to the beach again for another "crabbing" excursion. The kids just totally love catching those crabs! After that, when the kids should have been put to bed, we let them perform their variety show. The kids were so cute performing their magic tricks, skits, and singing songs. I videoed the whole thing, like 35 minutes worth! Maybe Rho can do something cute with it. It was a late night, the kids getting to bed around 10:30!

OBX Day 3

Even though everyone was up at a decent time, our morning was a bit slow as we batted around ideas and ate breakfast. The kids spent a lot of time putting together a talent show that they'll perform for us later. The boys were using the Internet to find magic tricks they could do and the girls were practicing songs that they plan to sing. Should be cute. Around 10:30, we gathered our gear and gooped up with sunscreen and walked over to the beach. It was a real hot day, but very pleasant on the beach with the breeze. Since Rho isn't here to do ocean play with the kids, I did the best I could. Corban and Cameron stuck together and went pretty far out. Since Eddie was out there, I felt ok about it. The girls needed more attention, of course, and fortunately, Eddie took Karis out to where she wanted to go.....further than I could make myself go. I went up to my waist, however, which is farther than I've ever been, so I'm getting braver! Karis is so brave and just loved being in the water. I was so proud of her and am happy that she isn't showing signs of having lots of fears like I did as a kid. Kaela enjoyed the water, moderately. I was trying to take her out further, but even though I was holding her, she repeatedly asked me to go back closer to the beach. The adults got a little more reading done (I have started Twilight, compliments of Shannon, and am really enjoying it) and soaked up the sun. We saw a group of dolphins go by at one point. That was exciting. I'm just glad I wasn't in the water then. I'm sure it would have scared me. We also saw an F18 or something like that fly over and do a little show off move. When we were all hungry, we packed up and came home for a late lunch. After lunch, Mom and I and all the kids went down to the house pool. I was able to convince Kaela to use only ONE floatation device for a little while. She wears a life vest AND wants an inner tube around her also! I don't have to worry about her drowning! When everyone had had their fill of the pool, we came in. The kids played around the house while Mom, Dad and I cooked dinner (bbq chicken on the grill, fried potatoes, stir fry green beans, squash/zucchini, and rolls....sorry Rho!) Eddie and Shannon did another Jeep ride to take her parents to view the wild horses. Mom and Dad and I stayed here with the kids. The kids messed around and then rode bikes and scooters out front. Corban and I played Jai Lai (sp?). When the Jeep riders returned home, we ate brownies that I had made earlier in the day along with homemade ice cream that Shannon made. So good! Sorry again Rho. :) Then, the whole gang walked down to the beach to do some "crabbing." Armed with shovels, buckets, and flashlights, the kids ran around chasing and catching crabs. It was really neat. Corban and Karis worked together and caught 7 or 8 crabs. Kaela was carrying her little bucket around, too scared to actually catch one, so Corban caught a couple for her. She was very content to carry them around and when she dropped the bucket and her crab friends escaped, she was very distraught. All together, I think the kids got close to 20 crabs and we had a mass release when we were done for the evening and bid our crab friends goodnight. Another fun day here!

Oh, the turtles. At some point today, I walked down to the neighborhood pond with Corban, Cameron, Karis and Kaela (Matthew was napping) to feed turtles. We had walked by the pond on Sunday, stopping to look at a couple of turtles that we spotted. The turtles spotted us too, and there were probably 100 turtles that came swimming over, waiting for us to feed them. We were ready today, with a few heels of bread and some Matzo crackers left over from communion. I just couldn't get over how many turtles were in this little pond! I tried counting, but they don't cooperate and just keep moving around.

OBX Day 2

(I plan to add pictures and spiff up the writing later. I have to put something down now though or I will forget)

Early risers made eggs, bacon, and pancakes. Around 10:45, we headed out to the Currituck Nature Center for a presentation on dragonflies, geared toward children...cute. Went into the small nature museum there, Kaela and Corban tried on turtle costumes, then all walked over to a lighthouse. Just looked at this one. Costs $7 to climb up. Might do that at a different, more famous lighthouse. Came back to house for lunch. Swam for a few hours at house pool. E/S/C/C played some tennis in the crazy heat. Ate spaghetti dinner, made by Kathy. Ed/Lana/3K went for beach drive in Eddie's Jeep to see wild horses. Drove 11 miles to Virginia border. Saw probably 15 horses, 2 kayakers, lots of dogs, 2 sailboats, and 1 wedding! "Wild" horses actually quite tame, coming within a few feet of Karis and Keala....pictures will show! E/S/C/M, S's parents, and Corban went to play putt-putt while we were Jeeping. Baths upon return. Terrible tangles in girl's hair....no more Jeep rides w/o ponytails! Shannon sprained ankle while going down stairs to beach. :(

Outer Banks Day 1

Left TN 6:30. 10 and 1/2 hour drive, arrived at 5:30. Unpacked, went to dinner at a pizza place, walked to ocean for a quick look. Spotted several crabs.

Day 1
Morning....Eddie took all 5 kids to the beach for early walk while others woke up/dressed/etc. After breakfast, we held church services here at the beach house. Eddie "preached" about blessings, in general, tying in lessons that the kids had just had at VBS last week. Corban helped serve Lord's Supper and led closing prayer. His maturity shouldn't surprise me, but he even included things from the "sermon" during his prayer. Such a special boy. Kaela squirmed around the whole time, falling asleep near the end. Other 4 kids swam in house pool, used hot tub. Woke Kaela, ate lunch, then all 12 went to beach, about 100 yards away. Kids wave jumped, found shells, dug holes, built castles. Adults sat, read. Headed home late afternoon, made dinner (hamburgers, hot dogs). E/S/boys took Jeep drive to see wild horses. Ed/Lana/3K walked to community pool and playground to check it out, then across street to shops. Played at another playground there and ate ice cream. Karis completed monkey bars for first time. Kaela did 2 bars! Passed pond with LOTS of turtles. Plan to go back to feed them.

Corban's 10th Birthday

It was a "big" birthday this year for Corban, turning double digits. I remember thinking it was pretty important turning 10. I don't think Corban thought it was such a big deal. Thankfully, Rho was still here in TN to celebrate Corban's birthday. Originally, he was not supposed to have been here, but it worked out that he was. We had a pretty "normal" day as I recall, torturing Corban until the evening to celebrate. He had chosen manicotti for dinner and a multi-flavored cheesecake for dessert. Eddie's family was over to celebrate with us....that's Cameron and Matthew in the pictures. I wish I could remember to have someone take a family picture on the kid's birthdays, but I always forget.

































Corban celebrates his iTouch, his only desire this year. He's turning into a techno kid, for sure.

AMSE

So this is more old news, from when Rho was here in TN, and that was FOREVER ago.

Us Greens and all the Kuhls made a trip to Oak Ridge, TN to visit the American Museum of Science and Energy. There were lots of interactive exhibits for the kids to enjoy. In the pictures, Kaela is working a dinosaur puzzle, Corban is making his name in braille, and the big group standing around the table is working various puzzles. There were so many neat things to do, including a demonstration of the "big ball that makes your hair stand up." It has a real name, but like I said, this is old news and I can't remember what it was called. Karis was brave enough to volunteer to go up on stage and have a room full of people laugh at her crazy hair!

She's Got Talent

A couple of days ago, as we were out shopping, Kaela must have gotten bored. She was wearing a sleeveless dress and was trying to be patient while my focus was on Karis. She made a neat discovery and announced to us all, "I can lick my armpit!" You can just imagine how proud I am. Thought about posting a picture of it, but don't want to encourage that behavior! Gross!

Easter 2009

Our Easter weekend was a busy one with extended family coming to Maryville to celebrate my grandmother's 85th birthday. We had a delicious Easter meal on Saturday afternoon at my brother's house and enjoyed catching up with each other. On Sunday afternoon, the kids enjoyed an Easter egg hunt at some friend's of Eddie and Shannon's. We even got to see some itty-bitty baby bunnies just behind the fence that the kids are standing in front of. They were so cute! What a neat Easter treat!

Putt Putt Fun

After shopping at the outlet stores in Pigeon Forge one evening, we took the kids to play putt-putt at an Old MacDonald themed course. I don't know what Kaela thought it would be like, but she did not want to play and was crying by the time I chose a ball and club for her. I didn't know a child could be so nervous about playing miniature golf! After the first hole, however, Kaela loved it and they all had fun. Karis was happy to have her picture taken with a cow, her favorite animal at the moment. She got lucky at the end of the game by getting a hole-in-one on an almost impossible putt and won a free game!
Kaela, as she so often does, says "This was my best day ever!" She has lots of "best day evers." Even if she gets a new toothbrush, it's a "best day ever!"

Ice Cream #2

We're doing our best to eat our fair share of ice cream, so we took a field trip on Thursday to Mayfield Dairy where we had a tour of the milk and ice cream factory and then enjoyed some ice cream, of course! The only cow we saw was the giant one in the picture below, so I insisted that Corban milk it. Rho told me that Corban always wanted to milk a cow when he was little. I thought this might be the closest he'd ever get to fulfilling that dream. I thought we all looked pretty spiffy in our red hair nets, don't you?

Ice Cream #1

So much for posting old news in any kind of order. It's just going to come at you randomly. How 'bout that?

There isn't much that beats eating free, delicious ice cream in your pajamas and that's exactly what's going on here. Mom and Dad knew of a great ice cream place in Knoxville that was giving free ice cream one Saturday to anyone who showed up in their jammies. Yum!

Buzz Cut

I was going to post our TN happenings in chronological order, but I wanted to post these pictures of Corban's last haircut. My friend Jessica asked if Corban had been saying "NO" to haircuts. Well, for a while, he was sporting a longer style that he would wet and put curling gel in. It looked very nice that way, but as most of us with curly hair know, it became a hassle and I finally talked him into getting a "summer" cut. Before the cut, he could pouff out his hair pretty big (first picture with goofy grin)! Nan (my Mom) was the stylist for this latest buzz cut and she had some fun by first giving him a rad mohawk. (I think I'm going to be in big trouble for posting this picture). The end result is nice, as you can clearly see in the last picture of a very handsome 10 year old.

Backyard Fun

These are just a few photos taken early in our TN stay. My parents have a nice, big backyard for the kids to enjoy. If only we could annihilate the ticks and bugs! Ick! Colorado doesn't have all these creepy crawlies....it takes some getting used to. Corban enjoys shooting a b.b. gun and the girls sometimes take over Pappaw's shed to use as a play house. My parents have a great waterfall and LOTS of flowers and such. The garden is in as well, after Rho tilled and worked the dirt. I realize I didn't post pictures that show all this! Maybe in a later post. Oh, and we're watching some baby birds whose parents made their nest inside one of the bird feeders. Cool!

Temporary Tennesseeans

A WHOLE lot has happened since my last blog. Most of you know about all that. Though it's hard to imagine that I would ever forget this crazy time, I'm going to write down a quick recap here anyway, since I know how unreliable my memory can be.

On February 23rd, two days before we were to sell our Erie home and buy a new home in Loveland, Rho's boss informed him that he would be laid off at the end of March. One of our main goals for this move was to get Rho closer to this job. Not knowing how long it might take for Rho to find a new job or where it would be, we backed out of buying the Loveland home. We still sold our Erie home, closing on the 25th. In the midst of shock and confusion, we were forced to make many difficult decisions, quickly. God saw us through that time and, in the end, Rho stayed in CO to finish his work and I packed up the kids and a UHaul and drove to TN with the help of my Mom. Rho was soon told by his boss that he could just quit working and still get paid, giving him the freedom to job hunt full-time. Within a week, Rho had interviewed with Lockheed Martin, a former employer, and basically had secured a job. We felt amazingly blessed. During an economically tough time, we were amazed that a job presented itself so quickly. Clearly, God's hand was in this. Though being apart from Rho was tough for the kids and I, we felt very encouraged that we'd be back together sooner than we imagined. Though we had hoped Rho's job would start on April 6th, he actually didn't get started until the 27th. There were "issues" at Lockheed that are too confusing to remember!

During parts of March and April, Rho came to TN and was able to spend several weeks here while waiting for his job to begin. I made the trip back to CO with him and did some house hunting. We are still waiting for the right house to show up. We did make a bid on one, but were outbid by other buyers. We weren't terribly disappointed over this, just frustrated that it meant MORE house hunting and that our being together as a family would be postponed a little more. We continue to pray that God's Will will be done in this and that he'll bless us with the home that he'd have us in.

So, that's the saga, in a nutshell. It made me sad to think about all that again. What an emotional time. Anyway, I hope to do several blogs to show what we've been doing while in TN. It's old news, but at least there will be pictures to enjoy!

Thanks to each of you who have prayed for us during the past months. It is greatly appreciated.

Packing Up

Our cleaning out and packing up continue to go well as our moving day draws closer. It's hard to believe we'll be saying goodbye to our house in just 4 days! Karis and Kaela have found the fun in moving....boxes! They've enjoyed playing house amongst them and using them for hiding while playing hide-and-seek.

We're looking forward to my Mom coming out on Tuesday to help us with our move.....hope she's been lifting weights in preparation! We've got some heavy furniture!

Corban is sick with a fever again today, though we didn't realize it until we were at church. We decided to go ahead and stay since he said he was okay and it was our last time to be there. After his passing out at church a few weeks ago and throwing up/passing out another Sunday, we're beginning to feel like we'd have to find a new church even if we weren't moving!

Sign Confusion

Kaela's take on a common parking lot sign: "Mommy, that person is sitting on the potty."

Late December-January

The day after Christmas was spent hurriedly preparing for a trip to Abilene. The weather was gorgeous while we were there, making it hard for me to want to return to cold, cold Colorado. I enjoyed many nice walks around ACU, alone, and with Bo and Becky. Corban played some hacky-sack and a lot of ping-pong. Karis and Kaela enjoyed their many girl cousins on the Green side of the family. Rho and I celebrated our 14th anniversary while there, going to dinner and a movie.





































































Upon our return home, we contacted a realtor to talk about putting our house on the market again. On the 12th, Mike came to our home and we signed papers to make him our realtor. I was expecting to get some advice and spiff things up around the house before listing, but Mike said "go," so we did. We did a good bit of tossing, organizing, storing, cleaning, furniture moving, etc. over the next few days before the house was listed on the 20th. On the evening of the 22nd, we had a contract. Boy, we weren't expecting that and there were tears shed that night as the reality hit. Since the average days on the market for homes in our area is 3 to 4 months, I didn't think we'd be moving until late spring, maybe even summer. But you just never know, do ya? We continued to show the house through the week and weekend. On one crazy day, we had roofers, concrete workers and carpet stretchers here all at once, taking care of things that we'd been putting off. We went out for our first house hunting mission on the 28th. It's mostly been a blur since then, but we have located a house in Loveland, just south of Fort Collins. In just 17 days, we sold our home and purchased another. Of course, we still have to do inspections and whatnot, but we are scheduled to close on both homes on the 25th. I do believe God is answering our prayers about this move and we just continue to pray that he'll bring us to a new church where we can serve and meet new friends! Exciting and busy days are coming our way!

December

December brought some really cold weather, but some nice snow to play in as well. The days sped by as we homeschooled, went to Options school each Tuesday, continued swimming lessons for the girls, and Bible Bowl, Boy Scouts and violin lessons for Corban. Before we knew it, Christmas was upon us! We were home for Christmas day and enjoyed playing all day with new toys, especially Rock Band!

November

It's been so long since I've blogged that I'm struggling to remember how to do things! I won't dwell much on the several months that have passed since I last blogged, but I'm going to do a quick month by month update, if I can pull anything out of my memory bank to share. My last blog was about Halloween, so here's a little bit about November...

Corban participated in a scouting event called the "Rain gutter Regatta." He and Rho put together a little wooden boat and Corban decorated it. Then, one Saturday afternoon, there was a big competition between all the boys. As you can see from the picture, the boys blow on the sail to make them travel down a rain gutter.

On the 15th, I celebrated my 36th birthday. woo-hoo.

We switched things up this year and went to Tennessee for Thanksgiving instead of making our usual Abilene trip. We did this to coordinate a visit with my grandmother that I see very rarely. Our trip started out a bit rough with Kaela throwing up for several hours the night before our departure. Since we weren't sure what the morning would bring and knowing that we were going to start out sleep deprived, we played it by ear and thankfully, were able to leave just a few hours later than our original ETD. The trip went smoothly and we had a nice visit with my parents, brother and family, aunt, uncle, grandmother, and one of my two first cousins and her family.

Pre-Thanksgiving, we enjoyed a little trip to Sevierville to eat breakfast at a yummy pancake house.

Corban, Cameron, Karis, Kaela, and Christina chow on a delicious Thanksgiving day feast. Rho was my Mom's unexpected sous-chef this year, cranking out 3 pecan pies, a vegetarian casserole, and a homemade squash/carrot soup. I was Rho's sous-chef, chopping endlessly and taking much grief from him over how nicely his pecan pies turned out. They WERE beautiful, but I'm certain it has everything to do with altitude!


Corban and Karis enjoy playing with their only cousins from the Kuhl side of the family, Cameron (rolled up in blankets) and Matthew.