Our Very First ROAD TRIP!! (part two)

After we left the Clair's in Gallatin (TN) we headed toward Ober-Gatlinburg. We were determined to see snow even if it was the man made kind. Our friends The Kimbrough's met us there.

FYI - GPSs are not always right and sometimes can make a trip much longer then it has to be.

Here's more of the Smokey Mountains...Ahh, isn't beautiful!!

Taylor cheesin' it up for the camera.

I didn't get many pictures at Ober-Gatlinburg because we made it there as it was closing. But I thought this picture of Ray and Cathy ahead of us going through the tunnel as we drove down the mountain was really neat.

After we left Ober-Gatlinburg we drove down to Georgia where The Kimbrough's live.

Taylor, Ray and Rachelle.

Cody, Caitlan and Bryce.

The Erdwein-Kimbrough Crew

Tommy, Dawn, Bryce, Caitlan, Taylor

Ray, Cathy, Chris, Chelsie, Rheanna, Cody and Rachelle

WHOA BABY!!

8 awesome kids, 4 old friends, too many years in between!!

Making new memories and rebuilding friendships = PRICELESS!!

Rachelle and Taylor

These girls were inseparable.

Bryce and Chris

If you would have told me that this visit would have turned out this GREAT...I would have never believed you.

Caitlan, Rheanna and Chelsie

Keeping them up 'til 2am wasn't the best of ideas...but we didn't want to miss one minute!

Ok, so we kinda found snow.

We had taken the kids to the skating ring and it was closed to the public. The kids were really disappointed so we decided to let them play in the "snow" from the zamboni. It was a small 15ft x 6ft pile of ice shavings that the kids had the best time having a snow ball fight. The four adults were have a great time watching the kids until they decided to start including us.

LOVE IT!!

Me and My Honey Bear

p.s. we had just been stung in the side of the head by a rouge snowball..."yeah, really fun Rheanna!!"

Ray and Cathy

It was so great to rekindle our friendship with The Kimbrough Family.

I hope we will never let this much time pass again.....

Our Very First ROAD TRIP!! (part one)

We decided to take a quick trip...it started out to be a small 48 hour trip and envolved into a 4 day trip. Still not nearly as long as I would have liked but way better than just the "Hunt for Snow" that it started out to be.

This is us heading toward Nashville, TN. See the map, breakfast, crossword and other road trip paraphernalia. We were on our way to The Clair's. It had been way too long since we had seen them. Notice the rain...it was in the 30's and we were hopeful that it would snow before morning. Unfortunately this did not happen. The mountains are so beautiful, I was in heaven! Tommy, however, didn't share this cozy feeling with me. He was rather unsettled among the height of these massive hills.

Here are the Erdwein and Clair girls the morning of Caitlan's birthday. It was so nice to be in TN with them for her birthday (at least some of it). It was 18 degree; 8 degrees with the wind chill. Can you say "Holy Cow!!"Caitlan, Haylee, Taylor, Ciara Bryce & David. (Dalton was at home sick)

Michelle and I = BFF

"ICE"

This is what the thermometer for the outside temp on my truck would flash every time we started the truck. We had never seen this before.

It was so awesome to be together with them after all this time. We can't wait 'til we have the time to go back and see more of Nashville...and the Clair's of course!

Playing Catch Up.....

So much has happened since I lasted posted so I thought that I would dedicate this post to catching everyone up to speed...

The kids particpated in the Homeschoolers Bowling Day at Super Play USA. It was alot of fun. The kids are quite good at bowling and Bryce really gave me a run for my money. Even Taylor was throwing her 7 pound ball down the alley like a 5 year old pro. The only thing missing was Daddy.

Here is a typical Thanksgiving at our house. Yes, we play with our food! Every Thanksgiving before we start cooking the Turkey Tommy makes sure ol' Mr. Turkey dances and does his exercise. Everyone's hands are washed so don't let our tradition keep you from joining us on Thanksgiving but it is something that the kids really look forward to every year.

Here is Bryce and Caitlan getting started on another one of our traditions. We put up our Christmas tree and decorate the day after Thanksgiving.

Our house all lit up! You can faintly see Tommy in the background still working on the lights. He did such a good job. I love colorful lights, no plain boring white lights for my family!!

Tommy + Dawn = TRUE LOVE <3

Our photographer Taylor did a rather swell job.

I was just about to climb in the truck to head to work.

This morning we took Caitlan to the barn to give her the news that we have decided to lease a horse for her as her birthday present. This is her face as she took her blindfold off and was face to face with Soni. He was the first horse that she rode when we switched to Shady Oaks for riding lessons. Her expression is priceless.

Just a random picture of her bright smiling face as we left the barn. What a beautful young lady she's turning into.

I tried my best to flip this picture but I couldn't. It was such a cute set of cupcakes...I had to go ahead and post it anyway.

Caitlan and McKensie

Caitlan Taylor and Julia

She danced as everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her, she is so much fun!

Green tongue and green shirt...you can't say that my kids never match.

Caitlan, Stephanie, Taylor and Melanie...Oh, and Kylie Girl in the background.

We had the party at Humiston so that we could all have front row seats to the Christmas parade...it was so much fun to have all the kids together. Why don't we do this more often?

Well, there you have it. You are all caught up...right up to Dec 6th. Since it's "the most wonderful time of year" I will have many more pictures to come. Including our secret trip in two weeks...

One BUSY Day!!

Here they are outside the planetarium at IRSC. We went with our homeschool group to see the show Trip into Space. It was very cool!! Bryce and Caitlan were interested in the whole show, but Taylor wasn't very fond of being in the dark for so long.

They like being at this college because they know this is where I went to school to be a nurse.

Checking out all the astronomy stuff.

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Next we went to the Manatee Viewing Center on the river. It has been usually cool here so I thought there would be a good chance of seeing a manatee or two, but no such luck. We did however strike up a brief conversation with a fisherman who was using mullet as bait. Taylor informed him that the fish he was catching (the mullet) were swimming in school (school of fish).

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We still weren't ready to go home so we drove over the bridge to the St Lucie County Historical Museum. At this museum there is a lot of local history. I went to this museum when I was in Elementary school.

Bryce showing off the "little cannon".

The kids really liked this exhibit, where the family lived in a one room house. They couldn't believe that they had to eat, sleep and work all in one room.

I really thought this was a cute picture. That's just Taylor being Taylor!

Here this nice lady was teaching us about the "ice box". She said every few days the ice man would bring in ice with the "pointy tongs" (my words not hers). The family would have turned that yellow sign on the wall to the number of pounds of ice they wanted for that delivery. This is how food was kept cool before electricity. However, sometimes not cool enough and people ended up with food poisoning quite often.

Five in a Row

So we started our new curriculum this week. We had so much fun. We read the book The Glorious Flight by Alice and Martin Provensen. It's about an aviator from the early 1900's who like in France and after many tries (and many planes) he flew over the The English Channel.

One day this week we learned about the foods that people from France might eat, such as baguettes. We went to Panera Bread and had an Asiago baguette and tea then we had a cherry pastry (suggested by Caitlan). They had such a good time.

During one of our errand runs, I caught the girls running pretending to be airplanes.

Happy Halloween

Here are the pumpkins we decorated. We (I) usually carve our pumpkins, something that I really enjoy but the kids don't like to get their hands icky. So, this year I decided to let them decorate their pumpkins from the farm (they last much longer this way, too).
Here are the kids all dressed up to go trick or treating. Caitlan is Hannah Montana, Bryce is Indiana Jones and Taylor is a Fairy Princess. Bryce really likes his whip, it makes real whip sounds and plays the Indiana Jones theme song.

Ok, so we totally cheated this year. Uncle Billy brought over a golf cart. Every year we make it a few streets away and then it pour and the kids come back with their costumes soaked and their candy all wet. This year we not only got out before dark but we also got to ride the golf cart. It rained about 6pm. All of us piled on the golf cart (Billy, Ashley, Kylie, Mom, Tommy, all 3 of our kids and me) and went back home. What I wouldn't do for a picture of all of us on the golf cart. We were back out trick or treating within minutes (I love Florida's weather).

This is what we saw before the rain came down. God's promise. It was beautiful...and in about five minutes it was pour big fat cold rain drops.