Tennessee Trip

Trying this post again!

We had a great family vacation in Pigeon Forge the beginning of this month. We left after school Tuesday night and drove all the way through with our camper in tow. Jeffry and I got in the bed at about 3:30 AM just knowing the kids would sleep late. They woke up at 7 AM! Crazy start to vacation, but it was great. 

Our Tennessee vacation schedule usually adds up to this: NO schedule! Everyone gets to chime in about where they would like to stop, and we work it into our day. It really makes for a laid back time, which is what I think we love most about our time there. 

We visited the Titanic museum that opened in April. It was very educational and interesting; Brayden especially enjoyed it because he had recently read a story about the Titanic. I didn't get any pics because they won't allow cameras. So sad. 

Our favorite thing about our Tennessee trips is hiking trails. VERY important seeing that we have three boys. This is what boys live for! Last year, we saw a mama bear and three cubs...hard to top that, but this year we found SNOW! The roads around Cade's Cove were closed due to snow and ice, but Jeffry does not give up until he has exhausted every effort! Especially when it comes to his boys seeing snow. We drove back into Gatlinburg and got some info on another area of the National Park that usually only locals go to. The guy at the gas station assured Jeffry that if there were snow to be found, we would find it there. And we did!

 I love this picture of all my guys hiking. Bray's pointing at something and looks so excited!

I love this picture of Jeffry and me. Taken on the Sky Line in Gatlinburg; it was my first time! I was a little nervous. You should see how you are barely strapped in that thing!

Breakfast at FlapJack's. Our favorite pancake cabin...a must for every Tennessee trip!

I think this was my favorite picture of the trip. Trace outside of the Ole Smoky Candy Kitchen with his lollipop. Sheer joy. 

We had a great vacation and really just enjoyed some quality family time together. 

Everyone is well now, thank you to those of you who asked! Hopefully I can get back in the swing of posting now. I've missed it!

Jamaica Pictures!

We are home! Our trip was wonderful. It was a nice, quick getaway. The boys stayed with Jeffry's mom and dad so they were totally fine. I'm sure you're wondering what all we did....actually a whole lot of nothing! We got massages, had a candlelight dinner on the beach, sailed on a catamaran, basically lived in our cabana, ate great food, took a sunset cruise on a sailboat, Jeffry jumped off a 45' cliff, and generally just soaked up some sun and relaxation! It was really great not having work, kids, or cell phone service! Haha. We are glad to be back home though.

Anniversary Surprise!

Jeffry came home the other night and TOTALLY surprised me with this...

A TRIP TO SANDALS IN JAMAICA!!!

I didn't even know what to say!! Our anniversary isn't until June so I wasn't even thinking about a trip or gift or anything. We will be there exactly 60 days from today!! SOO excited! I have the best husband ever.

Here's a preview of where we will be staying:





Breathtaking. We've been to Jamaica before but never to Negril. CANNOT contain my excitement to celebrate my 7 year anniversary with my honey!

Helicopter Tour

Just a few of my favorite pics from our helicopter tour around Maui. We had a one hour tour encircling the entire island. It was breathtaking!!


Incredible waterfall.



I love the clouds in these pics.




The crater on Maui.


See the rainbow?

We're home!

Well my post has been delayed; I had a lot of it saved as a draft but hadn't finished it to post yet. I'm also aggravated that blogger won't cooperate and load my pictures (it takes FOREVER!) But our trip was wonderful!! The first couple of days were a little rainy, but not in the sense of rain like Mississippi rain...just barely misting rain. So it wasn't bad at all, actually quite comfortable.

We stayed at the Westin Maui, which was extremely nice. It was so cool because the lobby was open-air; it only had a roof and a back wall. They had a waterfall and pool connected to the lobby that also connected to the swimming pools. There were flamingoes and swans in the pools near the water; it was really quite beautiful!


The day after we arrived, we rented a Hummer and drove the "Road to Hana" which has over 600 curves and 50 one-lane bridges. It takes you over two hours to drive about 40 miles. Crazy, huh? The scenery is gorgeous though; lots of rainforest vegetation, waterfalls, flowers, etc. On that drive, we stopped at a black sand beach which was pretty cool. I've only seen white sand beaches, never black! Their sand is different from ours though; it feels more like birdseed between your toes, haha. We had a picnic lunch that day and just enjoyed our time at different stop-offs.



The following morning, Jeffry took surfing lessons. He did so well! I was really proud of him. He said it was so tiring trying to fight the waves as you paddled back out, and then you only got a 15 second ride on the waves. He was exhausted by the time their lesson was over. I just sat on the rocks nearby and took photos. :) No surfing for me.

Aww, poor Jeff...


We took a helicopter ride one day, which was really incredible. A once in a lifetime experience. We also had a day trip to Oahu to visit the USS Arizona Memorial and to tour the USS Missouri. For those of you who don't know, the Arizona was torpedoed and went down in Pearl Harbor. Over 1100 men died in the ship. It was on the decks of the Missouri that the treaty to end WWII was signed. So we got to see the beginning of the war and the end of the war in the same trip. Pretty awesome. I have tons of pics of both of these trips but I'll have to add them later when I have a little more time.

I guess the worst thing about Hawaii is the time change and the flight over there. They are five hours ahead of us, so when it's 8am at home it's 3am in Hawaii. It takes some getting used to, to say the least. The first few days we woke up at 4 in the morning Hawaii time. And thankfully, we didn't receive any phone calls from home at bad times like a lot of our friends did, haha. The flight is just miserable, especially on the way home. Our flight was from Maui to Dallas, and it lasted eight hours. I think I slept about 45 minutes and that was only because my husband was nice enough to go stand somewhere for that long! Anyway, this post is forever long; I'll add more pics later!

Cancun!

Life has been a little stressful lately and I haven't had time at all to even start thinking about blogging!! But now that school is over and the holidays are passed, I hope to be able to do this on a regular basis!

Jeffry and I just got back from a 6 day trip to Cancun!! It was fabulous! The water there is absolutely breathtaking. I *WISH* that the Mississippi coast even NEARLY resembled that water! Ha...wishful thinking I guess. The weather was a little cold the first two days, but we were able to stay on the beach the whole day the third day. I didn't get as much sun as I wanted!! I definitely was able to relax though. We got a couples massage that was INCREDIBLE...I wanted to take the massage lady home with me! LoL. Jeffry played golf one morning, and I rode in the cart with him. We also went shopping in downtown Cancun and found this little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant that had the best tacos ever. Yummm. Needless to say, we enjoyed our vacation! It was a great little get away!



You can see our pictures here: http://usm.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2070402&l=cd33b&id=42810379