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    Forth July 4th Trip 2013::Gatlinburg, TN {Day 2}

    Chalet ~ Day 1 ~ Day 3 ~ Day 4 ~ Day 5 On the 4th of July, we slept in a bit, which was much needed since stayed up till nearly 2am the night before. We enjoyed waffles for breakfast, while discussing the plans for the day. We loaded up the car and went to Laurel Falls for a little hike. Before heading out on the trail, we noticed a sign that said “No Pets Allowed.” This was not a good start, since we had brought Daisy along for the adventure. Grandpa said he’d sit back with her, since…

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    Gatlinburg, TN Trip {Day 1}

    Forth July 4th Trip 2013::Gatlinburg, TN {Day 1} Chalet ~ Day 2 ~ Day 3 ~ Day 4 ~ Day 5 Wednesday we got up pretty early so we could head up to Gatlinburg for the weekend. The trip there it monsooned for a good 2 hours, making the trip exhausting and stressful. Luckily the rain lightened up and we could relax a bit and make up some time. When we got to Townsend, TN, we started looking for a place to eat lunch. We stopped at the Black Bear Cafe. We enjoyed a quick lunch (cheeseburger, grilled cheese, grilled…

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    MLK Weekend in the Mountains with Friends

    Over MLK weekend we went up to Blue Ridge, Ga with our friends the “S” family. We left Friday night after loading up the car. We arrived about 9ish, just in time to set up our air mattresses and hope in. Saturday morning we awoke to Mr. S cooking bacon. Rob got up and started cranking out waffles. After that we got dressed. The Drew went outside to see our dogs playing with the beautiful husky, Beckham, from up the hill who came to say hi. Once we packed the coolers for the day, we loaded up and headed to…

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    Carnival Dream::Day 5 {Roatan} Part 2

    ~ Day 1::Day of Embarkation ~ Day 2::Fun Day at Sea ~ Day 3::Cozumel ~ Day 4::Belize ~ Day 5::Roatan 1 ~ Day 6::Costa Maya ~ Day 7::Day at Sea ~ Day 8::Disembarkation/Daytona ~ So if you missed Part 1 of Day 5, you need to go read about it here. Here’s a few pics from our trip back from the zipline. Seventh Day Adventist Bilingual School After leaving the zipline, we asked Richard to drive us to “downtown” so we could shop. He took us to this weird strip mall. We noticed while we were there that an excursion…

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    Carnival Dream::Day 4 {Belize}

    ~ Day 1::Day of Embarkation ~ Day 2::Fun Day at Sea ~ Day 3::Cozumel ~ Day 5::Roatan 1 ~ Day 5::Roatan 2 ~ Day 6::Costa Maya ~ Day 7::Day at Sea ~ Day 8::Disembarkation/Daytona ~ On Tuesday, we got up early and it was still dark…

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    Carnival Dream::Day 3 {Cozumel}

    ~ Day 1::Day of Embarkation ~ Day 2::Fun Day at Sea ~ Day 4::Belize ~ Day 5::Roatan 1 ~ Day 5::Roatan 2 ~ Day 6::Costa Maya ~ Day 7::Day at Sea ~ Day 8::Disembarkation/Daytona ~ Day 3 was our first day at port. We docked in Cozumel around 9am. For our day in Cozumel, we had planned a day on our own. The nice part about not doing an excursion with the cruise line is that you beat everyone off the ship. So we caught a cab to Mr. Sancho’s Beach and had the first pick at a spot on…

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    Carnival Dream::Day 2 {Sea Day}

    ~ Day 1::Day of Embarkation ~ Day 3::Cozumel ~ Day 4::Belize ~ Day 5::Roatan 1 ~ Day 5::Roatan 2 ~ Day 6::Costa Maya ~ Day 7::Day at Sea ~ Day 8::Disembarkation/Daytona ~ Sunday we started the day off with breakfast in the Dining Room. After breakfast, we took Alex to Camp Carnival and the rest of us went to Oceans Plaza to play Kryptic Challenge. Then, we watched Movie Charades. Host Battle Match Game and TV Theme trivia were next. Later we got our swimsuits on so that we could go out on deck for some sun and swimming. We…

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    Carnival Dream::Day 1 {Embarkation}

    Here’s my first of probably at least 7 posts about our cruise earlier this month that will include lots of cruising tips. They may be a little spread out, but I’m just super busy now and am working on writing these up and going through photos as I have time. Friday we left to head up to Valley, AL to watch Drew march during halftime. We had made arrangements before hand to snatch him up as soon as they came off the field and head south. That’s exactly what we did. I think it was almost 9 pm when we…

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    Pine Mountain Day Hike

    A few weeks ago, actually it was the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, we got up and decided to go over to Pine Mountain for a day hike. We packed up Drew’s backpacking backpack with water, stuff for lunch, sun screen, and other necessities. Gentlemen, discover a collection of men’s handbags at Vintage Leather. Our range combines style and functionality, catering to your unique needs. We hopped in the car and headed to FDR State Park Office to get a map and go to the restroom one last time before venturing out on our day hike. We decided to try…

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    Joe Wheeler State Park, AL

    Last weekend, we ventured up to North Alabama, because Drew was competing in State Cup Soccer. He had a game Friday night and Sunday morning. Since we were going to have all Saturday with no games, we decided to stay about an hour away from the fields at Joe Wheeler State Park in the Lodge. Nice, large rooms with beautiful views of the lake. If you’re looking for a pristine place to stay I would not recommend this place. Although, it was nice and fine for us, someone who is looking for super clean won’t be happy. Since it is…

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    Cub Scout Trip 2012::McWane Center {Birmingham}

    This past weekend we went with the cub scouts on a family trip to the McWane Center in Birmingham, Al. Such a fun place! Nearly all hands-on, very informational, just loved the place! If you ever travel to Birmingham, I recommend it. Anyway, so our family decided to get their early, so we’d have plenty of time to see all 4 floors. We were able to get through all the floors in about 5 hours and that was really allowing the boys time to stay at some of the exhibits for awhile, not just skimming over everything. We met as…

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    Cub Scout Mountain Trip 2011::Lake Winfield Scott, GA

    For the Cub Scouts Summer Trip, we went to Lake Winfield Scott. It’s about 85 north of Atlanta in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. It was a really great place to camp regardless of age. Hiking trails, swimming, canoeing, fishing, and lots of wild life lurking in the woods. Camp is set up. The boys playing on the ‘beach’ at Lake Winfield Scott. Really cool mushroom.

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    Second July 4th Trip 2011::Blue Ridge, GA {Day 1}

    It’s just ridiculous that I take so many dang pictures that I can’t get my post up for the trip we took over the 4th, so I decided to break it down into days. Here’s the first day of our trip, which included driving up to Blue Ridge, getting the keys to the cabin, eating dinner, going grocery shopping, and preparation of some of the meals for the weekend. Here‘s where we stopped to let Daisy out and it had a scenic view. Circular brick walk way And here’s the front of our cabin, our home for a few days!…

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    Franklin, TN

    A few weeks ago we went to Franklin, TN, which is about 20 miles south of Nashville. We were there for the last soccer tourney of the season! We stayed in Brentwood, TN (which is about half way in between Nashville and Franklin) at the Hyatt Place. Love, love, love those bed and breakfast places! We got in around 10:30 and hurried to bed for we knew 7 am would come quickly. We got up, enjoyed our Continental Breakfast, and got over to the fields in time for Teenager to warm up and prepare for his game. They pulled out…

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    Sailing on Sovereign of the Seas

    This cruise was planned a little while after we found out we were expecting our 2nd child. We wanted to go ahead and bring Drew on a cruise, because we knew it would probably be quite awhile before we got to take him on one. Rob’s Mom and Step Dad joined us, which was nice. This trip was taken in October over a long weekend with a Columbus Day Holiday. We opted for a 3 day Royal Caribbean cruise to the Bahamas and the private island, Coco Cay. We left Thursday night and drove down to Orlando. We spent the…

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    Trip to Murphy, NC

    Tuesday night the week before 4th of July, Rob was talking with his brother about finding something “fun” to do over the weekend. The last few years we have mainly hung out at home and enjoyed time with our neighbors. Before that we headed to Texas to visit my family there. Anyway, after some thought and research we decided it would be fun to head up to the North Georgia Mountains. Since it was so close to the date, there were only a few options. We ended up staying here in Murphy, NC. We went with Rob’s Mom, Step-Dad, adopted…

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    Soccer Tourney 2009::Gulfport, MS

    Last weekend we went to Gulfport, MS for a soccer tourney. We chose to stay at some condos across from the beach called Sienna on the Coast with some friends who have a son on the Drew’s team. We had a good time. Nice, clean, new condos with all the essentials. The beach is not really even worth calling a beach, but I did get some cool bird pics, which I’ll share later. We enjoyed cooking breakfast and eating lunch at the condo, not having to spend money of food. We did enjoy dinner with the team at Blow Fly…

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    Soccer Tourney 2008::Atlanta, GA

    Last night we came up to my in-laws near Atlanta. We visited with them and had dinner. We spent the night and got up this morning and drove to Tucker, Ga for the Triumph Cup Tournament. Drew had a rough day and it was pretty cold. After the game this evening we went to Northlake Mall for a quick snack and then back to the hotel. We had delivery from Golden Sun and watched football. One game tomorrow before lunch and we’re headed home. I need to get busy editing from the last photo session I did and get that…