September 7

 We hit the road yesterday for a family trip to Gatlinburg. We stopped at the Cumberland Falls State Park and got two more missions completed for our Family Adventure Quest. After Bojangles, of course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
When we arrived at the cabin, the kids (big and small) had fun playing games and swimming.

 

 

 

 

 

This was the view off our balcony for the week.

September 6

 

 

 

I took the kids to Family Palooza at a local church yesterday. It was fun, but dang (!) was it hot. Summer, you can officially go away. Bring on fall weather and all things pumpkin!

September 5

We went downtown after church for World Fest. We enjoyed this a couple of years ago, and timed it so that we could see the Irish dancers this year. The kids enjoyed watching the Irish dancers on You Tube in March when we studied Ireland.

 The West African drummers were neat. The panther dancing to the drums was a little creepy.

 This girl is a World Champion Irish dancer. 

 

 Kat is succumbing to the heat.

 Sooo... this is not water. Clay and the two big girls went to the phone store to buy Clay a new cell phone... because purchasing one when you are downtown with five children is the most convenient time to do so (he has always had a knack for timing). 40 minutes into our wait, Blake was asleep in the van, Clay wasn't back yet and wasn't answering his phone, and Elliott was about to have an accident. Voila! The water bottle provided the answer. We had quite a good laugh about it... especially when we offered Clay this apple juice when he got in the van. He could tell by the warmth that it was not apple juice!

September 4

 

 

Our weekend has mostly consisted of babysitting. Friday night I babysat Tracy and Joe's boys and also Blake (11 months old). Blake's dad is back in the hospital and could use prayers. They can't figure out what is wrong, but he is very sick. Blake hung out with us all day yesterday and will be here today too. 

Kat had her third cross country meet. She ran a mile in 8:05. That's great! She is really enjoying cross country. She gets that from Clay. If I am running, you'd better join me, because there's someone or something chasing me! 

September 3

Gus went to the groomer yesterday. Doesn't he look handsome!?!

September 2

We spent the morning at Bernheim, which happens to be one of my favorite places to go. We haven't been in a long time because it's been either too hot or rainy this summer. The temps were in the 70s while we were there.

 

Oink oink!

 

"building a campfire" 

 

 

 

 

 The kids fed the fish and turtles. At one point, Julia counted 21 turtles!

 

 

Kat wanted me to write "Mighty Muscle Man" for the caption on this photo. 

 

Julia got ahold of my phone and started taking pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a few more that I took: 

 

 

 

Lucy had alot of fun making mud "potions".

September 1

While Clay and Elliott were at jiu jitsu, Julia was at gymnastics, and Kat was having cross country practice, this little lady and I had fun playing at the park.