I've been trying to blog this for the past couple of weeks... but was waiting to put pic's with it... that isn't hapening right now, I haven't had time. So, I'll post pic's later.
Last week was Fall Break. We used to get a full week for fall break, but last year they decided we needed more school days, so now we only have a long weekend. They had thursday and friday. I talked to Bill and we decided we should do SOMETHING fun with our kids. I suggested camping, and Bill came up with a wonderful place.
OAK MOUNTAIN State Park
It is just south of Birmingham. So not too bad a drive, and Rebekah was even able to drive over from school and meet up with us.
We got to go trail riding, they had a little petting zoo, and then we stayed in a cabin by 'Lake Tranquilty'. It was lovely! The kids went out in a row boat (all 6 of them together) and tried their hand at fishing (the very first time, for most of them).
We grilled out for dinner, and then roasted marshmallows and made smores! Yummy.
We played games together as a family.
When we woke up in the morning, Bill made bacon and eggs, and when I got out of the shower, I found that while Bill was cooking, the kids had all gotten up and gone out on the dock and were fishing again.
Noone ever caught a fish - they were a little annoyed that the people in one of the other cabins went out for a short time and caught several, but my kids didn't manage to catch anything, but they had a lot of fun!
Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts
Monday, October 11, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
Christmas 2009 (part 5 - the end)
Twas’ the night after Christmas when all through the woods,
creatures were scurrying, out looking for food.
I can’t imagine the noise and the clatter around,
yet, somehow no one in our cabin heard a sound.
We were all snuggled sound asleep in our beds,
when just outside the room with all the children, a bear got really mad.
It climbed on the latched metal trashbin,
that each cabin has, smelling the leftovers from our salmon skin.
The left over sauce packs from Chik-fil-A, were also licked clean,
The metal mesh screen on the metal trashbin was torn to smithereens!
The trash was strewn all over the ground,
All the way down the driveway trash was what Bill found,
when he went out in the morning to load up the cars,
Then he had to clean up the yard.
A bear you say? What makes us think that?
It was the nice paw print it left on the trash(bin).
We hope it was Racoons cleaning up after the bear,
That left all the trash they drug up onto the back porch where it was clear.
So went our adventures of Christmas 2009
We are glad we went, we had a good time.
creatures were scurrying, out looking for food.
I can’t imagine the noise and the clatter around,
yet, somehow no one in our cabin heard a sound.
We were all snuggled sound asleep in our beds,
when just outside the room with all the children, a bear got really mad.
It climbed on the latched metal trashbin,
that each cabin has, smelling the leftovers from our salmon skin.
The left over sauce packs from Chik-fil-A, were also licked clean,
The metal mesh screen on the metal trashbin was torn to smithereens!
The trash was strewn all over the ground,
All the way down the driveway trash was what Bill found,
when he went out in the morning to load up the cars,
Then he had to clean up the yard.
A bear you say? What makes us think that?
It was the nice paw print it left on the trash(bin).
We hope it was Racoons cleaning up after the bear,
That left all the trash they drug up onto the back porch where it was clear.
So went our adventures of Christmas 2009
We are glad we went, we had a good time.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Christmas (part 4)
The day after Christmas we went up to Ober Gatlinburg. You paid for an hour and a half session, and we knew there was one at 11:00 am. Bill decided since he was awake early, to go ahead and drive up and buy our passes so that if there was a line we wouldn’t miss out. Normally they want you all to be right there and get your bracelets, but they allowed him to pay for them and then hold them back for us.
The bad part of it was he drove the van because he didn’t want to deal with the stick shift up and down the mountain. So when he was on his way back to our cabin, he made this one turn that is steep and sharp, and the wheels started spinning and he felt the van start sliding, and he was truly worried that he was going to go off the edge and down the mountain. The wheels caught and got some traction, and he was able to continue on up the hill. After going through that harrowing experience, he made the next big turn and started onto the loop road that our cabin was on, and he drove just a little ways, and a large tree was down and completely across the road. He definitely couldn’t go forward, so he then had to back up, a small road, with drop offs, and he was still freaked out from the previous scare! He managed to get back onto the other road, and had to then go down and then drive up the road that is generally the out road. Steep down, the driveways face the other direction, so now he had almost slid down the mountain, had to back up a significant distance on a different mountain road. Instead, now he has to get the van to go UP a different tough road, where he passed another downed tree, but only the top of that tree was in the road and it was at a spot where it was wider and you could get around it. Then he had to pass our driveway and back up into it, as he literally could not make the turn backwards to get into it from the direction he was forced to come. He arrived back home and I could tell something was up, he told us his tale and was a little bit on edge for the rest of the morning.
We managed to all be up and moving along and were ready to go ahead of schedule, and we made it back up to Ober Gatlinburg early, and we were very glad that Bill had gone early once we arrived (and we got there early around 10:20 or so), they were already sold out for the 11:00 tubing run. We had another small drama when we went to have the lady put on our wrist bands. Liam freaked out! Bill identified the problem pretty quickly, and I have to say, I don’t know that I would have gotten it for a while. The previous times Liam has had any sort of wrist bands put on him it was at the hospital and having procedures done... Poor little guy was absolutely out of his mind and refusing to have it put on. We finally got it on, and he just pulled and tugged at it and screamed. We kept trying to explain that was our ticket to go tubing on the hills. We took him outside to watch and I don’t know that it helped do anything more than scare him about it as well... So, when our time came, the girls and I all got in line, got our tubes and slid away. Bill took Liam and went to the arcade inside and let him play for a bit to help him calm down.
The tubing was fun, not like anything I’ve done before. All the snow was manufactured, and there were 6-8 formed lanes down the hill, with banked sides. You got your tube, and walked around to the conveyer belt lift. It was very nice to be able to just stand there and hold onto the cord for your tube and up you went to the top of the hill. The girls and I had some fun runs down the hill. Bill and Liam showed up after a little bit, and they had these double tubes. So Liam is doing alright up the lift and at the top of the hill. He’s sitting in the tube waiting in line for his turn, he’s smiling... THEN, it is their turn. Bill is trying to get into the back of the tube, Liam is bailing out! He’s screaming, “You can’t do this to me!” “I’m not doing this!” and fighting to free himself. Meanwhile, there isn’t really any other way to get down the hill. So I am shoving him back down to sit, and we are causing a scene. Bill sat in the back and wraps his legs around Liam to keep him sitting in the tube, and then they were off and down the hill, Liam crying and screaming all the way.
I was surprised to see them head right back up the hill. Liam asked to go, and was happy all the way. He got up there, and sat in the tube waiting for his turn, and Bill still held onto him but he seemed to be o.k. with the whole thing. So then they headed back up for trip three... Again, Liam sat until it was their turn, and all of the sudden he starts fighting and screaming and trying to climb out of the tube again. I’m trying to shove him back down to sit in the tube again so they can go down, and the worker guy says, the adult has to be in the front and the child in the back of the two part tube. Well, we try to explain to him this is his third trip down. I’m trying to hold him down and now we have to take him out and move him! So... he’s screaming, Bill is supposed to be in the front, but when it becomes clear that there is NO way Liam will stay in the tube if not held there, the guy suggests to Bill, that he could turn around backward facing, so he is facing Liam and can still wrap his legs around him. Meanwhile Liam is throwing a fit the whole time, and now I have to push him over the edge and watch him as he heads down the hill.
After that run, Liam is done, and Bill was going to take him, but Rebekah and Sariah agree to take him for a while, since they were cold and let Bill have some time to go by himself. Toward the end Bill and I went inside to check on the kids, and Bill went walking around with Liam for a bit, and Liam said he wanted to go again! So up they went and Liam had a blast and asked to go again, but alas, it was too late. Our time was up and he couldn’t go any more. Oh well. At least maybe he has decent memories of going, since his last run was a positive one.
Before we left Ober Gatlinburg, we went through their little zoo place. The one bear that we could see was hibernating back in one of the stalls/caves way far back inside. Amanda spotted him, and with the zoom lense I was able to get a fuzzy picture of the bear we paid money to see. The kids really got a kick out of the nocturnal animal exhibits. There were turtles swimming, and there were several kinds of lizards and snakes. The kids were all really excited trying to identify each of them.
After that we headed back home to our cabin. (or to our cabinet as Liam called it). Bill decided the one road and turn that he had the hard time with that morning, he didn’t want to make again, so he drove past our turn, up and around another curve in the road so we could get to a drive way we could turn around in, so that we could hit our road/turn at more of a direct angle and have the momentum of going downhill rather than trying to backtrack going uphill as we had previously done. It worked. Yay, no slipping and sliding. Then we took a risk and went past the first turn to the loop of our road, and up to the 2nd turn. The road had been cleared, yay, no backing up! However when they had come and cut the tree, they barely cut it the width of the road, there was not much wiggle room. (I can’t believe I didn’t grab the camera and take a picture of the big tree that had come down the day before in the storm and blocked off the road!) It wasn’t the one that knocked out the power lines, but that also made me wonder how many trees had come down around the area during the storm on Christmas eve. We arrived safely and well back at our cabin.
We spent the afternoon organizing and beginning to pack up. Some people took naps – that riding up a lift and sliding down sitting on a tube apparently took a lot out of some of us. ;-)
We wound up our trip with a dinner show at The Dixie Stampede. What a fun time. We arrived early for the pre-show. Liam was a challenge he did not want to sit down and we waited and waited... Bill went and bought us some popcorn and some fun drinks in cowboy cups. It helped to keep him entertained for a little while. Finally the pre dinner band came on and all of the sudden, he was entranced. He started clapping along to the bluegrass music. Then he started strumming his little hand across his imaginary guitar or banjo. He did that for the longest time. It was really cute.
The dinner show was really fun. The kids all loved it. Because we went at Christmas, instead of the entertainers being soldiers from the North and South, they were Red and Green Elves. We got a Christmas show. It was wonderful. They incorporated silly Christmas gags into the horse and rider portions of the show. They had a toy land portion, and then they had the whole Nativity story. There were Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus. I asked Liam if he knew who that was, he said, “Mary”. Then he said, “Is that Amanda?” because she had been Mary in the nativity play at our Church party recently. The Shepherds came out with real sheep and goats. One sheep was really funny, and kept jumping around; it would jump almost straight up in the air. It was pretty funny. One of the other highlights was that the wise men actually rode in on Camels. They came out right in front of us. It was pretty cool. The food was pretty yummy too; Creamy vegetable soup, Roasted chicken, cheesy biscuits, and a flakey delicious apple pastry. Yum Yum.
The bad part of it was he drove the van because he didn’t want to deal with the stick shift up and down the mountain. So when he was on his way back to our cabin, he made this one turn that is steep and sharp, and the wheels started spinning and he felt the van start sliding, and he was truly worried that he was going to go off the edge and down the mountain. The wheels caught and got some traction, and he was able to continue on up the hill. After going through that harrowing experience, he made the next big turn and started onto the loop road that our cabin was on, and he drove just a little ways, and a large tree was down and completely across the road. He definitely couldn’t go forward, so he then had to back up, a small road, with drop offs, and he was still freaked out from the previous scare! He managed to get back onto the other road, and had to then go down and then drive up the road that is generally the out road. Steep down, the driveways face the other direction, so now he had almost slid down the mountain, had to back up a significant distance on a different mountain road. Instead, now he has to get the van to go UP a different tough road, where he passed another downed tree, but only the top of that tree was in the road and it was at a spot where it was wider and you could get around it. Then he had to pass our driveway and back up into it, as he literally could not make the turn backwards to get into it from the direction he was forced to come. He arrived back home and I could tell something was up, he told us his tale and was a little bit on edge for the rest of the morning.
We managed to all be up and moving along and were ready to go ahead of schedule, and we made it back up to Ober Gatlinburg early, and we were very glad that Bill had gone early once we arrived (and we got there early around 10:20 or so), they were already sold out for the 11:00 tubing run. We had another small drama when we went to have the lady put on our wrist bands. Liam freaked out! Bill identified the problem pretty quickly, and I have to say, I don’t know that I would have gotten it for a while. The previous times Liam has had any sort of wrist bands put on him it was at the hospital and having procedures done... Poor little guy was absolutely out of his mind and refusing to have it put on. We finally got it on, and he just pulled and tugged at it and screamed. We kept trying to explain that was our ticket to go tubing on the hills. We took him outside to watch and I don’t know that it helped do anything more than scare him about it as well... So, when our time came, the girls and I all got in line, got our tubes and slid away. Bill took Liam and went to the arcade inside and let him play for a bit to help him calm down.
The tubing was fun, not like anything I’ve done before. All the snow was manufactured, and there were 6-8 formed lanes down the hill, with banked sides. You got your tube, and walked around to the conveyer belt lift. It was very nice to be able to just stand there and hold onto the cord for your tube and up you went to the top of the hill. The girls and I had some fun runs down the hill. Bill and Liam showed up after a little bit, and they had these double tubes. So Liam is doing alright up the lift and at the top of the hill. He’s sitting in the tube waiting in line for his turn, he’s smiling... THEN, it is their turn. Bill is trying to get into the back of the tube, Liam is bailing out! He’s screaming, “You can’t do this to me!” “I’m not doing this!” and fighting to free himself. Meanwhile, there isn’t really any other way to get down the hill. So I am shoving him back down to sit, and we are causing a scene. Bill sat in the back and wraps his legs around Liam to keep him sitting in the tube, and then they were off and down the hill, Liam crying and screaming all the way.
I was surprised to see them head right back up the hill. Liam asked to go, and was happy all the way. He got up there, and sat in the tube waiting for his turn, and Bill still held onto him but he seemed to be o.k. with the whole thing. So then they headed back up for trip three... Again, Liam sat until it was their turn, and all of the sudden he starts fighting and screaming and trying to climb out of the tube again. I’m trying to shove him back down to sit in the tube again so they can go down, and the worker guy says, the adult has to be in the front and the child in the back of the two part tube. Well, we try to explain to him this is his third trip down. I’m trying to hold him down and now we have to take him out and move him! So... he’s screaming, Bill is supposed to be in the front, but when it becomes clear that there is NO way Liam will stay in the tube if not held there, the guy suggests to Bill, that he could turn around backward facing, so he is facing Liam and can still wrap his legs around him. Meanwhile Liam is throwing a fit the whole time, and now I have to push him over the edge and watch him as he heads down the hill.
After that run, Liam is done, and Bill was going to take him, but Rebekah and Sariah agree to take him for a while, since they were cold and let Bill have some time to go by himself. Toward the end Bill and I went inside to check on the kids, and Bill went walking around with Liam for a bit, and Liam said he wanted to go again! So up they went and Liam had a blast and asked to go again, but alas, it was too late. Our time was up and he couldn’t go any more. Oh well. At least maybe he has decent memories of going, since his last run was a positive one.
Before we left Ober Gatlinburg, we went through their little zoo place. The one bear that we could see was hibernating back in one of the stalls/caves way far back inside. Amanda spotted him, and with the zoom lense I was able to get a fuzzy picture of the bear we paid money to see. The kids really got a kick out of the nocturnal animal exhibits. There were turtles swimming, and there were several kinds of lizards and snakes. The kids were all really excited trying to identify each of them.
After that we headed back home to our cabin. (or to our cabinet as Liam called it). Bill decided the one road and turn that he had the hard time with that morning, he didn’t want to make again, so he drove past our turn, up and around another curve in the road so we could get to a drive way we could turn around in, so that we could hit our road/turn at more of a direct angle and have the momentum of going downhill rather than trying to backtrack going uphill as we had previously done. It worked. Yay, no slipping and sliding. Then we took a risk and went past the first turn to the loop of our road, and up to the 2nd turn. The road had been cleared, yay, no backing up! However when they had come and cut the tree, they barely cut it the width of the road, there was not much wiggle room. (I can’t believe I didn’t grab the camera and take a picture of the big tree that had come down the day before in the storm and blocked off the road!) It wasn’t the one that knocked out the power lines, but that also made me wonder how many trees had come down around the area during the storm on Christmas eve. We arrived safely and well back at our cabin.
We spent the afternoon organizing and beginning to pack up. Some people took naps – that riding up a lift and sliding down sitting on a tube apparently took a lot out of some of us. ;-)
We wound up our trip with a dinner show at The Dixie Stampede. What a fun time. We arrived early for the pre-show. Liam was a challenge he did not want to sit down and we waited and waited... Bill went and bought us some popcorn and some fun drinks in cowboy cups. It helped to keep him entertained for a little while. Finally the pre dinner band came on and all of the sudden, he was entranced. He started clapping along to the bluegrass music. Then he started strumming his little hand across his imaginary guitar or banjo. He did that for the longest time. It was really cute.
The dinner show was really fun. The kids all loved it. Because we went at Christmas, instead of the entertainers being soldiers from the North and South, they were Red and Green Elves. We got a Christmas show. It was wonderful. They incorporated silly Christmas gags into the horse and rider portions of the show. They had a toy land portion, and then they had the whole Nativity story. There were Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus. I asked Liam if he knew who that was, he said, “Mary”. Then he said, “Is that Amanda?” because she had been Mary in the nativity play at our Church party recently. The Shepherds came out with real sheep and goats. One sheep was really funny, and kept jumping around; it would jump almost straight up in the air. It was pretty funny. One of the other highlights was that the wise men actually rode in on Camels. They came out right in front of us. It was pretty cool. The food was pretty yummy too; Creamy vegetable soup, Roasted chicken, cheesy biscuits, and a flakey delicious apple pastry. Yum Yum.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Chrstmas in Dixie 2009 (part 3)
When we decided to go away for Christmas, I thought about a tree, and what we might do. Sariah was on it herself. She has a small 3 ft. tree we got for her last year, and she planned to take it, and to get each of the kids new ornament for the year and her little ornaments so we’d have a Tree to help us celebrate the occasion. When we arrived and got everything unloaded from the vehicles, and while Rebekah was helping get dinner cooked, Sariah got to work and set the tree. It turned out really cute. Sariah also decorated our family tree at home this year. She did a great job, and it turned out nicely. I appreciated the help.
We knew the wind had really picked up and it was raining quite a bit by the time we went to bed on Christmas eve. At one point in the middle of the night, when Rebekah woke up in pain and needed more ice/snow on her burned finger, she found the power was out and came to wake us up. Bill called the power company and let them know. We hunkered down to sleep some more. The kids had originally wanted to be up at 6 am for Christmas, but Bill ended up earlier than that, and spent some time getting a fire started. He told the kids to stay put till it was day light, since we needed the sun to see as we had no electrical lighting.
Bill told me later that the little nativity I had bought that has the Blessed family inside the word Faith, had a tiny little LED light on it, It was the only light they had while they were up and trying to navigate and get a fire started.
Around 7-7:30 a.m. it began to get light outside, so I got up and we let the kids loose, once Liam and I were down stairs. Christmas with a fire was lovely. Everyone seemed pretty happy with their gifts. Liam had dinosaur explosion... Marissa played with her new Bratz doll, one of the best gifts with the most excitement of the morning was when Rebekah and Hannah opened their gift, with borrowed Auburn t-shirts (thank you A) and a gift certificate note telling them they were going to Tampa Florida to the Outback bowl with dad, to see Amanda play in the marching band! (The other kids weren’t interested in football when we asked them a few months ago).
The kids played some of our new games, Hungry Hungry Hippos, and Snorta! They played with their new things, and we made gingerbread houses (o.k. not really out of gingerbread – I bought graham crackers). I’m glad I had that little activity to occupy us with for quite a while mid day. At one point the power flickered on, but quickly went back out. We knew that they were at least working on it. We were going through the firewood. We had quite a bit out front, but it was all wet from the rain storm over night (and the snow last week), so we brought some in and sat it in front of the fireplace to get dried out. We had planned to make bacon and eggs for Christmas breakfast, but with no power and an electric stove, we ate cereal.
After awhile most of us were pretty tired from being up for various parts of the night. Rebekah crashed, Amanda hung out texting her friends back home. We talked a little about if the power didn’t go back on, and if we could pull ourselves together enough, perhaps we might go into town toward evening and see a movie (the squeakquel). It would have light and warmth. Power was on in town. We were just grateful to know someone was working on it, and on the other hand we felt so bad that other people were not able to be together at home with their families on Christmas morning, because they were out working on power lines. It was after 2 p.m. and I couldn’t wait any longer for the power to come on to make food, so I was about to make Bill a sandwich, and had gotten out some of the left over’s; hummus and cheese and crackers, and pita from our Bethlehem dinner, when the power flickered again. At 2:30 the power lines were fixed and I got out the bacon and eggs and made our meal. The kids were a bit disappointed that we weren’t going anywhere (to a movie), but we watched some movies, and played some more games. We all had a pleasant day, and even though there were several naps during the day, I think we all went to bed at a pretty decent time that night as well, grateful that we had power, and heat, and that we had this time together as a family.
We knew the wind had really picked up and it was raining quite a bit by the time we went to bed on Christmas eve. At one point in the middle of the night, when Rebekah woke up in pain and needed more ice/snow on her burned finger, she found the power was out and came to wake us up. Bill called the power company and let them know. We hunkered down to sleep some more. The kids had originally wanted to be up at 6 am for Christmas, but Bill ended up earlier than that, and spent some time getting a fire started. He told the kids to stay put till it was day light, since we needed the sun to see as we had no electrical lighting.
Bill told me later that the little nativity I had bought that has the Blessed family inside the word Faith, had a tiny little LED light on it, It was the only light they had while they were up and trying to navigate and get a fire started.
Around 7-7:30 a.m. it began to get light outside, so I got up and we let the kids loose, once Liam and I were down stairs. Christmas with a fire was lovely. Everyone seemed pretty happy with their gifts. Liam had dinosaur explosion... Marissa played with her new Bratz doll, one of the best gifts with the most excitement of the morning was when Rebekah and Hannah opened their gift, with borrowed Auburn t-shirts (thank you A) and a gift certificate note telling them they were going to Tampa Florida to the Outback bowl with dad, to see Amanda play in the marching band! (The other kids weren’t interested in football when we asked them a few months ago).
The kids played some of our new games, Hungry Hungry Hippos, and Snorta! They played with their new things, and we made gingerbread houses (o.k. not really out of gingerbread – I bought graham crackers). I’m glad I had that little activity to occupy us with for quite a while mid day. At one point the power flickered on, but quickly went back out. We knew that they were at least working on it. We were going through the firewood. We had quite a bit out front, but it was all wet from the rain storm over night (and the snow last week), so we brought some in and sat it in front of the fireplace to get dried out. We had planned to make bacon and eggs for Christmas breakfast, but with no power and an electric stove, we ate cereal.
After awhile most of us were pretty tired from being up for various parts of the night. Rebekah crashed, Amanda hung out texting her friends back home. We talked a little about if the power didn’t go back on, and if we could pull ourselves together enough, perhaps we might go into town toward evening and see a movie (the squeakquel). It would have light and warmth. Power was on in town. We were just grateful to know someone was working on it, and on the other hand we felt so bad that other people were not able to be together at home with their families on Christmas morning, because they were out working on power lines. It was after 2 p.m. and I couldn’t wait any longer for the power to come on to make food, so I was about to make Bill a sandwich, and had gotten out some of the left over’s; hummus and cheese and crackers, and pita from our Bethlehem dinner, when the power flickered again. At 2:30 the power lines were fixed and I got out the bacon and eggs and made our meal. The kids were a bit disappointed that we weren’t going anywhere (to a movie), but we watched some movies, and played some more games. We all had a pleasant day, and even though there were several naps during the day, I think we all went to bed at a pretty decent time that night as well, grateful that we had power, and heat, and that we had this time together as a family.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Part 2 (still fighting with pictures)
Part 2
As we were driving along, we looked behind us, and could see the kids dancing, and singing, and being crazy in the van behind us. I don’t know what they were listening to at the time, but by the motions we could see, I think it may have been The Chicken Dance! We were glad they were having fun, but also glad that we didn’t have to listen to all the FUN!!! ;-)
We had barely been driving at all, it seemed and the girls text us and say someone needs to go potty! So we pull off the road at the next exit, and potty and get gas. We hadn’t even gotten to Chattanooga yet! While we were stopped, I looked over and saw the sun in the sky as it was beginning to fade away. It was beautiful, so I had to get out and take a picture or two. At one point Sariah jumped out of the van and ran toward me to scare me! Silly girl! I wanted to get her picture, but she was too fast, and I only got her backside as she raced away from me and back to the van.
We started out the 5 hour drive several hours later than we’d hoped, so when we arrived in Gatlinburg, it was already dark. Very pretty to see all the Christmas lights and decorations for the season, but it would make it a bit more difficult to find our cabin. Apparently Liam started yelling out, “It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas!” when he saw all the lights. We had to first fine the rental company to sign in and get the key to our cabin and directions. Then we were off! We drove through town, and began up the mountain roads. They had snow several days before and said there had been some problems with the road our cabin/house was on, but it had gotten cleared that day or the day before, so we should be o.k.
The road was steep and narrow, with lots of switch backs. The kids weren’t comfortable with that, and quite frankly neither were we, so I swapped out with Amanda, and I drove the van up the mountain road, following behind Bill. At the first stop sign, it was quite steep and a pretty sharp turn. The next corner we had to turn at however, was really steep, and at a hard angle. The road had was a bit slick, and my turns were just spinning for a moment. I got a bit nervous at that point. It was probably good that it was dark, as I couldn’t really see how high up we were going, or how far down we’d fall if we perhaps went off the edge of the road. The kids were all very quiet, and that was good as well. All I needed was to hear them all talking about dying or something!! Thankfully, they didn’t start talking about how scary it seemed until after we stopped and got out of the vehicles. We found our cabin, after driving down quite a steep incline as well, and it seemed you looked straight down the mountain to all the lights of Gatlinburg below.
We unloaded and made dinner and settled in. (Bill finally ate an actual meal, and enjoyed it!) After dinner the kids enjoyed the hot tub. Bill and I went back to town, to shop for the rest of what we needed for food, etc. for the next several days. We didn’t get back till around midnight, and as a passenger, it was a little bit different drive. You know how it is when you aren’t the one in control of the vehicle... I was a bit more nervous. We arrived back and we all settled in to bed for the night. The cabin had a master bedroom upstairs with a king size bed, and on the main floor the bedroom had 2 queen sized beds, and the sofa in the main room folded out as well.
Thursday – Christmas Eve day
Bill had done a little searching on the internet about what activities might be fun for the family. We had purchased tickets for an indoor water park, so off we go in our bathing suits, down the mountain to the water park. Winter coats over bathing suits, what a look! We had fun at the water park, but would I do it again? Probably not... the water in the lazy river was a bit chilly, and the big water slide was WAY COLD!!!!! Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!
The best part was the kids wading pool, it as shallow enough to stay warm, and then, the hot tubs. Those were nice, and big enough that when we first got there, (when it opened at 11:00) there weren’t very people at all, so we mostly could do whatever we wanted. Liam liked the warm water in the hot tubs, which weren’t HOT, but nice. They were quite big, you could almost swim in them, and Liam kept wanting to play tag. We had been there nearly 2 hours, and were quite cold unless we were in one of the hot tubs, so, at that point, we sort of decided, if we wanted a hot tub we could just go back to our cabin and use the hot tub there!
We went home and showered and dressed in warm clothes, and we considered going out somewhere to see some sights, but after he late night the night before, we were all a bit worn out. Bill needed a nap, so we decided to stay ‘home’ and prepare for Christmas. Sariah had a project she needed to finish – she was making a sock monkey for Rebekah. She needed a little help, so, I ended up doing a lot of the hand stitching of the parts to attach them, and then, She decided she didn’t want the hat to be matching (part of the sock). She asked if Amanda might make a crocheted hat to match the one that she’d made for Rebekah for Christmas, to go along and match for the sock monkey. So... as a result, we spent most of the afternoon in the bedroom upstairs. Rebekah had to hold down the fort downstairs, with all the other kids. Thank you Bekah! She made Christmas cookies with the kids. (I had bought some gingerbread cookie mix, but forgot to bring the cookie cutters with us! And then she did the pre-made sugar cookies.
We had a casualty... Rebekah burnt her finger on the cookie pan the last batch. It was really hurting her and throbbing/burning for hours. I wanted to get some ice, so I ran outside and got some snow. Snow - Natures ice pack. As soon as it melted, her finger would begin to burn. It had begun to sprinkle, and was supposed to rain quite a bit that night, so I got some more snow and put in the freezer, so we'd be sure to have enough for her. She took some medicine to help reduce the pain, but was still up nearly every hour all night long in pain, and needing more snow/ice.
After this we prepared for our traditional Christmas Eve Bethlehem dinner. Where we eat simple foods that might have been eaten by Joseph and Mary and the people in those times – we sit on the floor and eat by candle light. We have fish, and cheeses (like a brie) and grapes, and crackers. After we have eaten our meal, Bill reads us the Christmas story from Luke 2. We started this years ago when we lived in Japan, and it has become our family tradition. We never miss a year. We did this when we had Christmas with grandma and Grandpa in Virginia one year. We did it the year Bill was deployed, I prepared the meal and he called us and I had borrowed a speaker phone so we could all hear him and he was there a little bit more than just in spirit. It was special to be able to hear him read the Christmas story to us, even though he was so far away. So, even though we were in a cabin/house in the woods, we bought the food to have our special dinner.
After that part was over, the kids quickly like to move on to the next tradition of opening up their new Christmas jammies! Then after everyone gets dressed and ready for bed, we let them open one more present. Last year we started doing a secret santa between the kids (the idea is then I don’t have to try to run all over town and help the kids all buy things for each and every one of their siblings... not that it isn’t a nice idea, but it gets hard with all 6 kids). Anyway, so we let them open the present from their secret santa. Then we had to get 6 kids settled and down to sleep for the night in preparation for Santa to come.
As we were driving along, we looked behind us, and could see the kids dancing, and singing, and being crazy in the van behind us. I don’t know what they were listening to at the time, but by the motions we could see, I think it may have been The Chicken Dance! We were glad they were having fun, but also glad that we didn’t have to listen to all the FUN!!! ;-)
We had barely been driving at all, it seemed and the girls text us and say someone needs to go potty! So we pull off the road at the next exit, and potty and get gas. We hadn’t even gotten to Chattanooga yet! While we were stopped, I looked over and saw the sun in the sky as it was beginning to fade away. It was beautiful, so I had to get out and take a picture or two. At one point Sariah jumped out of the van and ran toward me to scare me! Silly girl! I wanted to get her picture, but she was too fast, and I only got her backside as she raced away from me and back to the van.
We started out the 5 hour drive several hours later than we’d hoped, so when we arrived in Gatlinburg, it was already dark. Very pretty to see all the Christmas lights and decorations for the season, but it would make it a bit more difficult to find our cabin. Apparently Liam started yelling out, “It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas!” when he saw all the lights. We had to first fine the rental company to sign in and get the key to our cabin and directions. Then we were off! We drove through town, and began up the mountain roads. They had snow several days before and said there had been some problems with the road our cabin/house was on, but it had gotten cleared that day or the day before, so we should be o.k.
The road was steep and narrow, with lots of switch backs. The kids weren’t comfortable with that, and quite frankly neither were we, so I swapped out with Amanda, and I drove the van up the mountain road, following behind Bill. At the first stop sign, it was quite steep and a pretty sharp turn. The next corner we had to turn at however, was really steep, and at a hard angle. The road had was a bit slick, and my turns were just spinning for a moment. I got a bit nervous at that point. It was probably good that it was dark, as I couldn’t really see how high up we were going, or how far down we’d fall if we perhaps went off the edge of the road. The kids were all very quiet, and that was good as well. All I needed was to hear them all talking about dying or something!! Thankfully, they didn’t start talking about how scary it seemed until after we stopped and got out of the vehicles. We found our cabin, after driving down quite a steep incline as well, and it seemed you looked straight down the mountain to all the lights of Gatlinburg below.
We unloaded and made dinner and settled in. (Bill finally ate an actual meal, and enjoyed it!) After dinner the kids enjoyed the hot tub. Bill and I went back to town, to shop for the rest of what we needed for food, etc. for the next several days. We didn’t get back till around midnight, and as a passenger, it was a little bit different drive. You know how it is when you aren’t the one in control of the vehicle... I was a bit more nervous. We arrived back and we all settled in to bed for the night. The cabin had a master bedroom upstairs with a king size bed, and on the main floor the bedroom had 2 queen sized beds, and the sofa in the main room folded out as well.
Thursday – Christmas Eve day
Bill had done a little searching on the internet about what activities might be fun for the family. We had purchased tickets for an indoor water park, so off we go in our bathing suits, down the mountain to the water park. Winter coats over bathing suits, what a look! We had fun at the water park, but would I do it again? Probably not... the water in the lazy river was a bit chilly, and the big water slide was WAY COLD!!!!! Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!
The best part was the kids wading pool, it as shallow enough to stay warm, and then, the hot tubs. Those were nice, and big enough that when we first got there, (when it opened at 11:00) there weren’t very people at all, so we mostly could do whatever we wanted. Liam liked the warm water in the hot tubs, which weren’t HOT, but nice. They were quite big, you could almost swim in them, and Liam kept wanting to play tag. We had been there nearly 2 hours, and were quite cold unless we were in one of the hot tubs, so, at that point, we sort of decided, if we wanted a hot tub we could just go back to our cabin and use the hot tub there!
We went home and showered and dressed in warm clothes, and we considered going out somewhere to see some sights, but after he late night the night before, we were all a bit worn out. Bill needed a nap, so we decided to stay ‘home’ and prepare for Christmas. Sariah had a project she needed to finish – she was making a sock monkey for Rebekah. She needed a little help, so, I ended up doing a lot of the hand stitching of the parts to attach them, and then, She decided she didn’t want the hat to be matching (part of the sock). She asked if Amanda might make a crocheted hat to match the one that she’d made for Rebekah for Christmas, to go along and match for the sock monkey. So... as a result, we spent most of the afternoon in the bedroom upstairs. Rebekah had to hold down the fort downstairs, with all the other kids. Thank you Bekah! She made Christmas cookies with the kids. (I had bought some gingerbread cookie mix, but forgot to bring the cookie cutters with us! And then she did the pre-made sugar cookies.
We had a casualty... Rebekah burnt her finger on the cookie pan the last batch. It was really hurting her and throbbing/burning for hours. I wanted to get some ice, so I ran outside and got some snow. Snow - Natures ice pack. As soon as it melted, her finger would begin to burn. It had begun to sprinkle, and was supposed to rain quite a bit that night, so I got some more snow and put in the freezer, so we'd be sure to have enough for her. She took some medicine to help reduce the pain, but was still up nearly every hour all night long in pain, and needing more snow/ice.
After this we prepared for our traditional Christmas Eve Bethlehem dinner. Where we eat simple foods that might have been eaten by Joseph and Mary and the people in those times – we sit on the floor and eat by candle light. We have fish, and cheeses (like a brie) and grapes, and crackers. After we have eaten our meal, Bill reads us the Christmas story from Luke 2. We started this years ago when we lived in Japan, and it has become our family tradition. We never miss a year. We did this when we had Christmas with grandma and Grandpa in Virginia one year. We did it the year Bill was deployed, I prepared the meal and he called us and I had borrowed a speaker phone so we could all hear him and he was there a little bit more than just in spirit. It was special to be able to hear him read the Christmas story to us, even though he was so far away. So, even though we were in a cabin/house in the woods, we bought the food to have our special dinner.
After that part was over, the kids quickly like to move on to the next tradition of opening up their new Christmas jammies! Then after everyone gets dressed and ready for bed, we let them open one more present. Last year we started doing a secret santa between the kids (the idea is then I don’t have to try to run all over town and help the kids all buy things for each and every one of their siblings... not that it isn’t a nice idea, but it gets hard with all 6 kids). Anyway, so we let them open the present from their secret santa. Then we had to get 6 kids settled and down to sleep for the night in preparation for Santa to come.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Christmas with the Robertson's (part 1)
Christmas 2009
We decided to take a trip and get away for Christmas. We knew that if we stayed home, we’d have children and parents all in various rooms, watching different shows on different t.v’s or playing on different computers, etc... we’d be thinking about all the work that needed to be done around the house, and more than likely we’d just be grumpy with each other, and that wasn’t what we wanted. So we found a cabin/house up in the Smokey Mountains in Gatlinburg, TN that was still available the week before Christmas, and we made our reservations.
Rebekah came home from college on my birthday (Friday, Dec. 18th) – what a nice birthday present!
The night before my Birthday, Bill and I attended a Work Christmas dinner at the Space and Rocket Center. It was a nice dinner, and I’m glad Bill at a really good meal. It’s pretty much the last thing he ate for nearly a week. That night Bill started feeling ill – chills and fever! By morning he could barely get out of bed, he felt so bad! I get the kids off to school, dropped Liam off at his school and went to a hair apt. I had scheduled as my birthday treat. Afterward, I went home and tried to keep all the kids who were excited aobut the Christmas break, and home from school early after a half day, just a little bit quiet so dad could rest. Bill barely got out of bed for the next several days. Sunday when we came home from church, he asked for an I.V. so I hauled him out and he got an i.v. and some shots of antibiotics and pain killers and I brought him back home to bed. Monday morning he felt somewhat better, and got up and attempted to go in to work. On his way he stopped at the Dr’s again, and they gave him a breathing treatment as he couldn’t take a full breath, and told him he had pneumonia. Oh, and he had lost abt 10 lbs since he hadn’t eaten much of anything in days!
He went on to work with a couple of new prescriptions and tried to get a few things taken care of. Those who saw him at the office told him to go back home! He really didn’t look like he was well at all, (and that was the first day he looked almost like himself again)! We were a little concerned that he was not going to be well enough to enjoy our Christmas trip to the Smokey Mountains... We started making him smoothies full of protein powder to help him regain his energy. That, and the i.v. he’d had made a huge difference. Tuesday he stayed home in bed, and the rest of us gathered and packed things and got things ready to go. I was very behind! I REALLY wanted to go to a fun ornament x-change, but never finished my ornaments, and as it was I didn’t get to bed till after 3:30 a.m. after getting things organized as best as I could.
Wednesday we didn’t get going quite as quickly as we’d originally wanted, but we eventually got on the road. We had planned on driving us all up in the van, but with the possibility of snow up the mountain, we decided to drive two vehicles, so we could shuttle everyone up to the cabin/house in Bill’s truck since it has 4 wheel drive. We later were glad we’d made that choice!
Just as we were packing up Rebekah made the suggestion that the kids all ride in the van and she and Amanda would switch off driving, and Bill and I could ride up in the truck together, and have time to talk... What a nice present that was. We were able to talk and visit, on the 5 hour drive, or listen to the 80’s music channel, and the kids got to listen to all the silly songs and sing and be loud and crazy, and it didn’t drive us nuts! It was great!
We decided to take a trip and get away for Christmas. We knew that if we stayed home, we’d have children and parents all in various rooms, watching different shows on different t.v’s or playing on different computers, etc... we’d be thinking about all the work that needed to be done around the house, and more than likely we’d just be grumpy with each other, and that wasn’t what we wanted. So we found a cabin/house up in the Smokey Mountains in Gatlinburg, TN that was still available the week before Christmas, and we made our reservations.
Rebekah came home from college on my birthday (Friday, Dec. 18th) – what a nice birthday present!
The night before my Birthday, Bill and I attended a Work Christmas dinner at the Space and Rocket Center. It was a nice dinner, and I’m glad Bill at a really good meal. It’s pretty much the last thing he ate for nearly a week. That night Bill started feeling ill – chills and fever! By morning he could barely get out of bed, he felt so bad! I get the kids off to school, dropped Liam off at his school and went to a hair apt. I had scheduled as my birthday treat. Afterward, I went home and tried to keep all the kids who were excited aobut the Christmas break, and home from school early after a half day, just a little bit quiet so dad could rest. Bill barely got out of bed for the next several days. Sunday when we came home from church, he asked for an I.V. so I hauled him out and he got an i.v. and some shots of antibiotics and pain killers and I brought him back home to bed. Monday morning he felt somewhat better, and got up and attempted to go in to work. On his way he stopped at the Dr’s again, and they gave him a breathing treatment as he couldn’t take a full breath, and told him he had pneumonia. Oh, and he had lost abt 10 lbs since he hadn’t eaten much of anything in days!
He went on to work with a couple of new prescriptions and tried to get a few things taken care of. Those who saw him at the office told him to go back home! He really didn’t look like he was well at all, (and that was the first day he looked almost like himself again)! We were a little concerned that he was not going to be well enough to enjoy our Christmas trip to the Smokey Mountains... We started making him smoothies full of protein powder to help him regain his energy. That, and the i.v. he’d had made a huge difference. Tuesday he stayed home in bed, and the rest of us gathered and packed things and got things ready to go. I was very behind! I REALLY wanted to go to a fun ornament x-change, but never finished my ornaments, and as it was I didn’t get to bed till after 3:30 a.m. after getting things organized as best as I could.
Wednesday we didn’t get going quite as quickly as we’d originally wanted, but we eventually got on the road. We had planned on driving us all up in the van, but with the possibility of snow up the mountain, we decided to drive two vehicles, so we could shuttle everyone up to the cabin/house in Bill’s truck since it has 4 wheel drive. We later were glad we’d made that choice!
Just as we were packing up Rebekah made the suggestion that the kids all ride in the van and she and Amanda would switch off driving, and Bill and I could ride up in the truck together, and have time to talk... What a nice present that was. We were able to talk and visit, on the 5 hour drive, or listen to the 80’s music channel, and the kids got to listen to all the silly songs and sing and be loud and crazy, and it didn’t drive us nuts! It was great!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
We're off to NY...
O.K. so we've been planning this trip for 20 years! Bill's 20 yr reunionfor West Point is this weekend. Most of the people we will see there, we haven't seen since he graduated, we got married and moved on with our lives. They say that the Army is a small thing, and especially members of the Church in the Army...however, we have never until just this last year had anyone we knew from a previous duty station, live where we live at again. So, it has been many years since we've seen most of these people. We have a few friends that we've kept in touch with and even seen on rare occasions over the years, but for the most part, it will be the first time since graduation that we've seen his class mates.
I'm a bit nervous, and excited to see some people again. It's been a long time wince we've had the chance to catch up with old friends. AND, as an addition to all of that, we are staying with one of the families I nannied for, again. Bill hasn't seen them in abt. 14 yrs. I did get to see them last year when I went, but it will be good to see them again. We are going a day early and spending a day in the city, and we are going to see Phantom of the Opera! I' so excited! I've always wanted to see that one, but never got to. (we took a friend to see a show once, but she wanted to see Cats, and even though we'd already seen it... we went to Cats).
I am however sllightly worried about Liam, and pray that all will be well for him and for all who will help care for my kids while we are away. I worry about him daily now, and pray always that he will not have another incident, and we'll be able to stay on top of things, with the 'frequent' endoscopy, and appointments we'll have over the years, and we won't have an Emergency, like last time. On the other hand, this is now just life for us. Does it mean we should put the rest of life on hold, always, just so that we can be here personally to 'watch' every move he makes, 'in case' something happens? Honestly, if we did that, we'd all have to be hermits, and never leave the house and pad all the rooms, make him live in a plastic bubble in order to 'protect' him, and that wouldnt' be good for anyone!
Sometimes I worry that I am being a little too 'flip' and irreverant of the situation, but on the other hand, sometimes, you either have to laugh or else you'll cry. He's over all a healthy 'normal' (whatever that is!) 3 yr old little boy! He or any one we know could fall and hurt themselves, or get in some sort of accident, at any time. How is that so different? We can't live our lives in fear! We just have to keep moving forward to the best of our abilities...
And so... we're off to NY. (wish us all luck, and say a prayer or two, for my boy, and my peace of mind...).
On another note: I have never traveled so much in my life (since I was young anyway). I feel like I've taken so many trips this past calendar year... I'm sure it's a fluke, and the partying will have to come to a stop eventually... ;-)
I'm a bit nervous, and excited to see some people again. It's been a long time wince we've had the chance to catch up with old friends. AND, as an addition to all of that, we are staying with one of the families I nannied for, again. Bill hasn't seen them in abt. 14 yrs. I did get to see them last year when I went, but it will be good to see them again. We are going a day early and spending a day in the city, and we are going to see Phantom of the Opera! I' so excited! I've always wanted to see that one, but never got to. (we took a friend to see a show once, but she wanted to see Cats, and even though we'd already seen it... we went to Cats).
I am however sllightly worried about Liam, and pray that all will be well for him and for all who will help care for my kids while we are away. I worry about him daily now, and pray always that he will not have another incident, and we'll be able to stay on top of things, with the 'frequent' endoscopy, and appointments we'll have over the years, and we won't have an Emergency, like last time. On the other hand, this is now just life for us. Does it mean we should put the rest of life on hold, always, just so that we can be here personally to 'watch' every move he makes, 'in case' something happens? Honestly, if we did that, we'd all have to be hermits, and never leave the house and pad all the rooms, make him live in a plastic bubble in order to 'protect' him, and that wouldnt' be good for anyone!
Sometimes I worry that I am being a little too 'flip' and irreverant of the situation, but on the other hand, sometimes, you either have to laugh or else you'll cry. He's over all a healthy 'normal' (whatever that is!) 3 yr old little boy! He or any one we know could fall and hurt themselves, or get in some sort of accident, at any time. How is that so different? We can't live our lives in fear! We just have to keep moving forward to the best of our abilities...
And so... we're off to NY. (wish us all luck, and say a prayer or two, for my boy, and my peace of mind...).
On another note: I have never traveled so much in my life (since I was young anyway). I feel like I've taken so many trips this past calendar year... I'm sure it's a fluke, and the partying will have to come to a stop eventually... ;-)
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Cruisin' Day 4 Cont... Butterfly Farm Pic. Heavy
While we were driving around, our tour guide pointed out a lot of things... this is a very ritzy, golf course owned by Donald Trump.
Updated: I've been working on this all day again. I almost had all the pic's moved (a very slow inch by inch process...), and I lost the internet connection and it hadn't saved the changes, and it went back to how it had been at some point when it had saved part way in the middle of all the moves I had made with pictures halfway in the middle of other parts of the blog information...
SO... Here we go again! I have ONE more change to make then I'll try to post it.
We went to some other places but ended our morning tour at the butterfly house... (because of all the posting problems I'm having... I am just going to post this now, even though a lot of the pic's are still out of order... though better than yesterday!)
We had been told to be back at the bus by a certain time. A couple of us had bought yummy COLD ice cream cones. Two of the people on our bus were talking to someone from the other bus with our group across the parking lot, looking out at the Caribbean. 
It seemed like it was a big deal to get moving on time, so we encouraged the other couple to come on...
We literally went out of the parking lot, around one (1) building, and into the next parking lot to a rum shop! Every tour group on the island must have shown up at about the same time! There was no room in the parking lot, once we did get out of the bus, we couldn’t even fit inside the one little shop, and since we personally don’t drink, once we saw what the shop was, we didn’t need to spend time inside, so we actually got out of the crowded shop and sat inside the air conditioned bus.
We were looking around and the parking lot was full of jeeps. Earlier, our Tour Guide Marlon had told us earlier that there are three different colors of license plates on Grand Cayman. Blue was for buses and trucks, yellow for average regular people, and white plates for all tourist rental vehicles. (Marlon said it was so that locals could see them coming and get out of the way!) It almost seemed like the parking lot full of obviously rental jeeps might have been a rental office, but no... all of the sudden a whole group of people came out and loaded up in the jeeps and then drove off together.
Apparently there are Jeep Tours.It seemed like it was a big deal to get moving on time, so we encouraged the other couple to come on...We literally went out of the parking lot, around one (1) building, and into the next parking lot to a rum shop! Every tour group on the island must have shown up at about the same time! There was no room in the parking lot, once we did get out of the bus, we couldn’t even fit inside the one little shop, and since we personally don’t drink, once we saw what the shop was, we didn’t need to spend time inside, so we actually got out of the crowded shop and sat inside the air conditioned bus.
We were looking around and the parking lot was full of jeeps. Earlier, our Tour Guide Marlon had told us earlier that there are three different colors of license plates on Grand Cayman. Blue was for buses and trucks, yellow for average regular people, and white plates for all tourist rental vehicles. (Marlon said it was so that locals could see them coming and get out of the way!) It almost seemed like the parking lot full of obviously rental jeeps might have been a rental office, but no... all of the sudden a whole group of people came out and loaded up in the jeeps and then drove off together.
Now, one of the other things that Marlon had told us, was that there is no crime on Grand Cayman (I can’t imagine that... , but,) he said the biggest problem they have there is accidents. Grand Cayman, is part of the British West Indies; Brits drive on the left side of the road, and so that is not the ‘norm’ for most u.s. citizens. Then, as if that isn’t bad enough... the rental vehicles (the one’s that we saw anyway), were left side drive vehicles, like we have here at home! So you put tourists in cars they would drive at home on the right side of the road, and expect them to remember to drive on the left side of the road... and oh, if someone thinks they might want to pass another vehicle??? Usually, you would look to your left around the other car in front of you, but no!!! You can’t even begin to see AROUND the vehicle in front of you, as you are driving on the left hand side of the vehicle, in the left lane and to pass, you have to zip out into the oncoming traffic lane on your right!!!
Hmmmmm..... any wonder that one of the biggest problems on the island are accidents on the roadways????
So, after the Rum shop, we got back in the bus and they took us to a lovely place...
This sign is very old and faded but in the middle of it it says, " Located in this area is the Largest and most visable portion of "Hell" Which is ironically owned by a family named "McDoom".
I had to take a picture of the post office (oh, and we mailed a post card to Bill’s dad and mom and one to us back home... it’s already been two weeks, I wonder how long it will take to get to us.) Anyway, this area of the island, is jagged lava rock. When some famous person visited/discovered the island, way back when... they saw this area, and supposedly said, “Oh, H-e-_ _”double hockey sticks... and the ‘name’ stuck.
I just had to take a picture of the post office. I thought about trying to do a scrap book page or something to send to Bill’s dad who is an assistant post master. I wanted the page to say, something like; 
'If you think your job is H-e-_ _... Try working here’! 
There was a couple on our tour from Canada. They have a dear friend who's boyfriend gave her this hat for her Christmas present. (She was expecting something quite a bit more personal...). So the couple took the hat with them on the Cruise and were taking pic's of the hat at all the places they went, then were going to put the pictures on a monthly calendar and the 'girlfriend' will give her boyfriend a Calendar with the hat pictures on it...
If you look carefully in the center of this picture, you can see a Lizard. It has a green belly. Marlon Also told us that the green lizzards (or was it the blue) are endangered, and if you kill one, even on accident, like it runs onto the road while you are driving, it can cost you $6,000. Yikes!
Roosters just run around wild all over the Island.
Roosters just run around wild all over the Island.After we went to Hell, the next stop on the tour was the Butterfly Farm. 
I had been to some butterfly houses before (We went to one on Singapore once)... but I learned some interesting things at this one. 
Appearantly, when a caterpillar goes into his cacoon or Crysalis,
it completely dissolves into goo (they’ve now done x-rays and sonograms). Instead of a caterpillar growing wings and becoming a butterfly that way; it actually completely dissolves and then grows into a completely new and different thing. 
I had been to some butterfly houses before (We went to one on Singapore once)... but I learned some interesting things at this one. Appearantly, when a caterpillar goes into his cacoon or Crysalis, it completely dissolves into goo (they’ve now done x-rays and sonograms). Instead of a caterpillar growing wings and becoming a butterfly that way; it actually completely dissolves and then grows into a completely new and different thing. A Beautiful Butterfly!!!
The guide there said that perhaps it is where the theory of evolution came from... Then he went on to say that the body dry’s up and dissolves, but the wings stay, and there are Fossilized evidence of Butterfly wings as old as the dinosaurs... some are of the exact kinds of butterfly’s still around that we see today.
The guide there said that perhaps it is where the theory of evolution came from... Then he went on to say that the body dry’s up and dissolves, but the wings stay, and there are Fossilized evidence of Butterfly wings as old as the dinosaurs... some are of the exact kinds of butterfly’s still around that we see today.
Well, this to me kind of contradicts the ‘theory of evolution’ whole thing! If we have Butterfly’s that are the exact same kind as there were thousands of years ago in ancient times... then things haven’t really evolved or changed that much! 
This Butterfly was just fresh from it's Crysalis... It's wings were still wet, and somewhat curled up.The guide told us that the butterfly... as it gets ready to burst forth from it's cacoon, it's body is filled with liquid, and it is head down, all the fluid goes to the head, and it pushes open the crysallis, along these two seams on each side. After it gets free from the cacoon, it then pushes all that extra liquid into the veins (or whatever they are called in butterfly's), to help unfurl the wings... after that whole process is through it will actually excrete the rest of the liquid that is no longer needed, so it isn't weighed down and it flies away... 
We were watching him with this new butterfly, when it released the extra fluid and then, off it went!
This green one was cool. The butterfly insdide was about to come out.... it was moving and twitching, and shaking... pretty cool 
This butterfly had gorgeous blue wings when they were open... However, when it lands on something and sits, the wings close up. We were watching it an it landed on this bowl of fruit. I was trying to be prepared to shoot the picture if and when it decided to fly away, when bill said, get ready... He reached out his hand and ever so slightly touched the edge of the wings... well that did the trick! It opened it's wings and flew away!! I somehow managed to snap the picture at just the right moment... and we got this amazing butterfly. The guide commented that he has professional photographers sit for hours and not be able to get a picture of the butterfly with it's wings open, and still enough to be able to get a picture. He was impressed! I just felt lucky!!!
Another thing Marlon told us was about the number of Banks on the Island (you know, those of shore, tax free, bank accounts you hear about??? I wanted to take a picture of some of the many Banks we saw while driving, but we were always driving by too fast to focus on them...
This butterfly had gorgeous blue wings when they were open... However, when it lands on something and sits, the wings close up. We were watching it an it landed on this bowl of fruit. I was trying to be prepared to shoot the picture if and when it decided to fly away, when bill said, get ready... He reached out his hand and ever so slightly touched the edge of the wings... well that did the trick! It opened it's wings and flew away!! I somehow managed to snap the picture at just the right moment... and we got this amazing butterfly. The guide commented that he has professional photographers sit for hours and not be able to get a picture of the butterfly with it's wings open, and still enough to be able to get a picture. He was impressed! I just felt lucky!!!Another thing Marlon told us was about the number of Banks on the Island (you know, those of shore, tax free, bank accounts you hear about??? I wanted to take a picture of some of the many Banks we saw while driving, but we were always driving by too fast to focus on them...
This blog post should have just been labeled Butterflys... I still have more of this day to blog about. This just finished up the tour we took in the morning!
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