Vacation with the parents!

I don’t know where to start…this vacation was by far the best one I’ve had this year!

The days leading up to our departure on Wednesday were crazy and fun. So much to be done and absolutely no time to do it…Christina actually packed my stuff the night before, I was baking for the road. that’s why I love her, don’t know what I’d do without her. I wasn’t proud of how much stuff I took, but hey I had to bring all my bedding because I was sleeping on the floor in the room.

So the night before I stayed up till three in the morning with Christina…painting our nails, watched a movie and then sorted pictures together…you know getting as much time together as possible before I left. I was asleep within an hour of sitting in the car the next morning.

The smoky mountains?!?!?!? they are insane, I’ve never seen any mountains before so bare with me=) I was so amazed! But after being on Black Mountain all week, this Indiana girl was ready for the flat land and corn fields. At least be able to see something other than trees all around me.

So what was it like sharing a two bed hotel room with my two younger brothers and parents? Ummmm insane!!!! Seriously…I won’t even go into the parents side of it...don’t worry you really don’t want to know. But my brothers! Isaac isn’t so bad, but now Samuel is a different story. His suitcase was unloaded within the hour of our arrival. Not into drawers, mind you, but all over the floor. It was like this the remainder of the week. the constant “guy smell”.  okay I’ll stop. It was just hard for this girl to get used to=) Sharing one bathroom…that was the hardest. Samuel takes longer than me on just his hair…okay I promised to stop….sorry.

What was our schedule like? It was a conference - so we had a very tight schedule. For instance: breakfast was served from 7:45 to 8:45 a.m. We never got to bed before 2:00 a.m. so getting up and showering before this time was a tough one. (at least for this girl) Remember we had only one shower, for five people and thankfully only two of them were girls=) Then we would go to a session and then after lunch, the day was ours. There was organized basketball, volleyball, also hiking, swimming, etc. whatever the camp had to offer was at our disposal. Dinner. One last session.  Then we went to a gym and played games, with a ton of young adults, till about twelve. All the “night owls” would continue the night in the hotel lobby or another room till about three. I only made it to two. We would climb in bed at that 'ungodly hour' and repeat the next day=) so fun right?!?!?!

Are parents are so cool to vacation with…easy going and good with anything. Mom took a ton of pictures of us! I barely used my camera myself, I passed it off to her…I’m sad to admit it. They both got all their sleep so they were in good moods on the way home. As for the rest of us...I won't go there. I loved the 'one on one' time I got with my parents and two brothers for five days straight. I made a lot of good memories that I will hold on to for life. 

I put together a short video of our trip enjoy=)

Just loads of fun! 

~Photo-a-day~ Sept 10 – Sept 16

Vacation plus taking a picture a day equals looking through my pictures at the end of the day hoping there’s one that goes along with the word for that day. Sad I know, but with so much FUN going on it was hard to concentrate on something as simple as taking a picture.

North Carolina was AWESOME…I want to go back!!!!!!

My horse missed me. I missed him. Anyway we’re back together so everyone’s better.

I didn’t know how good our homemade food is, until I went a week without it.

I miss my brothers so much everyday and didn’t realize it until we were together constantly for a week. We even shared a room…”constantly together” took on a whole new meaning=)

We’ll more about this amazing week in a later post.

Trying to pull my life back together wasn’t hard except I never slept didn’t get much sleep while I was in North Carolina, so trying to catch up on that while not at work (yeah I’ve been nodding at my desk) has been difficult.

Day 253

~starts with a ‘B’~

book would be the word=) mom was reading to Isaac on the way out to the smoky mountains and back…reminded me of the many long car trips to and from church as a kid listening to her read these same books.

Day 254

~in the distance~

mountains….nothing but mountains everyway you looked=)

Day 255

~new~

a new place…I love hiking new places and there was so much here to go and see.

Day 256

~a friend~

I take for granite the life long friends we are so fortunate to have as siblings. As we get older and life takes on a faster pace and we see less of each other, I forget sometimes how special they are to me.

Day 257

~I wish for…~

I wish for many more vacations just like this one, one spent with family!!!

Day 258

~my shoes~

these shoe bags were Christina’s idea for an ideal flip flop and sandal storage.

Day 259

~routine~

making my lunch for the next day the night before, has become a routine I try never to skip.

So that was my week…in a few pictures.

Which photo do you like best, please comment below and tell me=)

brothers….

 

I LOVE my brothers!

They are simply amazing…

…and I couldn’t imagine my life without them.

 

BROTHERS

I can’t help but smile as I look at these=)

Happy Labor Day!

 

Father’s Day…the pancake feast=) Part 1/2

This weekend was so relaxing…I’m just going to share the meal pictures, the party pictures will come later=) I took a lot=)

I made pancakes and nothing I cook makes me happier…and oh I got to make a ton of different kinds including a new recipe – PEANUT BUTTER PANCAKES=) – so much fun! On top of that my parents and siblings loved them!!! Which made making them just that much more rewarding=)

Sunday was Father’s Day. Well our dad (typical guy) loves breakfast and he has said time and time again how he could eat breakfast three times a day=) So I got this random idea why not actually do it, why not have breakfast for lunch?  And that’s just what we did=) I ran the idea past him just to make sure he wasn’t rudely surprised, (I’d rather be safe than sorry) so it wasn’t a surprise. But just seeing his face while he looked over the pancakes before the meal was priceless.

I started Friday night by making apple and pumpkin pancakes. I also made a batch of gluten free coconut flour pancakes for myself…they weren’t the greatest, I still need to work on perfecting that recipe. And on Sunday I made the peanut butter and loads of the just regular pancakes=) (which are dad’s favorite).

Happy Father’s Day to my wonderful dad, such a hard working godly man. His selflessness never ceases to amaze me. Also happy Father’s Day to my oldest brother…so many good times together, also he’s a great dad!

So here’s pictures of the day! Enjoy=)

look at that face=)

my gluten free pancakes…

So that was our lunch on Father’s Day=) Looked fun and it was fun=) Everyone laughing talking and eating…

….it was a perfect day!