A blitz trip and a baby shower

Zach had a long drill from Wednesday to Sunday last week, so my friend Kate and I loaded all the kids up for a 48hr blitz trip to Gatlinburg. Once we quickly ran from the scary hotel Kate booked on hotels.com and checked into the Hilton Garden Inn we were ready for some fun ...

The kids loved the aquarium ..

We were so busy those are about the only pictures I got .. but we rode the tram up the mountain to the ski slopes, went the the "Smokey Mountain Wildlife Encounter" (we learned why its an "encounter" and not a zoo ... basically we looked at empty habitats but the kids didnt care)

We also celebrated Laura's baby to be ...

Mommy points ...

Let's be honest .. it's not easy to take kids ages 4,2, and 1 hiking on a Saturday morning without a daddy(at the base) but somethings we do out of sheer boredom, need for adventure/spontaneity and ... mommy points. Because you get a lot more "oh wow good for you", "how fun", and "I bet they loved it" when you tell people you went to hike a waterfall on a Saturday rather than the normal well we went to the park. Luckily, I had a willing cousin that answered the desperate text of "want to be crazy and take the kids hiking today.. we are daddy-less" with a "pick me up in 30 min!" ... We really had a blast and I can't tell you how good it was for my soul to be out enjoying the Lord's creation with my kids:)

Christmas Time is Here ...

It was always a tradition for us to ride the Pink Pig at Christmastime so what does this tradtion freak do?? Sticks her kids in the car for the 45 minute drive to Lenox to ride the Pink Pig:)

They loved it!

A re-cap of sorts ..

Well it's no secret we have not posted in a while but here are some photos to recap the past 6 months .. These lil people are growing up!Rexy and Cousin David not really wanting their photo taken

Annie as tinkerbell

Halloween

Riding the Pink Pig at Lenox

Last Beach post:)

This is pretty much what they looked like at the end of each day .. thirsty and exhausted ...

We visited the air force base museum one afternoon .. daddy got to show the kiddos the jets he works on:)

I realize I never really got any pictures of us on the beach and I chalk that up to these 2 things ... mommas got a new camera and is scared to have it near water and sand and we lasted all of about 45 minutes at a time on the beach before heading back to the pool ...

More Beach ...

We visited the "Gulfaruim" one morning while on vacation .. Annie refused to take her sunglasses off .. sweet girl ..
She loved swimming with Aunt B ...

Rexy loves floating around with his lil water wings .. boy is fearless when it comes to the pool ...

We also just happened to pass Krispy Kreme when the hot light was on ... and who can resist that?!

Ok one more post on the vacation and I promise I will quit with the pictures ...

Beachtime for the Greenes ...

We recently returned from a trip to Fort Walton with my side of the family mixed in with the meltdowns and tantrums were actually some fun times!!

I so badly wanted a cute photo by this colorful sign but no ...

She thought this shark was so funny for some reason ...

more to come ...