Peyton Celebrates His 7th Birthday!

Happy 7th Birthday Peyton!  

We know it's a few days early (his birthday is on the 20th), but we had a early celebration for the cutest 7 year old EVER!  We figured since we were in a nice cabin and Grandma and Grampa were with us, and we were going to Dollywood, it was the perfect time to celebrate a birthday!  So Peyton and I made a cake and Peyton decorated it all by himself (except I helped with the writing).  We went out and bought Peyton a few presents,  wrapped them up, put up some decorations, put on some party hats and had ourselves quite a fun 7 year old party!

Peyton blew out the candles in 1 huge breath (with the help of 3 more small breaths).
Grandma and Grandpa bought Peyton Legos, Magnatex and a CD of songs all about Peyton.

Even Peytons new duckling gets a party hat!

Sterling decided he was Unicorn Man and was being quite a camera ham!

My mom was quite sick but made it to the party (actually, me and my dad have also been really sick.  We have some sort of flu that gets in your throat and chest.  Mom went to an urgent care and got meds.  Dad and I are toughing it out.  Mom and I have completely lost our voices.  Dave and Dad think its pretty nice that us loud girls can't chat.)

We got Peyton a talking parrot toy, a plastic bat and ball, Star Wars lightsabers, a small puzzle and this nail art thing.

What a bunch of goof balls!

This body less guy was hanging around downtown Gatlinburg.

Peyton and grandpa at Dollywood!

My sick mom was staying cozy in front of Blazing Fury.  This is an inside roller coaster that is pretty tame.  It is fun to look around at all the fire related activities.

This roller coaster is called Tennessee Tornado.  It has a few upside down loops and is very fast.  The cool thing about this coaster is that it has a built in camera in the back of each seat.  So it films your reactions to every drop and turn.  The boys figured this out and came up with a comic routine whiel on the coaster.  It was quite entertaining to watch...even the lady selling the video was amused.

This ride was called River Battle!  This ride was a blast.  The people in the boat each have a squirt gun that can shoot water.  You can shoot at targets, other passing boats or at people on the shore.  The fun thing is the people on the shore also have squirt guns that can squirt at the boats.  It becomes quite the water battle and both parties end up very wet.

I learned the hard way that if you hit a target it squirts back at you.  Dave hit this target and this huge stream of water hit me in the face.

How cute!   Love birds!

The almost 7 year old baby bird learning to fly out of the nest!

Mamma and her baby birdies!

This car brought back memories for my dad!  Well, actually I have no idea if it did or didn't but it sounds good!

Since the shower in the RV is pretty small, Dave and I decided to take advantage of this 25 cent outdoor public shower ;-)

My mom and Dad thought a shower was a good idea as well.

We forgot to tell Tanner that clothes were not optional.

Mom and I wandered through a few stores while we were in Dollywood.  Notice who is taller :-) My mom thinks she is quite tall with her spring shoes on.  

I love this picture.  You can tell the birthday boy and

 his older brother are having a blast!

Me and Sterling 

Birthday boy and his new duckling.  He won duckling in a duck game.

Dollywood houses more unreleaseable Bald Eagles than anywhere else in the US.  We went to a bird show and met this one winged eagle.  We love eagles!!!!  I was so excited to see this eagle close up and I took a bunch of pictures of him.  This one is my favorite pic.  I like the way the eagle cocked his neck to the side.  

A rare picture of the whole family.

My dad felt right at home in this classic car.  My dad owns a 1950 plymouth named "Grumpy"  (named after his dad that I lovingly called GRUMPY).   

My mom took the opportunity to be the driver (she is use to being the passenger in Grumpy).

I think this is a great picture.  The funny thing was trying to get my mom out of the car after we took the picture.  Another thing I must mention is that Pigeon Forge had a huge car show while we were there.  My dad had a such a great time walking up and down the street looking at all the cars.

Dave and I in front of the rapid ride.  

My kids are huge hams when it comes to pictures.

The kids went on this a few times.  They found a way to tweak the ride to go up and down really fast so they could get some air.  

This was the kids ALL TIME favorite ride.  I have to say Dave and I agree.  This ride was insane!  I can't even begin to explain it, you have to experience it to understand it.  I think the boys went on it 5 or 6 times and would have gone on it another 50 if time would have permitted.  

All I can say once again is "who knows why Sterling does what Sterling does!"  If you can not tell by the picture, Sterling is laying down in the water spout play area on a water spout getting soaked, and NO it was not hot out.

This is a picture of the whole family after a great day at Dollywood!  

P.S. - The 20th of September is Peytons actual birthday.  Please POST A COMMENT and Wish Him a Happy Birthday!  He really misses his friends and family and would really love to hear from everyone on his special day!

Great Smokey Mountains

After we picked my parents up at the Asheville Airport we headed to Gatlinburg, Tennessee!  We had a reason for getting over there in a hurry.  We had a beautiful cabin waiting for us.  Yes, a place that was bigger than 300 sq feet, with actual doors and a kitchen and the kids actually had a real bed to sleep in.  It was amazing!  When I found out my parents were coming to visit I decided that I would look into cabins (7 in the RV for 10 days sounded a little overwhelming).  So I looked at a bunch of cabins and then I saw these luxurious ones.  I thought there would be no way we could splurge on one of these cabins, but why not try.  I talked to the guy for a long time and negotiated a fantastic price (way lower then the junky cabins).  So we all stayed in a 3 bedroom cabin with a movie room and 3 jacuzzis for 5 nights.  It was beyond heavenly.  It was so nice having family dinners with my parents and just sitting around the house chatting.  When you live in an RV you tend to appreciate the little things (like a dishwasher, a high pressure hot shower, space to wander without bumping into someone, and a room for the kids with a sound proof door.)  All in all, we loved staying at this cabin and are thinking of returning with more of our family in the future (Teri and family pack your bags, Hulsebus clan pack up too).  

While in Gatlinburg we took a drive to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. We learned that the Smokey Mountain National Park is the most visited park in the US.  Once you arrive you can see why.   It is absolutely gorgeous in this park.  You are surrounded by green, lush trees.   Shallow, bright blue, curving rivers and picturesque mountains.  When the car would have a rare moment of quiet you could hear the songs of the immense amount of wildlife that live in the protected valleys of the Smokey Mountains.  We were lucky to see many deer, tons of birds, squirrels and even a few salamanders (which the Smokies have the most amount of different varieties of salamanders in the world).  We really wanted to see one of the many black bear that live amidst the smokies but we were seconds too late to see a mama and her cub that a few other hikers told us about as they passed her on the trail.  Maybe it was actually a blessing since Peyton had only minutes earlier been practicing what the flier said to do if we ran into a bear.  Stand real tall, make a lot of noise and throw rocks at the bear.  That technique might scare Peyton's brothers, but pretty sure the mama bear would have scolded Peyton for that unBEARable behavior.  

Along our scenic drive (with 7 people in a 5 passenger vehicle) we stopped at many historic churches, houses and graveyards.  In the middle to late 1800, before the park was protected, a few adventurous people called this beautiful, wildlife preserve home.  

We had such a nice time sharing the beauty of the smokies with my parents.  It was so fun to have them along.

Yogi Bear Park, North Carolina

Dave and Peyton flew to Sacramento for a long weekend to visit family.  While they were gone Tanner, Sterling and I stayed at the Yogi Bear Park in Moline, North Carolina.  We loved this park!  The staff was amazing and the activities were so much fun for the boys.  We even joined in on a night of bingo.  We didn't win :-(  but we had fun.  We stayed there from Tuesday to Sunday and then headed to the airport to pickup Dave and Peyton.  They said they had a blast in Sacramento!  

We immediately headed to Asheville, North Carolina for another GMS show.  The best part of this show was Slide Rock and that when it ended we were going to pickup my Mom and Dad at the Asheville Airport!  We were so happy to see them.  

While at the show we went to a place called Slide Rock with a bunch of my GMS friends.  It was so much fun.  The water was freezing so the boys were a little hesitant to get in at first.  Once they took the first plunge we could not get them out.  The rock was really slippery which made for quite a fast slide.  It reminded me of one of our first camping trips with all of our great Sacramento friends (We love you guys and we need to go camping again soon).  On that trip Tanner went down a rock slide on a tube and the rope from the tube got wrapped around his neck.  I was holding Peyton (who was just a baby) and yelling at Dave to jump in and save him.  Dave did not see the rope around his neck, so he was in no hurry to jump in.  So I pushed him as hard as I could and he fell all the way down the rock slide and saved Tanner.  Dave was all scratched up and bloody, but Tanner was safe.  I have no idea why I just shared that...oh well...now you all know!  

This is a waterfall on the way to Slide Rock.
The boys skipped rocks under the waterfall.

Handsome Tanner

Appomattox, Virginia

Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia was like taking a huge leap back into history...  Aug 9, 1865 to be exact.  Tanner and Sterling wrote a paper on their visit to Appomattox as their history lesson.  I thought I would let you hear about it from them.   The only problem is the paper is in Sacramento with their teacher.  So, we are having it faxed to us and will post as soon as we get it.  Here are the pictures to get your interest up.  

Sorry we have been so lazy about posting.  My parents are here and I have been so busy visiting with them I have been lazy posting.  Also we have all been sick over and over again.  Please pray that we all get healthy quickly.  Love and miss you all!  

Wireless

I have high speed wireless here in Gatlinburg, Tennessee!  I will be entering some new posts soon.  I will also be downloading a bunch more smugmug pics.  Stay tuned!  

You will have to wait to see who our special guests are!

Monticello, Thomas Jeffersons home

After the excitement of the USC blowout we decided to slow it down a notch and take a huge step back into American History and visit Monticello.  Driving through the magnificent country roads near Charlottesville surrounded by full grown, bright green trees was a treat in itself.  Turning onto our third presidents driveway you could immediately see why he loved Monticello so much.  The grounds surrounding his house on the hill were in full bloom and looked amazing.  After we bought our tickets (along side many other USC fans) we were put in a shuttle, headed up to the top of the hill, and dropped in front of the main house.  It looked just like the back of a nickel...literally.  It should since it is on the back of the nickel (in case you didn't know).  We walked around the grounds while we waited for our guided tour inside the house.  While we were visiting the gardens we joined the plantation tour all ready in progress.  It was a little sad to hear about all the things that Thomas Jefferson probably didn't want to be remembered for.  For instance, DNA points to the fact that Thomas was most likely the father to one of his slaves (Sally Hemings) 6 children.  He also had over 200 slaves and he only freed 2 in his life and 4 in his will (they all were Hemings decedents...coincidence?).  I find it funny that Thomas was so outspoken on the immorality of slavery yet owned and refused to free his many slaves.  Don't get me wrong, Thomas Jefferson was a great man and did many amazing things for this country.  Most notably, writing the Declaration of Independence, spearheading the Louisiana Purchase and founding the University of Virginia.  Not to mention being our 3rd President.  He also was very kind and generous man.  He was a very devoted scholar, architect, horticulturist, paleontologist, and enjoyed a good glass of wine, daily.  He went out of his way to fight for equality and abolish slavery.  He even signed a bill in 1807 abolishing slave trade.  Yet historians say that Jefferson was in so much debt that he couldn't afford to free his own slaves.  After his death his slaves were sold to pay off his debts.  In Jeffersons behalf it was recorded that Thomas was a very fair and kind slave owner.  It is also said that Thomas allowed some of his slaves to receive an education.  This was very rare during that time.

Anyway, back to Monticello.  We headed down to see Thomas Jefferson's grave stone and then our time to go in the house had arrived.  The house tour was very interesting and our tour guide was very informative.  I was surprised that the rooms were so small and that the molding and woodwork were only appointed to the lower level of the house (I guess in those days they only put effort into the part of the house that important guests were allowed to see).  I also enjoyed walking through the many rooms under the house.  Peyton liked the fancy shaped children's blocks.  Sterling liked beating daddy in a quick game of old fashioned checkers and Tanner enjoyed writing with a quill feather pen.  All in all, we all had a great day visiting Monticello.

Down the road from Monticello was the home of James Monroe our 5th president (Tanner and Sterling have been memorizing the presidents and currently can dictate up to the 25th president....just a bragging mom) we didn't go in but did drive by to snap a picture.  The boys found it pretty funny that the 3rd and 5th president were neighbors.