Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The great escape to The Smokey's

Okay, I'm making time to finally get some pics from our trip up and going, we had som much FUN, and well deserved FUN! We found a great deal on a package to head to pigeon forge and Gatlinburg and decided we needed to see more of Tennessee. So off we went on a little adventure, we were gone May 25-28. Pigeon Forge is located on the east side of the state by Knoxville right next to the Smokey's National Park, the Mountain were bigger than I thought, but nothin like the Rocky's, still very beautiful. As we arrived in town by dinner time, we headed to Corky's BBQ, they had the best sweet potatoe fries ever! yummy, then we went and drove around the town to see what we want to do. It is such a resort and tourist town, sooo much to do with the family, several family fun centers, museums, attractions. WOW, there was no way to get it all in on one trip, guess we'll have to come back next year! Here some of what we did: Wonder Works, this building is upsidedown! Its a lot like the adventure
science center. but soo much more. We got to experience what a 6.4 magnatude
earthquake would feel like, and a hurricane winds, and we got to feel how cold the
water was when the titanic sank (freezing). After we spent a few hours there, we
went down the the dinner show called "Hoot n Holler". It was great for the family,
Emma just loved the dancing, singing, and comedy.
Emma and Rick had so much fun playin on everything, especially the giant keyboard




Emma got to rock climb


make huge bubbles

We found this store and Emma just freaked out, so we had to go in!


We went tubing down the River, kids did sooo amazing! We had a lot of fun
floating down the river, we saw eagles, fish, geese, snakes. Rick was so
good and had fun.


Having a little picnic after tubing.


Here we are in the tram riding it up to Ober Gatlinburg

Kids thought it was sooo cool, and such a great way to see Gatlinberg.

At the top of the mountain has soo much going on, ice skating, alpine slide,
mini carnival, food, black bear reserve, hiking.

Rick found a batmobile and just had to ride.






We took the ski lift up to ride the alpine slide

Rick screemed the whole way down, too funny.

Emma was awesome, she wanted to go faster.



And we ran into Bella and Edward, isn't that cool! well actually it was
at the wax museum, and Nick had no interest in going in, and I wan't going
to do it by myself, but was able to get this fun shot.


Next up was the Ripley's Belive it or not Museum, me and Nick thought it
was cool but the kids didn't really like it as much. This is the 2nd museum
we've been able to go see, the main museum was broken up into 7 different
museums around the country.

A very large chair.


This was a crazy man, so I just had to take a pic with him.....
actually he's fake, coulda fooled me!

Emma is standing in a room thats spinning, but walking accross
can really throw your bearings off.

Here the kids are in the dinosaur room, freaking out.
After we left Ripley's we drove around Gatlinberg, which was cool, its a
great town to walk down main street. We then went down to old mill square
in Pigeon Forge to have dinner, real southern cookin on the menu and really good.
On the way home we decided to stop in Knoxville to see the zoo. Its got so much
going on in this zoo and many more animals than Nashville's zoo, so we just had to
go and stop by. Here we are in front of the bears exibit.






On the way home after leaving the zoo, we took a wrong turn during a huge down pour of rain
and ended up heading south towards Chattanooga, which delayed us only by about an hour, so
we ended up seeing even more of the state. Tennessee is very beautiful!

This video is of Rick trying to feed the camels, its really funny!


Monday, May 17, 2010

Happy Mothers Day

this pic was taken at the Mother Daughter Social at the church.
Amy Rahm took the picture.
I just love my kids!

Emma made this plate for me at school with clay.
LOVE IT!


Nick had these flowers sent to me while he was on his business
trip, sooo BEAUTIFUL. Thanks love, I love you!

Friday, May 14, 2010

The many faces of EMMA!

This last month has been a busy month for Emma. She is doing a lot of fun things and is really excited for school to get out on the 21st of May. She is my little shining star and just a wonderful blessing to our family! She has been going to gymnastics, going to girl scouts, and loves to draw and make crafts. She is a great help to her brother and she can now ride a 2 wheeler! she also would rather clean the bathroom than her own room, go figure! Emma is a crack up like her dad, always cracking jokes and making fun of everything. I love her imagination and the creativity that she has. We love you Emma! Emma did a class performance called "The Umbrella Gala", she
was Awesome! She played THUNDER and rain drops, which kinda suits her.
Here's Emma and her cast.

Emma is such a great big sister. Rick sure does love her.

She loves gymnastics and has some talent for it. Just like mom and dad.

here she is in her Easter Dress! So beautiful!



I've uploaded some videos from gymnastics

Monday, April 12, 2010

Trip to the Nashville Zoo

Its spring break and need to entertain the kids, what better place for some little rascals then the zoo! Emma brought along her friend Roxy and Rick brought along his best bud Tyler. We had so much fun walking around, seeing the animals and just letting the kids run, run, and run!
I am holding 3 of the kids up....Roxy, Tyler and Rick.









Rick was too funny, he would only pet the near the rear of the animal, away from the head.

Emma just loves the amimals, now she wants to be a vet or a marine biologist that
work with the animals at sea world.