Ten Uh Seeeeeee!

Yes, Tennessee.  Does anyone in our family live there? No.  But somehow we ended up there for a family reunion.  And it was great!

We were up in the Smoky Mountains, and every morning we got to see why they are called the "Smoky" mountains.  It was lovely to watch the fog waft up every morning.

When I say we were in the mountains, we really were!  The cabins were built right into the side of the mountain with multi-story foundations sticking out.  Our cabin had 4 stories with 7 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, a pool table, hot tub and an elevator!  Yes, the kids were threatened with death if they touched the elevator.

Here is our bedroom.

After we arrived on Tuesday, Wednesday was fun to really see everyone.  My mom and dad, sisters Jen and Allie (and best friend Alison) and brother Robert were there.  It was also great to see my Aunt Becky and Uncle Jeff, with cousin Josh, who I haven't seen in about 10 years.  My other cousin Eric and girlfriend Adrianna also arrived later in the week.  After a morning run, which about killed me with the humidity, Wednesday was the opening ceremony for the Bolympics!  Our first event was bowling.

On Thursday we headed to a park to play tennis and lots of other sports on the agenda.  Here is Alison along with my brother and Thunder.  Alison speaks fluent Spanish and it was fun to watch her converse with our kids, who took Spanish earlier in the summer.

Here is my mom and my sister Jen playing Bolo Ball (ladder golf).

Here is Allie, Tornado and my Uncle Jeff.

Cloudburst loved seeing her Aunts!

This was a game of wiffle golf: use a golf club to chip a wiffle ball into a blow-up tube.  We were very creative!

Here are some of the ladies, looking fabulous with all the heat and humidity.

Thunder took advantage of the relaxed schedule to take a nap with Sunrise.  This was about the only time Sunrise slept on the trip.

Duff's!!!!!  We ate here, thinking it would be fun to sample "local" cuisine. We all left with a belly ache.

There were some spectacular spiders that inhabited the cabin along with us... well at least on the outside of the cabin.  They were about an inch long.

We had several activities going on at once, so we had a few tennis games...

... along with more wiffle golf...

.. and more Bolo Ball.

Here is a made-up game called Sparkle Dribble.  I swear it's harder than it looks! That's why I did so bad!

We stayed in Pigeon Forge, which has a touristy downtown full of go-carts and ice cream shops.  One afternoon Thunder and I took the kids on a Jurassic Park boat ride.

Surprisingly, Sunshine was crying and throwing a bit of a fit before we got on about how scared he was.  He has NEVER done this before in his life, so we didn't know quite how to handle it.  He was just very tired.  But with a few hugs he got on the ride.  And shut his eyes half the time.

On Friday morning, we split into a few groups to to hiking, fishing, or relax at the cabin a bit.  I went with Jen, Allie, Alison, and Robert on a hike to Paul's Bunion.  Round trip, it was about 10 miles.  Other than the time that Allie turned our TP into PPTP, it was a great hike!

Here is our fearless leader.

It was a great view from the top!

Here's Jen and I enjoying the great outdoors.

While we were hiking, another group went fishing: my mom, dad, Aunt Becky, Cloudburst and Sunshine.

Later, Cloudburst told me about some great stories Aunt Becky told along the way.

I think Grandma wanted to go on the bigger hike, but unfortunately she had an injured leg.  We missed her, but I know the kids loved it!

And here are the fishermen.  This is my cousin Josh, Sunshine and Grandpa.

That afternoon, we had a few more Bolympics sports to complete.  We played Bocci ball...

... had a football punt, and also a homerun derby (although we used a tennis raquet and wiffle ball).

We also enjoyed lots of downtime together.  Everyone had a night to help cook dinner and we ate very well.  It was fun to just chat with everyone!

On Saturday we had family pictures taken, and had closing ceremonies for the Bolympics.  Apparently Tornado didn't think pants were necessary for the occasion.

Grandma made sure that everyone got prizes.  It was such a fun week and we had a great time!  I'll leave with some of the family pictures we had taken by Larry Miller.


Thunder and I celebrated our official 10 year anniversary on the trip!