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| Taming a "wild" pony! |
The morning started off with Robby and I waking up early to get ready and soon Graham was in our bathroom and closet talking to us. Not too far behind was Campbell and we could hear Reagan and Anderson playing in the toy room. There must be some certain age where you no longer care about seeing your mom and dad first thing in the morning and are immediately ready to play.
Soon everyone was stirring-the kids ate breakfast while I
frantically threw things in boxes and picked up the house. Then I loaded up the kids with Robby’s help
and we headed to see Beebee before our trip.
She was in the shower so we had to wait a few minutes but the kids were
all happy to see her and she was happier to see us.
As always, Beebee passed out candy to the kids. Anderson asked how many they could have and
she said “as many as you want.” Yep,
8:45 and my kids are chowing down on chocolate bars-we should have just skipped
breakfast.
Graham was so excited to give her his birthday
invitation. She told him that she
couldn’t come but she would send a present.
She asked what he wanted and his first thought was a 100 dollar lego set
and then followed that with a remote control car. I encouraged him to wait on the car so he
could get a nice one. Then he decided
money would be a good gift so he could get his kindle sooner. The kids don’t know that the kindles are sitting
in the closet waiting to be passed out.
(We used some of our extra cash from skipping Com Central this year as
kindle money)
Back at home, I had the kids grab a few more things and
pick up for a few minutes and then it was time to watch our baking show. Last night was the finale so this was must
see tv. Since our drive today was only
2 hours, we were in not too much of a hurry and had time to watch the
show. I wanted the heavy set Southern
lady to win. Reagan’s pick was another
middle age lady but the winner was a guy.
The boys were thrilled but Robby and I left disappointed.
Our disappointment soon vanished when we finally climbed
in the car to head out on our trip. This
is the Dennie annual get together at Shepherd of the Ozarks in Harriet,
Arkansas. Last night, I mentioned that I
had plenty of food and after loading up 5 ice chests and 4 rubbermaid
containers into the car, I am certain that I could not only feed our cabin but
the neighboring cabin as well. You can
never be too prepared-have you seen the show The Dome? If you have, you will know what I mean.
We just had a 2 hour drive on the way. I spend most of the morning feeding Whitman
so he would be content on our drive and indeed he was. He slept most of the way and when he was
awake, he would just stare at Keaton.
Keaton would diligently tell me every minute that “Whit, Whit wake.”
We bought lunch at McDonalds and there was lots of
confusion ordering. Reagan, who always
wants nuggets, changed her mind at the last minute and decided on a
hamburger. Robby even apologized for all
of our confusion and then he added that he had never been to a McDonalds
before. Well, he didn’t say that last
part but that sure would have been funny.
Everyone devoured their food and I was quickly passing
out drinks and cookies. The kids passed
their time watching a Disney dvd commercial.
Seriously, they are so spoiled since most of them remembered most
everything that was shown on the movie.
Even though we said before we had kids that we were not going to bring
our kids to Disney, they have been to both parks quite a few times. But as Robby and I were looking at pictures
tonight, we talked about how Disney is fun but today was full of memories for
the kids-those memories that you talk about for the rest of your life.
And speaking of memories, the kids watched our wedding
video after the Disney dvd. We couldn’t
see the movie except when I strained backwards to see it. I would try to tell them what was happening
next. Someone would shout “I see Momma
and Pops.” And I would look back to see
and would have to tell them “no, that is a bridesmaid and groomsmen.” We made them watch it all and Robby and I
belted out the songs as the kids shouted for us to stop singing.
This weekend (15th) will be our 13th anniversary but the
reason that the wedding movie was out was because the kids have been asking
about our wedding cake. The Cake Boss tv
show has made them very interested in cakes.
Maybe tomorrow as we are driving around they can see our cakes during
the reception part of the video.
After a bit over 2 hours, we were pulling into the gates
of this place and then we went down, down, down a dirt road. I kept asking Robby if buses came here and he
kept reassuring me that we were indeed going the right way. Soon we saw the next sign and could tell we
were indeed on the right path-and that is really what it was at some points-a
gravel path. Everyone but Shelly, Josh
and Donna were already at the cabin when we pulled up.
This cabin is completely themed in cabin-ish décor which
I love (for a cabin, not for my house).
I believe that this place sleeps approximately 250. Seems like that many but now quiet. There are 5 bedrooms which most sleep 7 and
ours is the largest. Our room has a king
bed, 2 sets of triple bunk beds and a double bed in a loft. The loft is one story up (there are lofts in
3 of the bedrooms and 2 bedrooms have caves with beds in them). And next to our room is a tiny room with 3
bunk beds. This is really a kids hide
and seek dream!
After prowling around the cabin, we unloaded our stuff
and soon were outside. It is gorgeous
here as you can tell by the pictures (so gorgeous that there is no cell service
at least for us-some have it and Robby had to hold Les’ phone tonight to get
his screen time fix) Eventually, we
donned our bathing suits and headed to the creek. The water is perfectly clear and fairly
shallow. The kids were a bit skittish at
first but soon the boys were laying on the tubes floating around.
Since the rocks are slippery, Campbell and Keaton kept
close to us. Campbell did get a bit
braver towards the end of our swim time-and then we saw the snake. Yep, that was probably my last swimming
session. Just gives me chills thinking
about it. Anyway, Keaton loved throwing
rocks and Reagan did her best to keep up with Lilly and Zach.
Soon we all headed back to the cabin and Robby and I
helped get things ready for supper. This
was hot dog night with chili and cheese dip.
Supper didn’t take too long to get ready and we all sat down to
eat. The table is huge-probably seats 20
and along with the 6 at the bar there was plenty of room. We ate and then moved outside. The kids played soccer and Frisbee while the
grownups tried to get rid of the pesky
flies. The flies are plentiful and they
bite. Eventually, they did seem to go
away-maybe it was the time of day, maybe it was the fan or maybe it was the
pennies now hanging in a water filled bag by the door.
Before too long, the kids saw a pony in the distance and
all ran off to see it. Keaton and
Campbell were in the back of the pack but they eventually made it. The pony was tame and allowed most everyone
to ride it. Reagan was the least
skittish of my crew until the thing started walking. Anderson almost hyperventilated screaming
“Momma! Momma!” as the pony started walking quickly away when he was on
it. By the time the animal was getting a
bit perturbed and Graham didn’t want to ride it. Keaton and Campbell were pretty terrified
once the kids started getting on it and just stood there whining.
After the pony walked away, we had cupcakes to celebrate
Lilly and Graham’s July birthdays. The
kids all sang Happy Birthday and devoured half a box of cupcakes making a mess
of the kitchen again. Robby and Les had
to break into the maid’s closet to find a broom earlier in the day and goodness
we needed it after the cupcakes.
More playing outside and then a walk around was next on
the agenda. Some of the crew even found
Shelley and Josh and gained a ride back to the cabin. They were later because Josh had been at camp
and Shelley was probably greatly relieved to see familiar faces after the what
seemed like forever but really just 2 mild gravel road. We walked over a huge bridge and then went
back to the cabin.
The kids played games, tag, hide and seek and kept fairly
entertained until bedtime. Even though
our room is huge, we only have half the crew sleeping with us. Campbell and Graham are on the loft (so high
up that Robby moved a piece of furniture in front of the ladder so they
wouldn’t try to get down. Reagan and
Lilly are sleeping in Donna’s room and Anderson is sleeping with Cash in Dana’s
room. Keaton is next to us in the bunk
room. That baby was so ready to go to
sleep tonight that when I asked her about her pajamas she just laid down in the
floor ready to be changed. And Whitman
is right next to our bed snoozing away.
It has been a pretty busy day and horseback riding is in the morning along with a pretty big breakfast. I have written the blog out so I won’t forget and we will post it when we have service but writing it just in word showed me that it is 3 typed pages long. That is pretty wordy of me-if you read it all, let me know and I will give you a prize.
