We had the opportunity to get together with all of the Michaelson family this summer. It was such a treat to see everyone. We had never met Camdyn (18 months) and Jacob (4 months); and we had to introduce Ian to everyone (except Papa and Grandma). It had been almost 2 years since we had all been together. As my family is spread out from California to Texas to Ohio to Pennsylvania, it gets a bit trickier for everyone's schedules to mesh. We have decided that every couple of years we'll pick somewhere to meet and all make the effort go. For our first go at this tradition we all met in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee from July 29th to August 4th. It was kind of a random place, but it turned out great. Andy and I had never been to Tennessee, so we were excited to explore a new place and spend time with family as well.
We were a bit nervous about the drive, but it went really well. All three of our little ones were fabulous in the car. We had a few hiccups, but nothing that we couldn't handle. We actually only drove 5 hours the first day and stopped at my parents'. On Saturday we drove to Nashville, which was our LONGEST day. Unfortunately Rachel got car sick, but she was a trooper and we made it there. We then only had about 4 hours to drive to Gatlinburg on Sunday. So before meeting everyone in Gatlinburg we stopped off at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. We walked around, took some pictures, and had some yummy lunch at Chuy's across the street...
We were actually the last ones to arrive at the cabins. We rented out 2 cabins to fit all of us. There was an "adult cabin" that housed Papa, Grandma, Jeff, Amy, Steve, and Rachel. And then there was the "kid cabin" where all the fun was had! We had our family, Ken, Jenny, Camdyn, Paul, Cristy, Aaron, Ashlyn, and Jacob. The first night there was quite interesting. Where Andy and I ended up sleeping we could heard various babies getting up at various times of the night... And Audrey even fell down the stairs in the middle of the night. Never a dull moment when you have 7 kids, 7 and under, under one roof! Monday was a catch-up day for all of us. We tried to get little ones naps and just hung out. There was a hot tub and pool table in each cabin. We had tons of TVs and a park right down the street. We were able to keep the little ones plenty busy. Here's Aaron, Rachel, and Ashlyn hanging out on the deck Monday morning:
On Tuesday morning we all got coordinated and had family pictures taken. We took pictures of the whole group, pictures of individual families, pictures of couples, pictures of the original 7, etc... We had 19 people to keep happy and I think we did a pretty good job. Here's our little family picture:
After Ian got a much needed morning nap, we headed out to take a few more pictures of our three little ones:
Our cabin is up there in the woods (you see the decks). Each cabin was 3 stories, but they were built on very high bases. Not sure how to describe them... Anyhow, it was a beautiful area. And we had 2 wraparound decks on each cabin.
We then went to a hands-on museum called Wonder Works in a nearby town called Pigeon Forge. Our kids as astronauts:
Ian just discovered something quite concerning on the moon:
Here we are back at the cabin that evening. I think Steve was trying to play a game on his phone and obviously others were interested...
On Wednesday Ken, Jeff, Amy, and Andy headed out to go river rafting. They had a blast and I'll have to insert some pictures later that are on Andy's computer. While they were rafting, we did some indoor mini golfing:
I believe we also went to a nearby indoor pool later that afternoon. The kids had fun swimming. For some reason, I don't have any pictures of us swimming...
On Thursday we headed into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We had 2 hikes planned for our day. The first hike ended up being more difficult than we thought, but the view was pretty awesome once we made it to the top. The kids were troopers and Papa and Grandma even made it to the top. Here are some pictures along the way:
Ian all smiles because he had the best deal in the stroller!
Our family at the lookout point:
Rachel checking it all out:
Andy and the girls back down at the bottom of the hike:
Unfortunately everyone else pooped out on us for the next hike. So, we went on by ourselves. This time we hiked to Laurel Falls. We had an extra stroller now, which made Audrey happy. The hike wasn't too bad, but it was just getting hot since it was after lunchtime. Here are some pictures of our hike:
Audrey was soaking wet shortly after getting there, but they were both very excited to cool down.
As we headed down we passed a family hiking up who said a bear had just crossed the trail about 200 yards back. Unfortunately we didn't see the bear, even though we looked. I think I would have been a bit nervous if it had crossed right in front of us, but if we had seen it off in the distance, that would have been cool!
As we hiked down (on a very nice paved walkway) Audrey snoozed:
At the end of our hike I had Rachel stand by the trail head. I wanted to record that this little girl hiked 2.6 miles, with the help of her walking stick.
Thursday night Aaron and Rachel enjoyed using their binoculars out on the deck:
On Friday various activities were to be had. Andy, Jeff, and Ken went golfing. Grandma, Amy, myself, and the kiddos walked around downtown Gatlinburg. I let the girls pick out one souvenir each and guess what they picked out? They each got a very cheap dollar store quality set with a bow, arrows, a knife, and a gun. Go figure! I think they really wanted the bow and arrows and the other stuff was just bonus. I blame it on the movie Brave... :)
Saturday morning came all too quickly and we were all off in our various directions to our homes. We are grateful for the memories we were able to make. We had fun playing games, Grandma cooking us breakfast, eating dinner together each night while various individual families took turns cooking, watching the Olympics, and just being together. There are things that will forever make me laugh... Hey, there are things that will forever make me laugh so hard that I will cry... Good times! So now we just have to figure out where the next gathering will be. Hopefully between then and now we can squeeze in seeing each other a bit more often. We shall see... Thanks for the memories!
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