Tennessee

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:

The girls were excited about their gifts from Papa and Grandma:

Aaron, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Amy, and Audrey:

Ian loving all the chaos:

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:

My boy and I:

Audrey having fun on the swing:

Rachel doing the monkey bars:

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:

Making a massive bubble:

Rachel was brave and tried out a new bed:

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:

Beautiful!

Rachel checking it all out:

Ian loving it!

Rachel with Papa and Grandma:

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:

The Falls:

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:

And Ian stayed awake the whole time and happy:

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:

Playing around on Friday:

Ian and Jacob (2 1/2 months apart):

Uncle Jeff chilling with Ian:

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!

Morning Musings by Ian

Cute Bob

Rachel got a free haircut today - thanks JCPenney! She's all ready for school now and is excited about her new shorter hairstyle.

Rachel's Got Talent

Professional Pics

 

Any grandparent who would like a printed copy of Miss Rachel can leave a comment and I'll order some for you... :)

6 months

Ian is 6 months old today. Andy and I have often said that we'd probably have a lot more kids if we didn't have to do the 0-6 month age range. Well, that's not the case with this little one. I would do these 6 months over in a heartbeat. I can't believe he's ready to start solids. Before we know it he'll be crawling and talking and eating big people food. Craziness!

Ian had a check-up with the doc this morning and all is well. He's 16 pounds, 5 ounces and is 27.5 inches tall. He's right were he needs to be and doing all the things he needs to be doing. He's getting better each day at sitting up. I think tomorrow morning he's going to have a lot of fun with his first taste of rice cereal! For several weeks he has been watching us eat with quite a bit of interest. And if he happens to be sitting on my lap while I'm eating he's a bit disappointed that the food doesn't make a pit stop at him. We'll see how tomorrow goes... Ian only has a few 6 month outfits that fit him. He's mostly wearing 9 month clothes. There have been a few outfits that I have waited too long to pull out and he wasn't able to wear them for long. I've had to shop the clearance racks for 9 month outfits - definitely a bonus of living where it stays warm through November and they still put all the summer stuff on clearance quite early.

This little guy knows how to get around when he wants to. He kind of drags himself or rolls when he wants to get to something. It's not like he's getting across the room, but we definitely have to be more cautious of what we leave laying around. Just the other night he had found a piece of paper (I promise I had only left him for about 5 minutes) and had a pretty big wad of paper chewed up and stuck to the roof of his mouth. Thank heavens it was stuck up there and not down his throat! Anyhow, we are all going to have to be more careful of what we leave accessible to him.

He still loves his bath. As a matter of fact, as soon as he hears the water running he gets all excited and starts kicking like crazy. Sometimes he's a bit disappointed to find out his sisters are taking a bath before he is... Luckily he's a pretty good sport about it though. I've been a bit surprised at how casual his is about the pool, since he likes his bath so much. He doesn't hate the pool, but he doesn't love it either. Although when we went last week he really enjoyed trying to grab bubbles as he sat up in the really shallow part. So maybe we're already done with the baby float...

Ian is still taking 3 naps a day. He is sleeping through the night. He usually goes to sleep around 8:30 pm, wakes up around 7 am, takes his first nap around 9 am, another nap around 1 pm, and the a final one around 5 pm. His schedule is flexible since we are on the go quite a bit. Once he's been up for about 2-2.5 hours, he's ready for a nap or to go to bed. And you just put him down and he goes to sleep with some minor moaning and groaning. He eats usually 5 times a day, every 3-4.5 hours (just depends on how long he naps).  

We certainly enjoy our little boy and are so grateful that he's healthy and growing and happy!

4th of July

We had a very busy, fun-filled 4th of July this year. We had so many different activities to do. And instead of picking and choosing, we just did them all... We are usually out of town on the 4th, so it was fun to be in town and be able to do some of the local activities. We started off the morning by Andy taking the girls to a 4th of July activity that our neighborhood puts on every year. Ian was still sleeping, so they went on without me. The girls were definitely excited to show their patriotic spirit and join the parade:

They were pretty proud of their unicorn and flower:

  

As they did the parade around our neighborhood, Andy cut out by our house and by that time Ian was awake, so we all loaded into the car to head to the church for a 4th of July breakfast. We all enjoyed seeing friends and eating pancakes. The children even performed a patriotic number and our girls were very serious about waving their paper flags...

 

After the breakfast we met up with some friends at one of your neighborhood pools. The kids enjoyed themselves!

  

The best part  of all came later in the afternoon when Papa and Grandma Michaelson arrived! We enjoyed a yummy dinner and then had to celebrate Papa's 70th, since it was only 3 days away. The girls were thrilled to help him blow out his candles. 

 

 After dessert we passed time by playing games until it got dark...

Once it was dark we went outside and did some sparklers. Rachel was quite brave and Audrey warmed up to them with the help of Grandma.

 

We definitely enjoyed our 4th of July with many friends and family. It's always fun to spend holidays with those whom you enjoy!

The Joy of Bubble Wrap

Ian was introduced to bubble wrap today and enjoyed playing in it! The girls and I recently read a book where fireworks were rained out so they popped bubble wrap to make the noise of fireworks. Well, we may just do that tomorrow night so we can avoid the mosquitoes... :)