When we finally arrived in Gatlinburg, it was dark and late so we didnt get any pics of the town but here are the pics we took while we were there....
The view from the top deck of the cabin
The most peaceful cup of morning coffee ever!
Zak and Zabe crashin on moms down time! lol
Kayla playin pool
Zabe trying to win!
Ku, who has seeped into a new "sagging" pant phase
which Ive been trying to tell him would land
him in his boxers...and heres the proof!
IM BOYCOTTING SAGGY PANTS!
Feeding the bears at 3 bears gift shop
The big bear is HUNGRY
Two Himalayan bears that were so cute
Racing on the track
I seriously need a camera that can handle
a lot of movement lol
I heard the choir sing when I saw this in the gift shop
Yep! Had to have this one too!
It was a great week....lots of fun, lots of peaceful cups of coffee on the deck just staring at the beautiful mountain view....It was exactly what we all needed. We had quiet times, we had loud times and we had so much fun! Cant wait til we go again!!
To end this post, I have to show you guys two things....
1- the rainbow that I walked out to....absolutely beautiful!
and 2- Our boastful "purple mountain majesty"....beautiful!
So Im going to be very short in words (fingers crossed).
We took Lucas, he is Zaks best friend and is like an adopted son.
Also, my best friend's niece hopped a ride with us (my bf lives in Tn and her niece was here) on the way down.
Ok so here we go people :)
Packed like sardines~two more kids asleep in the back lol
FINALLY made it to Tennessee
after going to kristans house for the night
we went to Micheals family farm where
his dad took the kids in the back of the
truck to feed the cows....
they love it
you can barely see it
but they got to witness
the birth of a calf!
sooo coool!
Just the cutest great nephew ever!
And my beautiful niece Kiki <3
Adelyn playing with her cousins
Aww!!!
<3
Said by to family, Gatlinburg bound
(this is the view of Castle gwyyn from 840)
Definitely needed to see more so...
Presenting...
Castle Gwyyn!
This was the first time I have seen anything like this in Tennessee so it was really exciting for me. Plus, I LOVE the renaissance era and I just thought this was uber cool!
Friday morning I got up at 6am (with only 3 hours of sleep) and we hopped in the car to come home. It seemed like the longest drive ever, but I made it in 10 hours so that was really great timing. One of the reasons it seemed so long was due to not having any radio and here's why....
I went grocery shopping and when I came back, I had the kids help bring all the groceries in. The next day I went out to go somewhere and the car was dead! One of the kids turned on the dome lights and left them on. The car battery was absolutely drained! Well, in this lovely Honda that I am driving, when the battery dies, the radio resets and you need to type in a code for it to work.
I called the dealership, they didnt have it. They said to look in the manual it should be written somewhere. Then they said I shouldve gotten a little card or a piece of paper with the code on it. I assured them that I never received anything of the sort. They then explained that the only way to get the code is to manually remove the radio and get the serial number, call them back with the serial number and they could give me the code.....
Ok so wait a second....
You are telling me that your "ANTI THEFT" system when you dont have the code is to remove the radio (which im pretty sure the thief would be doing), getting the serial number, and then calling in and saying..."hey, i lost the code, here is my serial number" and BAM! You get the code?????
Someone please tell me how this makes any sense
o-O
So anyhoo, I stopped at walmart for speakers for my phone. I figured I could use the music on my phone for our trip.
Aaannnd that was a no go....the phone had a higher volume itself than the speakers, so I gave them to kayla for her ipod and I used her earphones.
It was rather interesting.
I have developed a new love for John Legend...(mmm yummy) I absolutely love his....voice!
Anyways, I stopped at starbucks 3 times and got quad venti's (for those of you that dont know, thats the biggest size latte with 4 shots of expresso)
Ok well that will never happen again!
In my mind, its safe to do that because I get non fat, no whip so its the least amount of calories....but I never realized how much caffeine I was taking in. I might as well hook up an IV with a caffeine drip!! It was horrible....
About 10 minutes after finally making it home, I had the biggest panic attack Ive ever had.
Sidenote: I dont know if I have ever mentioned it here before but I have Acute Panic Disorder (A.P.D.) which I would love to do a post on one day...its exhausting!
It was horrible! Usually they last around 10-15 minutes, this one lasted around 30 minutes...
I dont know if it was because I had next to no sleep the night before or the long drive (the wind was insane and it took all my strength to keep the car controlled, the semi's were all over the place so it was quite a stressful drive), or the fact that when I returned home (I let Micheal come back home, but its on a trial basis only), he kept bumping into me everywhere I went....the kitchen, the living room, the hallway, the bathroom....I just felt the air leaving the house and my house felt so much smaller!
I just started to panic and then my chest got tight, I started having trouble breathing....every muscle in my body was tense and it last for 32 minutes! HE HAS TO GO FOR GOOD!!!
I dont think Im fully recovered from it really. Im dealing with fatigue the past few days. It doesnt matter how much sleep I get, I am still fatigued...and saturday and sunday were the worst. I woke up feeling like someone had beat the living tar out of me...all my muscles were weak and sore.
So Im slowly getting back into the swing of things
(Thank God)
because basketball practice starts back up tonight and we have a game tomorrow and I promised a friend that sells party lite, that I would participate in a banquet as a host for a party so she could reach quota so I have to do that tomorrow night...then friday is pizza night with Milad and Ku has plans friday night so Im assuming that means lots of driving (Im the taxi cab to his friends), then Saturday is Zak and Zabes basketball game, Sunday is church and sunday dinner with mom....ohh and I am job hunting with Micheal (for Micheal not for me)...
Im feeling much better today
I have so much to blog about but Ive gone on and on already so Ill save it and split it up!
