Another Year at the Smokies

Wish I could see this in the Fall!

We are truly a traveling family now with our luggage carrier up top!

Some grumpy kids, some happy!

Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout! Kids + sleep = BLISS(especially when driving)!

Future blackmail photo!

Most important piece of camping equipment...blow up mattress!

We had a BLAST with our good friends the Moulton's! We stayed in the Elkmont Campgrounds by Pigeon Forge(beautiful, beautiful!)! And the best part is the river was right behind us so we could step out and wade in it or just listen to it at night!

On the way home (6 hr. drive)I was really REALLY sick! Basically had to lay my head down on the pillow with a bucket next to me and pray I wouldn't self combust with how hot I felt, but oddly enough there was no fever! Luckily I didn't need to use the bucket! I was laid out for 2 days! I wasn't sure if it was just the morning sickness or some flu like bug on top of it! I felt pretty good through most of the camping, so maybe my body was making up for the lost time. I am doing better, but the morning sickness hits around the afternoon and evening time! Just in time to get kids home and run them around! What joy(insert heavy sarcasm)! :)

More to love from Jesup!

Ok...enough of the potty updates and now for my last post(for now) about my favorite place! Here are some pics that I took of things that I will always remember about Jesup!

The pretty southern sun!

Spanish Moss everywhere!

Dune Buggies! We used to ride them all the time when I was little, but they have(obviously) been out of commision for some time!

Beautiful Lily pads in our ponds!

One of the many back roads! This was the tobacco shed which was mainly used to store corn when my Dad was little, but now stores junk and an occasional chicken enjoys living in there!

You have to be 16 to DRIVE!?!

Not here in the back woods! You see youngin's as young as 6 driving a 4 wheeler better than most adult drivers actually drive! My kids loved the fact that as soon as we hit the dirt roads on the property that we let them ditch the seat belts and take turns in our laps to drive(a yearly family tradition)...they need to work on ignoring distractions such as the...camera! Uncle Donnie had all the kids in love with him...maybe it's the fast go cart(maybe it's them cute legs!!!)!

Georgia On My Mind

This is my heritage and my home! My family's been here for many generations and have been in America since it's beginning and helped settle the Southern Georgia area! It's nice to go and see all the family that I have grown up with and love dearly and to have what is most important brought back to the forefront of my mind. It is so easy to get caught up in the everyday mundane things of the world and into ourselves, which happens too much, that we forget why we love and what we are really here for. Family, plain and simple!These are a few of my many cousins...all the small ones are 2nd and 3rd cousins!--Don't know what in the heck my face was doing! I looked a little TOO happy!

It was a bitter sweet reunion. Sweet for everything I have already said, but bitter because one of my dear Uncle's has been fighting cancer for several years now and we don't know how much longer he has. He had been cancer free for a little while and then it came back wrapping itself around his spinal chord and there isn't anything they can really do about it.It has grown and he is now paralyzed from the waist down and my Dad is his care taker 24/7 because they are roommates. They do have a nurse that comes too, but she can't lift him so my dad sticks around to help. My dad is amazing! He knows everything that Uncle Otis needs and does it all so lovingly and NEVER once complains about it! All my uncles are amazing, they help where they can and they all banned together to design and build a front porch for my uncle to take his wheel chair out in and enjoy the fresh air! Now they are putting a deer feeder out where he can see the deer from his porch. They are bringing to him what he has always enjoyed and it makes me proud to say that this is my family! This is what it is really all about! I only wish that I could be there to spend more time with my family, once a year is not often enough!Time with Granddaddy!!!

Forgot my most fave pic from vacation!

Life's a BEACH!!!!--Part 2

Fun in the Sun!!! My favorite pictures that wrap up our vacation!

SISTERS

LAUGHTER

BEAUTIFUL SMILE

FATHER & SON

FISH OUT OF WATER!

SAND BABY

TAKING NOTES

SPLISH!

SPLASH!

WALK ON THE BEACH

BABY BLUES

FAMILY

YUMMMMMM!

BEAUTY
INTERESTING THINGS YOU SEE!!!
(YES THAT IS A DOG RIDING WITH HIM--KIDS LOVED IT)!

Life's a BEACH!!!!--Part 1

I LOVE the BEACH!!! The picture above is one of my favorites of our view from our room. I once said to my hubby that it'd be great to live by the ocean and he wisely replied, because he knows me so well, "You'd be driven nuts by the sand! You wouldn't last long!" He is so right, but I wouldn't mind a month of living on the beach in a place where someone else cleans it! :) We didn't know that you had to pay $30 a day to get these nifty umbrellas. We just thought the resort put them out! The Lifeguard was nice about it when we were leaving and didn't make us pay! ;)

The things we do to our kids to get a few good laughs(see pics below)!!! ;) Notice the older two aren't buying it(because they aren't in a single burial pic)! Like me, they aren't too into sand unless it can be easily washed! Not too funny to them,(unless of course sand ended up in someone else's pants, then they'd be laughing--kids, go figure)!