Biking in Cades Cove

David and I have wanted to go biking in Cades Cove for a while now but never made it happen.  Now that we have bikes, we made it happen.  It did not disappoint!  It's an 11 mile loop with some pretty intense inclines.  It wasn't crowded at all, the weather was perfect, and the wildlife plentiful.  I hope to go back many times.

Getaway

Thank you David for taking me on a late anniversary trip to our favorite tropical getaway!  It is hard to leave the kids when things are busy, and I at first just thought we better not go, there was too much going on, but I am so grateful that David made this trip happen.  Every time we go away together and catch our breaths from the craziness that is our life, I am grateful.  I'm so grateful to be more in love today than I was 21 years ago when we got married.  I'm grateful to be married to a man who loves me more than I thought possible.  I'm grateful that we had a few days to spend on just us. ( Thanks grandparents and Allie for making that possible!)

I wish I could wake up to this every morning:

 I wish I could watch sunsets like these every night:

I wish I had more time to read and have this view while doing it (:

I wish my kids would fix us gourmet candlelight dinners every night, ha!

I wish I could have video taped the hilarity of one of our sailing adventures.  Everyday we set off sailing and exploring little uninhabited islands.  One day was particularly windy and I was afraid the boat was going to flip so I jumped out.  The water was only up to my knees but David, worried about leaving me, jumped out after me, as our little sail boat took off in the wind!  Thankfully it only went a short distance before slowing enough that David caught back up with it, because I really thought we were going to be stranded out in the middle of the ocean while our runaway sailboat landed on some island with all of our stuff.

David:  sailor

 

Up High

Afton. The one that everyone wants when the family gets together.  She's cute as can be and plays hard to get.  Every cousin, aunt and uncle tries to win her over and get her to play with them.  We use any tactic:  food, toys, drinks, iphones, jewelry, etc.  Sometimes we are successful but usually it's not long before she's looking for her mom again.  David has always gone with a little trick he started with our little baby Trey called "up high?"  He will ask the nearest toddler if they want to go "up high" and then throw them in the air and catch them.  It usually wins them over and they come back for more.  So, this game was a hit with Afton and worked like a charm to win her over.  So well in fact that she calls David "up high".  He never was uncle David to her, just "up high".  She will see him in a picture and say "there's up high" with her cute little voice.  Or ask when he's not around "where's up high?"  We hope that name sticks.

Happy Birthday Honey

David and I often talk about how old we are getting, but how we still feel so young...we'll discuss things like how he was talking to a client the other day and thinking "hmm, this guy is way older than me"  only to find out he's a year younger.  Huh. Sigh.

Things I love about my old guy:

The fact that he always takes my side
That he will go run/walk in the neighborhood with me even when he's tired or his knees/back/legs are sore
That he knows just what to say when I'm upset
That he tells me multiple times a day how beautiful and in shape he thinks I am
That when I go out of town he will always work on a project b/c he knows it makes me happy
That he loves desserts as much as I do
That he is such a wonderful mediator
His compassion
The sacrifice and service he renders to our family
His strength and confidence
His loyalty to friends and family
His sense of nostalgia
His sense of humor and ability to laugh at himself
His generous heart
That he spoils me

Ok, I guess this could go on all day.  I can't believe we've known each other over 25 years! 
Happy 43rd to David!!

Bedtime=reading with dad

We are all big readers in our family. Well the oldest 4 in our family are big readers. Anyway, David has always enjoyed reading books the Tanner, Connor and Sydney at bedtime. He loves it and so do they. They just finished reading Dragon Slippers and have started the Fablehaven series.

One night David went up to tuck the kids into bed while Trey and I set up a board game for us to play whenever David finished reading to the kids. We finished setting it up and waited and waited. We could hear David enthusiastically reading upstairs. I thought "well it must be a really good part and he's going long tonight." Finally I went up to tell him the kids really needed to get to bed because they had school in the morning. I started cracking up at the sight I found in the boys room. There was David reading his heart out, kneeling down at one of their beds, facing the boys who were both laying in their beds....only the boys were both sound asleep! Snoring! David was so engrossed in reading the book to them that he had no idea they were asleep and probably had been for a while!

Hoops for Hope 2009

I can hardly even put into words the happiness that this event brings to our family. Hoops for Hope was something that Trey, with the help of David, decided he wanted to do for his Eagle Scout Project about 3 years ago. His vision was to have a day where children and adults with Down's Syndrome could come and play basketball and associate with the UT men's and women's basketball teams. I have to admit that I was not very hopeful that his idea would work. And at first it didn't. When Trey first tried to put this together, UT could not commit to doing it until the next year. I felt like that was too long to put off doing his eagle scout project and thought he should think of a new project. I had no vision. Thankfully Trey and David did. They could see that if they were patient they could create something really worthwhile. They waited until the next year and tried again. After many, many meetings this time UT was able to commit to a date. And after a lot more red tape and man hours it finally happened.

The first Hoops for Hope was in August 2008. Eveyone involved was incredible. The athletes, volunteers, sponsors, the kids were all just....happy. We just held the 2nd annual Hoops for Hope. The warm feelings that were felt last year were doubled this year. It was the kind of day that you just can't stop thinking about and want to remember forever. It appears we are going to be blessed to be able to hold it again next year....I am filled with love and appreciation for my son and my husband for having the courage, patience, diligence, and love that it took to make this event happen. This is something that I could have seen us volunteering to help out with, never one that I thought my son and husband would create and run.

Father and Son

David and Trey love a lot of the same things. Everything David loves he shares with Trey and it seems that Trey then loves it too. They both love reading, history, video games, and sports (watching and playing). When Trey was a little kid he didn't like basketball right away. He played it for fun, but did not the have the passion that David had for the game at an early age. David never gave up though and by about the time he was 10 or 11 he started to love basketball too. Through the years David has coached Trey pretty much every year (except when the triplets were born). David would set goals for Trey, play one on one, help him work on skills, etc. One day I found them outside with these "beauts" on. What are they you ask? They are glasses that make it so you can't see the ball when you are dribbling, so you can work on ball handling. David used them when he was a kid and thought Trey would enjoy them. It just cracks me up. Trey is up for anything his dad suggests. They played some one on one like this for a while, then Trey showed David his new dunking abilities.

Maine in the fall

Portland Lighthouse


Belted cows
About to sail in the Rockland Harbour

One of the B&B's we stayed in


David and I love the fall. Humidity is gone, cool evenings, and David would add that it's football season (whatever). We have always wanted to visit Maine in the fall. We kicked around the idea a few months ago and then the idea died. Then about a month ago David says "let's go to Maine". So, after a whirlwind of securing babysitting (thanks grammy and grandpa) and buying tickets, we take off for the southern coast of Maine. We flew into Boston and stopped in the first town in Maine: Kittery. Over the next few day we made our way through the picturesque towns of York, Ogunquit, Kennybunkport, Rockland, Camden, and Bucksport. Maine is beautiful. The port towns are quaint, the people are nice and the scenery puts a smile on your face. We loved this trip and definetely want to go back and visit a little more northern Maine too.