Fourth of July

Friday, July 11, 2008

I have been so busy since our vacation last week that I haven't had time to blog. We had an amazing time.

My mother in law has a friend who owns two homes, across the street from one another in Franklin, NC. Franklin is a beautiful, quiet little town nestled near the state lines of GA, NC, TN and SC. I guess you could say in a corner. The drive from Birmingham is only 4.5 hours so not to bad. Ofcourse doing that kind of drive with a toddler in the midst of severe terrible two's can be extremely trying. Luckily we all survived and arrived in good spirits.

We were greeted by my mother in law, her friend and my mother and a friend of hers. It was so nice to see family from FL that we have missed dearly. It's only been a few months since our last together and even then, it seems like eternity.

We brought the leftover blueberries that we had picked and I made an amazing blueberry cobbler. The boys quickly noticed that Mr. K had a huge cherry tree in his backyard so the picking was on. The boys brought me tons of cherries and Mr. K asked for a cherry cobbler so I obliged. How could I resist!

Chaz and Mr. G barbequed on the fourth and we had the most delicious ribs and chicken. My mother in law made all the fixins including potato salad, pasta salad, squash (fresh from Mr. K's garden!) My mom made fresh corn on the cob from the local Farmers Market. Mr. K made homemade chocolate ice cream and we feasted on that along with cobbler for desert. It was a feast fit for kings and everyone truly enjoyed the food.

There's a creek that runs along the property and the boys quickly discovered that your body warmed up to the chilly water if you just stayed in and adjusted. Mr. K brought out tubes and the rapid riding began. When I say rapid, I'm completely kidding myself. Poor Caleb and Zachary actually spent about an hour just moving rocks so we could get a little bit of white water for tubing. They were successful with clearing the rocks and had a blast.

We brought fireworks from AL that were amazing. I think I am still adjusting to the fact that in AL you can purchase fireworks that are made with live artillary shells! I mean these things are loud, fly high into the sky and provide tons of lights and sparks.

Franklin is only about an hour outside of Gatlinburg so we made the drive on Sunday and spent time with just our family enjoying the majestic views of the Smoky Mountains and appreciating all of what God has created on this Earth.

My heart is full and happy. I am thankful for the time that we spent together and for the memories we etched in each others minds. I wish for more days like these.