Smoky Mountains

Yesterday we all piled in the Jeep, it was tricky getting the dog in with everything else.  Before we left Anthony gave me chocolates and a card for mothers day.  Diesel did pretty well during the drive.  We stopped and got lunch at a drive through and he poked his head up asking where his food was ;) 

We stopped at Smoky Mountain Knife works before we got to the cabin.  Jacob and I stayed outside with Diesel.  We got them out and walked him and gave him some water.  We managed to get him back in the Jeep just the two of us! 

After we got to the cabin and brought the dog and our clothes in we headed back out to find dinner and Walmart.  We couldn't bring any food with us because we brought the dog and he is pretty huge.  One of the main reasons we picked this cabin was because it said it had a charcoal grill.  Well they didn't, only a propane gas one.  And it wasn't a very good one at all!  The burners were touching the grill top.  So at Walmart we found a small little charcoal grill for 15 dollars. 

We got up this morning and headed into the National Park.  We went the south eastern part of the park.  We took some dirt roads up and down mountains.  It took us over and hour to go 16 miles!  The roads weren't really bad just very winding.   We got back to the cabin and cooked hamburgers on out little grill.  And we made smores afterwards! 

We had lunch at this really cool rock,

Were even on the Blue Ridge Parkway for a little bit today!!!

The view from our cabins balcony.

Comic Con 2014

Michael, Jacob and I went to Comic Con in Lexington today.  We recently watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure again and thought they would make most excellent costumes!!   We spent a couple of weeks gathering parts.  I really enjoyed making these costumes!  


We got there about 10:15 and waited in line forever!!  It was a mad house and took forever to even find the line we needed to be in.  We finally got into the convention hall around 11:30.  It was extremely crowded.  They had a Tardis and a pretty cool Star Wars display.  Several people stopped the boys and asked if they could take a picture with them.  They were very excited about it.  We took pictures with Lou Ferrigno, the original Incedible Hulk and Felix Silla, he was cousin it in the Adams Family and an Ewok in Star Wars. 

We left and went to Saul Good for lunch and the boys played at Triangle park for a while.

I had a really good time looking at all the costumes, some people take it really seriously!  On the way home we stopped by a Circle K to do a little filming :)

Frankie from Donnie Darko

Lou Ferrigno...He doesn't look like he is in his 60's!!!!!

The first person to ask to take a picture with the boys.

They were have a great time!!!

Felix Silla

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K

Jacobs Birthday.

Today my 4 1/2 pound sweet baby turned 15!!!!!  Since we started homeschooling we have always taken the day off from school on birthdays.  Jacob decided he wanted to go to his gym class anyway.   He also decided he wanted to have chick fil a for breakfast.  Then after gym and swim we went to lunch at Red State Barbecue with a few friends.  That is how he wanted to spend his day, with his friends.  We had also arranged to see Kyle but he ended up getting sick so we went to Lexington to visit a couple comic book shops to look for Magic cards.  On the way hope we stopped and got Milkshakes.  We waited for David to get home then we opened presents.  He wanted to do that before we had dinner :) 


For dinner he wanted his left over ribs from lunch and some homemade mac and cheese.  David stopped and picked up some food from Tony's for the rest of us.  And he got Jake some of his favorite...fried wontons.   I made the cake he wanted, Oreo, but everyone was to full to eat it! 


He was really excited about his Magic cards and his bike.  He couldn't help himself and had to open the bike.  He came to me in tears because he thought it was broken.  It was just a piece of plastic that had to be removed before you put it together anyway.  We ended up being up till 1am working on that bike!! 

Coach Terry.... the kids love him!!!  The parents kind of love him too :)

Vicksburg National Historical Site

We spent most of the day in Vicksburg.  This park reminded me of Gettysburg in the way you see it.  There were lots of very cool monuments from the different states that fought in this battle of the Civil War.  Kentucky has two.  One for the Confederate solders and one for the Union.  Well the second one has Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis so its questionable in my opinion that the Union Soldiers have their own monument. 

We have all now visited all of the continental United States.  Only Hawaii and Alaska left for us to see.  They boys may have to do those on their own! 

We decided this evening to switch up our drive home.  I rerouted us so we can go to a gun store that David has been wanted to see.  And it just happens that the route takes us right by Land Between the Lakes.  We have never been there even though its in Kentucky!  It will add an extra hour of driving but we are excited about it.  Speaking of driving, David has had a very hard time getting over the cold he gave me before we left, he may have bronchitis :(   So....I have done all the driving so far.  Luckily the longest drives have been just over 6 hours. 

Minnesota Monument

Illinois Monument

The Cairo, a battle ship that was sunk on the Yazoo river during the Civil War.  It was recovered 100 years after it was sunk!

A lot of the ship was intact.

This is a model of what the ship looked like before it was sunk.

Missouri Monument

The Kentucky monument.  Compared to the others it was a little sad.