Home From Vacation

We are home from vacation. We went to Florida and spent the week at Walt Disney World. We had an amazing time. It's so hard to describe how incredible our week was. I have some blog posts planned that will chronicle our week at Disney, however, it may be a while before I can get those posted.
Unfortunately, our last night at the parks ... and last night in Florida, my Mom fell and shattered the humerus in her right arm. She is in an unthinkable amount of pain right now and is awaiting surgery to repair her arm. She has a very long road and difficult recovery ahead of her. At this point, we have a lot of questions and few answers. We managed to get her released from the hospital in Florida in time for them to catch their scheduled flight home and we drove and got home to our house late last night, and are trying to figure out the logistics for me to be with my Mom in Virginia. Please pray for my Mom.
I want to be with her right now. The hard part for me to figure out right now is how I can be there, and help care for my mom, while also taking care of my 4 children. Please pray that we can get all the details worked out so that it will be the best for everyone involved.

Roasting Marshmallows

One of the exciting things that we had planned for this trip was roasting marshmallows. This might seem pretty ordinary to some folks, but our children have never had marshmallows, let alone roasted them! So, it was something they were super excited about!

Well, the fire didn't quite work out like we planned. Everything was a bit wet, and Rich couldn't get a good fire going, but we made the best out of it. As soon as the flame came up, we stuck the marshmallow in before the flame died again.

The verdict - Martin loves marshmallows. Aaron and Jonathan thought they were disgusting. Rosalie was in bed sleeping through it all.

Our hike was rained out

We had plans to go on a hike that would lead us up to a waterfall. So, we headed to town to eat lunch and as we were eating, the downpour began. Martin and Aaron were very disappointed. We went back to the cabin and put the youngers down for a nap. When the rain cleared a bit, I took Martin and Aaron out to hike up the moutain that our cabin was on. We hiked all the way to the top. When we got back down to where our cabin was - we had a rock throwing contest. So, the disappointed little boys were happy that they still got to hike, even though we didn't get to see a waterfall. When we were done with our hike, they spent the rest of the afternoon in the hottub!

Vacation - Day One

We left for our vacation on a Monday morning headed out toward the Western Carolina mountains. We stayed near a town at the base of the Great Smokey Mountains called Bryson City, NC.

This is the cabin we rented during our stay. It was a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom cabin that slept 5. There was a loft area that was only accessible by ladder that 1 or 2 of the boys could have slept in - but we weren't comfortable with them going up and down the ladder, so we kept the three boys together in the 2nd bedroom. Rosalie slept in her pack and play in the kitchen. The cabin provided everything that we could possibly need and was immaculate.

This very old building was directly in front of the cabin and had a hot tub in it - the boys had a ton of fun in the hot tub!

The view from downtown Bryson City

Rich and the boys enjoying a view from the bridge

This is what they were viewing!

This is what Rosalie was doing as they were looking at the beautiful scenery.

More about our vacation coming tomorrow!