Spring Break 2009

A few weeks ago we met Jon's family up in Pigeon Forge, TN, to spend a long weekend playing and fellowshipping together. By Jon's family I mean: his parents, his two sisters and their families, his brother and his wife. All together there were 20 of us. 10 of those were kids and 5 of those kids are under age 4. We had a great time together and are planning to do this again next spring.

We planned dinner in teams...Tonya and I had Friday night. Below is a great shot of the girls helping us make dessert.

Our cabin had 2 hot tubs, but this day it was a little too chilly outside for the kids, so we let them play in one of the jacuzzi tubs. Above are Alex and Abbi.

Above - Clayton and AJ

I wasn't there when this photo was taken, but I just love it. It makes me smile every time I look at it. Clayton is so happy to share his ice cream with his little brother, AJ.

After our weekend in TN, Jon's two sisters and their seven children (combined), and Jon's mom all came down to stay with us for several days.

Above - Jacob and Matthew

Below - Abbi and Laura

The pets got plenty of lovin'!

It was a very eventful 4 days...

Above - Robin and Jacob play a heated game of chess

Below - the get-ready-for-bed assembly line

We were so blessed to have sunshine during their visit!

The kids all had so much fun on our trampoline.

Above - me helping Alex with her math homework

Below - we headed to Discover Mills mall one cool afternoon after naps to let the kids run around. Kristin and I put all the little ones on this cute train and let them ride around. They all loved it!

Robin took a crew of kids down to our playground one afternoon.

All the kids - from left to right: Alex holding Matthew, Devon holding Clayton, Abbi holding Aiden, Jacob holding Laura and Caleb holding AJ. What precious memories we made!

A Visit from Justin & Tonya

Jon's brother, Justin and his wife, Tonya came for a visit this month. We had so much fun with them going bowling (where I beat Justin by 1 point!), playing miniature golf (where Jon beat Tonya by 1 point!), visiting the town of Helen, seeing movies, eating out, etc. One of the fun 'touristy' things we did was visit the World of Coca Cola. We had never been there before and it was actually a pretty neat tour...well worth the money! Here we all are with the Coca Cola bear.

Above - listening to inspirational Coke stories.

They had the world's largest collection of Coke memorabilia.

I couldn't even take pictures of it all.

There were many neat things made out of Coke cans and bottle caps.

And lots of Coke art.

You end the tour in the Tasting Room where you can try over 60 soft drinks from around the world...just stay away from Beverly!

After the World of Coca Cola, we headed over to Stone Mountain. Justin and Tonya had never been there before. It was a hot, sticky day, but we made the most of it. We took the SkyRide up to the top of the mountain where I let the twins loose with my camera. I didn't look at their pictures until just now when I downloaded them...I thought these two were particularly clever. Doesn't it look like they're climbing up the mountain-side?
The view from the top!
There is so much to do at Stone Mountain, it was hard to choose. One thing we did was take a 5 mile train ride around the mountain. Fun! It was nice to take a break and sit down for a while. And the breeze felt good, too!
Tonya and I
While the boys went to see Journey to the Center of the Earth, Tonya and I took Abbi to see the new American Girl movie, Kit Kitteredge. I know it's hard to tell in the picture below if Abbi was excited, but trust me...she was!

Here we are waiting for the much-anticipated movie to start.