Old Barn

If you read my blog, then you know that I have a "thing" for barns, silos, old farm equipment, etc. When we pulled into the driveway of the Bunkhouse on the night of our arrival, it was so dark we could not see much of anything. They next morning, however, I was pleasantly surprised to see this beautiful barn right across the pasture from where we stayed. The white fencing along the right side of the barn is pretty, but the older wood fence on the left side had more patina, and therefore more character (in my opinion)

The Bunkhouse

In my last post, I wrote that we rented a little bungalow to stay in for all 8 nights of our trip. Well, this is it...

It met all of our requirements: 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room, and ironing board. The ironing board part is a little joke between Jerm and myself. But, I feel like sharing it today :) Polishing the Pulpit is a conference for preachers, elders, church members, etc. The dress code is casual but nice. Jeremy usually wears slacks and a polo every day that he is not speaking and a jacket and tie on the days that he does speak. Needless to say, we need an ironing board for this event. On the morning of our departure, I noticed (right before we pulled out of the driveway) that Jeremy had packed our ironing board (our BIG ironing board) It would not have been a big deal if it was under everything else and not awkwardly placed over Greta's carrier and on into Ava's lap. :) I pulled it out of the car and put it back into the utility room. I then went to Jeremy and told him that we just really could not take that thing with us. It was too much of a hazard in our vehicle. Let's just say that he did not agree. But, we ended up NOT taking the ironing board and luckily there was one provided in the Bunkhouse. :) Jeremy will probably text me and tell me that I should not have shared this embarrassing story about him. I have two words: "cotton swabs." ;) Another inside joke for readers of both of our blogs! Ha!

I thought it was really cute. I am so glad we found this little place!

On The Way...

WAY back in August, our family made our way to the Sevierville/Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg region of Tennessee for an event known as Polishing The Pulpit (PTP) I posted in the blog about this event last year, but it was a completely different experience this year with 2 children!! WHEW! We stayed off site this time because we knew that a hotel room would not be a good idea with a 21 month old and a 3 month old. I found a cute little 2 bedroom bungalow about 6 miles away from the convention center for $99 a night. It was older, but it was perfect for our needs! I will share pictures of it in a later post. Right now, I am going to share photos of our 12 hour trip to Pigeon Forge. This trip normally would not have taken that long, but we left our house late and had to stop every 3 hours to feed Greta. Since she is accustomed to staying awake for an hour after each feeding, we planned our stops around lunch and a tourist attraction. It was a long trip, but it was perfectly timed. :)

This pose is a tradition in our family. At the beginning of any big road trip, I always take a side picture of Jeremy while he is driving. I know that is silly, but we started doing it when we first got married and never stopped.

Our first stop was at a Ruby Tuesday. This was Ava's "children's activity mat." Read the directions and see if you think my almost 2 year old could complete this. Ha! What a joke!

We shared a teary moment at Ruby Tuesday. You can't see the tears in Jeremy's eyes, but every once in a while, we both get overwhelmed with where God has taken our lives. For some reason, it is usually when we are eating. It is probably because that is the only time of day when we are all in a common spot. Family is overwhelming...in a good way :)

Faces of Greta:

 Ava was in a trance. She does this every now and then.

 Jeremy and his girls

 I am looking at the camera and they aren't...

We never could get Greta to look! I do think her expression is funny in this one, so I decided to post it!

 Finally asleep!

We timed Greta's second feeding for our trip to Ruby Falls. Yes, we took our babies into a cave. Have I told what great parents we are? :) Ha! It really worked out because Jeremy could feed her on the tour while she was strapped to his chest in the Snugli (love that thing!)

 Neat formations

 Jeremy and Greta

 Ava decided to take a little break...

Ruby Falls:

Trying to get a good picture of my 3 loves:

 Yes, Ava's finger was up her nose in all three shots :) Lovely!

 After our cave tour, we let Ava play on the playground to run off some energy.

Poor baby just couldn't stay awake!

 She just needed a twenty minute catnap!

A view of Chattanooga from Lookout Mountain

The last 10 minutes of our trip were a complete nightmare! Both girls were tired and screaming, we got stuck at EVERY red light in Pigeon Forge, and we had to scramble because the rental place that we used had specific guidelines for what to do if you arrive after hours (which we did) FUN TIMES! But it was so worth it. We stayed 8 nights in the mountain air and grew our faith, our relationships with our friends, and our marriage.

Coming Soon...

Several blog posts! After our family trip to Tennessee, for Polishing the Pulpit, I decided to take a month long hiatus from blogging. I took plenty of pictures during my month off, but just decided to not post until October. It has been a nice, needed break! I have downloaded pictures from my camera onto my computer and will be uploading these photos to my blog today during the girls' nap. I will hopefully start posting again by later this evening or tomorrow :) I have missed this so much, but am so happy that I decided to take off for a month. I feel like my creative juices are flowing again! Yay for creative juice! It tastes good! Ha! Okay, that was probably the cheesiest thing I could have said, but you get the idea! Until my next post...