Lake Junaluska

We spent most of the week at Lake Junaluska with our best friends.  I’ll start at the beginning of the week though.

Monday morning the kids started KinderCamp.  Their elementary school hosts a 3 day KinderCamp to introduce kindergarteners to the school.  They are put in classes and they will probably keep those teachers.  Lindy definitely will and Will most likely will have the teacher they had during camp.  At 9am Monday morning we found their teachers.  Lindy’s new vision teacher was there and she watched Lindy while we got Will squared away with his teacher.  The kids finally lined up to go to their classes and the parents had an informational meeting in the music class.  We got all kinds of information on dropping off and picking up and lots of other school rules.  The theme of the camp was Teddy Bears so each day they had to bring a teddy bear. 

They had KinderCamp on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  Tuesday I was supposed to just drop them off in the front of the school but we had a little mishap with Lindy’s FM system so I had to park and walk in and find out where the thing was.  Wednesday morning Drew really did just drop them off like big kindergarteners.  At 11am they had a teddy bear tea for all the parents.  The principals talked to all the parents for way too long(!) and then all the kids came out and sang three songs for the parents.  After that they had refreshments for everyone.  The kids really enjoyed KinderCamp and they are very excited about kindergarten.  The only thing Will didn’t like was the magic potties – the automatic ones.  He hates automatic potties.  He also hates loud potties.  The one in his classroom isn’t automatic but the ones in the hall are.  I basically told him he has to get over it.  We’ll be talking a lot about that this summer!  Lindy’s vision teacher wrote me a note Monday evening that said she had done great at school!  She said she loved Lindy’s spirit and independence!  I wrote her back and said she definitely had spirit, too much sometimes!  I really appreciated her writing the note.  I’m nervous about her and kindergarten! 

Drew picked them up a few minutes early on Tuesday because Lindy had an ENT appointment to get the ear wax out of her ear that the pediatrician’s office couldn’t get out.  Drew said it ended up being a waste of time and money.  He said he got out just one more little piece.  Not worth the trip.  What can you do?

I took from Wednesday to Friday off this week.  I had a dentist appointment at 8am Wednesday morning.  Drew left for Lake Junaluska around 9:30am Wednesday morning.  I finished packing and loaded up the car and headed to the Teddy Bear Tea at KinderCamp.  We left school and got gas and headed out of town around 12:45pm. 

We go to Lake Junaluska because Drew is a member of the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church and he has a big meeting there every June.  We have been going 12 years but for the past 8 years we have stayed with our best friends Katie and Kris at Katie’s parents’ house at Lake Junaluska.  Micah was just a babe the first year we stayed there and our kids and Claire didn’t exist!  The second year we stayed there I was pregnant and spent the whole week on the porch swing and then the kids have been going every June since they were born.  They’ve been 6 years in a row!   The kids and I love going to Miss Katie’s mountain house.  It’s a work trip for Drew but it’s a vacation for us!  The area is so gorgeous and we get to play with our friends. 

We got up there Wednesday and I got the kids and car unloaded before dinner.  We met Mike and Janice for dinner – they are lay delegates from our old church.  We enjoyed our annual dinner at Butts on the Creek – a yummy BBQ restaurant.  Thursday we messed around the house in the morning and then met one of Drew’s friends for lunch.  Kris was able to come up on Thursday afternoon this year which was fun.  He and Drew took the kids to play putt putt in the late afternoon while Katie and I did a little shopping and getting groceries.  We got back and we made the most scrumptious meal.  We all enjoyed it.  Friday Kris, Katie, and I took the kids to ride paddle boats on the lake.  A first for us!  Kris took the boys with him and Katie and I had the girls with us.  It was an adventure!  Katie did the bulk of the pedaling because I could barely reach the pedals and I was holding on to Lindy for dear life!  We turned in circles a few times and finally got it figured out before heading back to dry land!  We played some putt putt after the paddle boats and headed back to the house.  Friday evening we did the coolest thing.  All 8 of us piled into our car and we picked up Bojangles on our way out to Cataloochee.  It’s a state park in the Great Smokey Mountain National Forest.  We drove up the side of a mountain into the Cataloochee valley because you are supposed to see a ton of elk up there.  We got there and we set up our picnic area and then we started seeing elk immediately!  It was wild!  We saw a ton of them and literally got about 10 feet from some.  They have these signs saying do not go any further so you don’t disturb the elk.  One elk went over to the sign, starting nibbling on it and then ripped it out of the ground!  It was so funny. He dropped it and walked off!  We told a ranger that drove by and he fixed it.  We went on a couple different trails and saw elk off in the woods.  There was a little stream the boys were skipping rocks in and Lindy was just running around with wild abandon.  It really was a cool outing.  The kids didn’t get quite how cool it was but oh well.  It was fun to do something new that we’d never done. 

We loaded up Saturday morning and headed back down the mountain for home.  Will got up saying his tummy was empty and he needed water so we headed downstairs for breakfast.  He had taken one little bite of a donut and had drunk some milk and I heard a spitting noise.  I look over and he had thrown up all over himself.  I got over to him and he continued to throw up the milk on his plate.  We got him cleaned up and changed his clothes and he laid on the bed for awhile and never got sick again.  We got away from the house around 11:45am and he was back to playing and running around before we left.  He ate some applesauce and some peanut butter crackers for lunch and we made it home with no problems.  While we were upstairs unpacking he yelled up and said he felt sick.  I got him a throw up bucket but he didn’t do anything.  I walked through the den awhile later and he was sitting up with the bucket and finally he did throw up.  He has been throwing up ever since.  Not a ton, maybe once an hour.  He has a low fever and he doesn’t feel well.  He fell asleep on the recliner and spent the night there while I slept on the couch.  I sure hope we don’t get it and I really hope the Bryants don’t get it.  They won’t invite us back to stay with them if we get them all sick this year! 

Our weeks are just packed full of fun this summer and this was a good one (except for Will bringing home a stomach bug).  Assuming everyone stays healthy this week we have more fun in store!!

Ready for Day 1 of KinderCamp!Will drew his own UNO game this week.  He made cards and instructions.  The instructions are the big piece of paper.  It might look like gibberish but he knew what every one of those letters stood for!  His wild card. We played a few times and I actually won a game!KinderCamp singing!The almost kindergarteners. Sniff. Sniff.The yearly picture with the Butts on the Creek sign. Been coming here since they were in infant car seats!We had an ice cream sundae bar on Thursday evening.Paddle boating Friday afternoon!Playing putt putt after boating.The first elk we saw as we were driving into the park.A bunch of people riding horses came off a trail and one of the ladies brought hers over to see the kids.Some of the elk we saw.The elk picking up the sign in his mouth!The Bryants!Sweet boy!Using his telescope to spot elk!Well hello, Elk!I love this picture Katie took!  A sweet picture of Will and me with an elk over our shoulder.  ha ha!!Best Buddies!  These guys had a ton of fun this week.  Will and Micah played great, as did Lindy and Claire!The beautiful valley we were in!On the way out we saw this group in the valley.We also saw this bad boy!At this point the kids were over the elk.  Is this a glimpse into our future?!The annual porch swing pictures!

Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers in my life.  Most importantly Happy Father’s Day to my dad.  He has always been there for me and I know he always will be.  He likes to push all my buttons but he is a great dad!  Next I have to give a shout out to my baby daddy.  He hates that phrase!  Baby daddy.  But he is an awesome dad.  He is way more fun than I am.  He does fun stuff with them and doesn’t blink an eye to take both of them by himself to do something fun.  He is awesome at playing games with them and reading and teaching them all kinds of new things.  He is the epitome of a hands on dad.  Last I want to say Happy Father’s Day to my father-in-law.  He is the best FIL to beat in every game we play.  I couldn’t ask for a better FIL to keep beating over and over.   I sure do have some great fathers in my life!

But let us back up to the beginning of the week.  The kids went to summer camp at their preschool.  The whole summer is based on Curious George and last week was Curious George Goes Camping.  They had a campground set up and the kids loved it.  They had a tent they thought was cool.  It was every day from 9am-1pm.  It was just a handful of kids from their classes and it was very low key and probably just a lot of playing but they had fun and we had to have someone watch them.  They are going back a couple more times this summer as well. 

Tuesday the kids had their last gymnastics class and everyone but Lindy and Will is glad.  They have had an awesome time with gymnastics but I think we are done.  They would have to move on to different classes and I don’t think Lindy is really able to go on to the next class.  I have no clue what the next class for boys would be anyway.  Tuesday night we ate dinner at the Dairi-O.  (Lindy wanted to know where Mike and Janice were – our normal Dairi-O companions!)  After dinner we headed to closing ceremonies for Will’s little league.  There wasn’t much to it besides them calling their names and being handed a trophy.  We left there and went back to the Dairi-O for ice cream. 

The only other excitement of the week was an appointment Lindy had on Friday afternoon.  We have a local Industries for the Blind in town and we went Friday afternoon for a low vision assessment for Lindy.  I seriously had no clue what the appointment was going to consist of.  It ended up being an eye exam.  The doctore said overall her eyes look amazingly good for what she came through.  Five eye surgeries and all.  He said he saw a slight discrepancy from her prescription but not enough to change it.  Which her normal eye doctor did as well and gave me a new prescription, just in case something happened to her glasses and we needed new ones.  This new doctor said that he saw a slight astigmatism developing as well.  After we were done with him we went across the hall and met with a lady who was showing Lindy CCTV.  We were not familiar with it and didn’t know what it was.  It looks like a flat screen TV and it has an arm on the top that shines a light straight down.  You can put a book or, well, anything under it and it magnifies it up on the screen.  Lindy can control how big or small she wants the words.  She was enjoying it and the lady asked if she liked it.  She said yes and said, “Well, you get to take it home.”  What??!!  I said, “By take it home, what do you mean?  For how long?”  The lady said, “Till she graduates high school!”  What?!?  She said they are funded by a grant that allows visually impaired kids to use these.  All we have to do is send her Lindy’s report cards.  Easy enough!  She asked if the eye doctor wanted to see her back and I said no.  She said, “Then you can just come back in a year for a check-up.  Lindy can get all her eye exams here for free until she graduates high school.”  What?!?  Free eye exams?  We walked out of there shocked!  Especially having no clue what the appointment was about when we walked in the door.   We are in the process of trying to figure out where to put the CCTV.  We are going to have to get a table for it.   It will have to be somewhere she does her homework.  She can use it to write, too, which will be interesting!  But anyway, I don’t want her writing on my kitchen or dining room tables so we need to do some rearranging and figure out where the kids will do homework in kindergarten.   She is very excited about it.  A tiny part of me is sad that she needs it but I have to get over that and be happy for her.  I’m still amazed they just gave it to us!

The biggest event of the week was the massive thunderstorm we had Thursday afternoon around 4pm.  It wasn’t a tornado but it was wild.  We lost power at the house at 4pm.  We never lost it at work.  I left work at 5pm and it took me an hour and fifteen minutes to get home.  It’s normally about 20 minutes.  I stopped and got food down by my office and headed home.  The closer I got to home the crazier it got.  Crazy trees down everywhere and no stop lights.  Our neighborhood is on the corner of two fairly busy roads and one road had a tree completely down across the street, blocking it.  It took power lines with it.  The other street had a tree down on the side of the road, taking power lines with it.  Drew made his way out of the neighborhood for a meeting at church – who never lost power -  and the kids and I headed out in their Jeep to check out all the damage.  Crazy trees down all over the neighborhood and no one had power.  Tons of people were out walking and checking out the damage.  We were out for awhile and got back and I cleaned up the garage.  We finally put the kids to bed and we had a quiet evening.  Thankfully it cooled off that night so we were fine sleeping.  We had hot water so I showered and went to the work the next day.  The kids went to summer camp as well.  I met Drew and the kids at the eye appointment at 2:30pm and then brought the kids back with me because there was still no power.  We left work and invited ourselves over to Katie and Kris’.  Drew had a wedding rehearsal to be at and I didn’t feel like sitting at home with no electricity.  We ate pizza with them and the kids played.  We headed home around 8pm and Drew was sitting on the front porch.  We walked inside and we had power!!!  It was out 28.5 hours.  The only thing we were worried about was the fridges.  We had a small generator out in the garage that we had never used.  We got that up and going Friday morning and we moved food from one fridge to the other and then plugged the fridge in all day.  It worked out good and saved the food.   We had church people that were just getting power back today.  It was a wild storm.  There are still tons of trees down everywhere.  What a mess!

Saturday we had Gold Medal Day at gymnastics.  The final ‘recital'.  They had to report at 10:20am and they performed at 10:40am.  They did pretty well.  Lindy definitely always puts on a performance.  After the 20 minutes were over we went out to the little carnival they had going on outside.  It was kind of lame but kind of impossible to just pass by.  We caved and bought the kids some tickets.  They used their tickets and we headed across the street to lunch.  We dropped Drew off at home and then we headed back out to get Will a haircut and go to Sam’s club.  We got home and the kids got baths and I showered.  We got ready to head to a wedding reception in Charlotte.  Drew had to officiate a wedding at our church at 4pm and as soon as he got home we were in the car headed to Charlotte.  Drew’s cousin, Kelsey, got married last weekend in California and then had a reception in Charlotte last night.  She looked beautiful!  The kids had a blast dancing.  It’s come full circle because 11 years ago at our wedding, it was Kelsey and her sister Abbey on the dance floor having a blast.  Last night it was our kids dancing their hearts out on the dance floor.   The kids crashed on the way home.  Thankfully we had changed them into pjs. 

Today we had church and then we tried a new Japanese restaurant for lunch.  Drew and I enjoyed it but the kids did not.  Neither one ate.  We came home and Drew got to rest on the couch.  I ended up doing some housework while he flipped between the golf tournament, the soccer games, and the NCSU/UNC baseball game.  A good sports day for Father’s Day.

Fun things are happening this coming up week!  Check back next week!

Lindy being silly in Drew’s onion goggles.Getting his first trophy!Just one of the trees down in our neighborhood.One completely blocking the street and taking the power lines.The other side of the neighborhood and another tree on a power line.Looking cute!Gold Medal Day!  They conveniently were right in front of each other.  Made pictures easy!Mr. Jeff to the rescue.  Getting Lindy back on track!Guess who ended up front with Mr. Jeff?Look at those chicken legs?!She gets a little confused when they say ‘Roll’She loves Mr. Jeff.  Love this picture!This is her best move.Getting their gold medals.A final TA-DA!!Gold medals with their buddy Claire!The happy couple – Kelsey and Jordan!Abbey couldn’t be at the wedding so Kelsey had a semi life size picture of her.  She is taller in real life.  We always get our picture taken together though at every holiday get together.  Had to do it again with her cut out!  Too funny!The tiny dancers!  Will had moves we ain’t never seen!Surprising Bob with his father’s day gift.  BBQ from Little Richard’s!Father’s Day with Drew today.  Reading the card Lindy made at school.Will’s card he made at school.These are two kids who LOVE their Daddy!Looking cute for church.  I loved this dress on her!