water, water everywhere!

water. it's been sort of a theme here the last few days.

for instance, there's a pool at the hotel.

(good thing, too, or we'd all be crazier than coons on crack... it gets boring sitting in a hotel room!!)

madison FINALLY grew enough to get a bigger suit.

finally.

so we found one from walmart... $4 on clearance.

not bad!

cole made a new buddy quite quickly the first time we hit the pool.

his name is rick, and he's the live-in maintenance man.

he's really nice, and was more than happy to let cole "help" get the bugs out of the pool and then top off the water level.

cole was so proud to be of assistance :)

saturday afternoon we checked out this place kelvin and andy had found weeks earlier.

he sent me a picture from his phone the first time they were there... and i thought it was beautiful.

of course, the real thing is breath-taking.

bald river falls is in the cherokee national park near tellico, tn.

it's awesome.

you have to drive through the mountains to get there (well, the beginning of the mountains).

good thing i had my bonine; without it, things would have taken a nasty turn.

cole saw his first waterfall.

he called it a "water fell-down".

he's right, if you think about it...

we went down the side to get close.

there were quite a few people down there swimming.

surprisingly, it's not as chilly as most mountain streams.

madison wasn't sure what to think, really.

we took the trail up to the top of the falls.

cole climbed it all by himself!

three hikers :)

after work today, we hung out with daddy at the pool.

cole's getting braver- he's been blowing bubbles on his own, and with his daddy's help, was able to "swim".

(that means that daddy held him up while his little feet kicked up a storm)

madison's getting braver in the water too.

she likes to climb the steps.

huh.

this swimming thing is easy!

the real water wing

photo credit to kelvin...

*

yes, our days have been water-logged.

actually, that's not too far from the truth- i think we've all got that sleepy, tired "water logged" feeling.

bed will feel good tonight.

and speaking of water, it's storming; raining cats and dogs outside.

just what we need: more water!

away we go!

so... now to the travel part of this whole catch-up. we left bright and early sunday morning- pulled out of the driveway at 3.45! i'd figured that if we packed the van the night before and in the morning just stuck the kids in their carseats and left, they'd fall back asleep before long.

i mean, it IS early, right?

so they SHOULD fall back asleep.

right?

ha!!!!

apparently, OUR children don't do that.

nope!

it wasn't until they'd polished off an entire package of graham crackers, a bottle of apple juice (divided and watered down, of course)....

... and we'd gone through chicago

(mid-morning on a sunday is the best time to go; traffic is significantly easy!)....

.... over the cool bridge and into indiana that madison finally lost the battle with her eyelids. she conked out for awhile, but cole kept right on jabbering and watching out the window.

he eventually dozed for a short time, and then promptly went back to occupying himself.

we have a barf bucket handy (just in case), which makes a great "ice cream hat".

the kids did amazingly- we pulled in to our motel in loudon a little before 6 pm (5 pm central time)... it was a long trip and we survived without any issues.

i'm so proud of our littles- they really did great.

somewhere in kentucky just before the tennessee border: i thought the sunspot on the rock wall looked kinda neat.

self-explanatory :)

the late-afternoon weather in knoxville

(too bad you couldn't see the humidity!)

we settled in to what will be our home for the next two weeks, and the kids slept reasonably well sunday night. cole thinks it's cool to sleep in a grown-up bed, and madison's happy with the familiar confines of her pack-n-play. unfortunately, she's teething some more, so the last few nights have involved less-than-adequate sleep for mommy, but this too shall pass. we're just happy to all be together!

*

tuesday afternoon we took the kids into downtown loudon. it's not a very big place, but it's got a few diners, an ice-cream shop, a town square with a fountain, a cute old courthouse...

... and the kids love riding in the new stroller.

seriously- cole thinks it's THE coolest thing ever.

we like it too- handles so smooth!

there was this cool old water tower that i was itching to take a few photos of.

too bad it's not a tad smaller and right on the ground- it would be a great vintage photo prop.

the tennessee river

we had supper at mark's diner (the store in the middle, with the green and white striped awning). they had a really good taco salad- a little meat with lots of beans. kelvin thought it sounded yummy so he had one too, not seeing the "bean" part in the menu description.

oops.

the fountain in the square is so cute- and peaceful.

a mischievious little boy eyeing up the unsuspecting fountain...

the iron park benches are nice- the midwest (aka home) might be safer, but the little towns here are more kept up. i think they really take some pride in what their communities look like. the courthouse, the little shops, the square... it's all so manicured and maintained, even though everything's old. perfect backdrop for photos!

a little boy's curiosity: satisfied.

two sets of sweet little toes cooling off in the water.

cole's shorts were soaked by the time we pried them away from the fountain to go get ice cream. he was devastated that we had to leave and made it known... but settled down once he realized where we were going. the ice cream shop next door to mark's diner is called 'tic-toc's', and they offer home-made ice cream.

best

stuff

ever.

seriously.

the kids had plain vanilla- it was creamy, smooth, and flecks of ground vanilla bean were visible in it. absolutely awesome!!

and to end this long post: a photo of the view from the hotel. if only it was in 3-D... this shot doesn't do the scene justice. hey- they have 3-D tv's and almost every new movie is offered in 3-D these days; maybe sometime in the near future, they'll make 3-D dslr cameras!

now THAT would rock...

more family!

after one family reunion, we had a week to rest up (ha!!) and get ready for another. thankfully, kelvin was able to come home for it. at the beginning of the week, the kids and i spent monday and tuesday at my parents'... monday afternoon, i got a text from kelvin asking if we wanted to go to tennessee with him. turns out, he had to go back down because the project STILL wasn't done- but this time, we were going to go along! of course, i was so excited i couldn't sleep that night.

monday afternoon, great-grandma and cole watched great-auntie mary play with gus!

and madi watched from the safety of great-auntie mary's lap!
(she gets excited when she sees a puppy, but only if someone's holding her)

cole helped grandma in the kitchen...

... "help" being a pretty loose term, of course!

(actually, he did well- kept the flour mess pretty well confined to just one corner of the kitchen)

madi got a boo-boo on her lip wednesday evening. she was tired from the past few days, plus the excitement of having daddy home when she got up from her nap- it all sent her into a "mood" which resulted in a tantrum that involved her smashing her face into the coffee table, resulting in the carnage above. poor baby- took her three tries to get latched on to her paci successfully; that puffy lip just kept getting in the way!

thursday brought a new discovery:

organic sucker

+ drooling toddler

+ little fingers that would rather play with said dripping sucker than eat it (possibly due to afore-mentioned puffy lip)

=...

... edible, organic hair product with amazing hold!
(it washes out amazingly well, though)

on friday, kelvin took cole up to his parents' and to the iola car show so that i could get us all packed for our trip. i found it went amazingly well; madison's so awesome at entertaining herself and is so much more content just to do her own thing when her big brother is nowhere in sight. it was a total breeze!

anyway, uncle dave came for the reunion, so he got acquainted with cole while four-wheeling and checking out old cars. cole was quite taken with his new great-uncle!!

the first thing he said when we got to the brotzman family reunion on saturday was "see grampa dan house!", which was quickly followed by "uncle dave! uncle dave? where uncle dave? uncle da-a-a-a-ave!!!" it was repeated several times, with increased volume at each round- and once he finally found his beloved uncle dave, he was happy at last!

madison got a tractor ride from daddy

cole and one of his distant cousins played "race" on the tractors in grandpa dan's shed

and madison? she passed out before we even had lunch. she slept sweetly in grandma ruby's arms for a few hours.

the brotzman reunion was nice- family i'd never met before, a small, intimate gathering. it's amazing how reunions differ from family to family, but each one is special. :)

family and fireworks

just like most everyone else in america, we had plans the weekend of the fourth.

(really, we did- i've just put off blogging it till now, hahaha!)

on the 2nd (friday) the littles and i went up to mom and dad's... my cousin marilyn, her husband ross and two of their three boys, alex and chet, were up for the family reunion that weekend. my aunt evelyn was there too, so we all had a nice picnic lunch. grandpa and grandma pheifer joined us too, and it was nice to chat over good food.

cole helped by wiping down the picnic tables...

... and he did a very thorough job, without even being asked!

the kids got to spend a little time with auntie sarah

after lunch, cole took the "cleaning" thing one step further and "washed" his "motorcycle".

(his great-uncle dale would be so proud...)

madi did her usual thing, pushing around the ancient toy shopping cart, picking up stones, sticks and clumps of dirt. it may not be a girl-y activity, but it keeps her busy and happy for hours.

she rather enjoys sitting next to the flowers (a nice way to balance out the sticks/stones/dirt thing)

cole got to ride on the gator with great-grandpa; i think it's safe to say that they both had fun! it's cute, really; great-grandpa gets out the gator, drives up to wherever cole happens to be, cole waits patiently for him to stop moving, and then when great-grandpa pats the passenger seat, happily climbs up and settles right in, proud as can be. i'm quite certain he jabbers the entire time they drive, since i can hear his excited (loud) chattering in the distance before i can hear the hum of the engine.

after a full day of gator rides, hauling stones and playing their little hearts out, a bath is a very necessary thing. grandma even found a new toy for the bathtub!

ahhhhhh...

saturday dawned warm, sunny and only slightly humid.

by the time we got to marshfield around 11, it was plenty warm and starting to get sticky.

the kids ran and ran and played and explored- it was a matter of minutes before they were sweaty and flushed, but having a ball.

they played with distant cousins they've never met before headin home in the early afternoon. it was just too hot, and we needed to get home for a good night's sleep. it was so nice to see relatives from out of state that we rarely get to see anymore!

saturday night was the fireworks in clintonville... the kids were fast asleep long before they started (thank goodness- i wasn't about to purposely keep them up till 11 pm!!). i ducked outside with the camera to snag a few snapshots, then waited out the booms before drifting off myself.

ooooh!

and that was our fourth of july weekend. we'd have loved to have been able to spend it with kelvin, but it didn't work out that way. we missed him, that's for sure!

just a quick note...

i'll add photos later, i promise. we got to tennessee safe and sound late sunday afternoon... the kids did marvellously on the trip down! we left our house about 3.45 am, and i was SO wrong in my brilliant assumption that the kids would just fall back asleep once we got going. ha! they were bright-eyed and adorable for hours before madison finally conked out for an hour and a half. it wasn't till they'd polished off their sippy-cups of diluted apple juice and an entire package of graham crackers and we'd long passed chicago, though. cole dozed once the whole trip... and it was for MAYBE an hour, tops. there were a few minor outbursts, but they were short-lived and easily resolved. oh- and the best time to travel through chicago? sunday mid-morning. it was a breeze.

i'd hoped to take the kids to the pool yesterday, but it was rainy. we took a walk out in the new stroller we decided to get (and yes, we're selling the other one, sadly. i love it, but we thought that if we're going to be doing some travelling, a stroller that's made with off-roading in mind might be a better idea)... ran into a creepy immigrant that attempted to get me to follow him into the roadside brush. i'm quite certain that the only thing that really saved me from some serious damage was the kids. oh, and then on our (my) frantic rush back to the hotel, we got caught in a downpour. so, soaked and happy to be safe and sound, we stayed in our room until kelvin got home from work. even though the immigrant and his little fruit cart dealie-o left shortly after his you-know-what attempt, i didn't feel safe leaving the confines of our room. even today, i'm hesitant. maybe once the kids finish their cheerios and get bored with the cartoons, we'll venture on down and test the waters.

it's my hope that they'll love the pool so much that they'll spend some time there with daddy this afternoon so i can catch up on blogging.

finally.

anyway- we're here and it's beautiful... :)