Mammoth Cave Trip

In June we went on our 2nd annual trip with friends. This consists of our good friends the Hearns and their friends and family. Last year we went to Stone Mountain, GA and this year we went to Mammoth Cave, KY. We ended up going to KY twice this year, the second time was with Craig for his job. We got to visit Cincinnati, OH and the little towns of Greendale and Lawrenceburg, IN, as well as Erlanger, KY. I can't find any pics of our 2nd trip although I do know that I took photos. Here are some pics of our KY trip with friends. For some crazy reason, I had no camera, and thus relied on the kindness of Marni to email me some of her photos.

For these vacations, we all bring our RVs. This trip we camped at Yogi Bear's family campground just outside of the cave. The weather was scorching hot, so we cooled off often in the pool. Nearby we found antiques and a fun park where we could drive little race cars, crash each other with bumper card, jump on tramps, take a ski lift up the side of a small mountain, etc. I took my 3 kids (this includes Tayler Hearn, my "adopted" child) to some on-site activities such as tie-dying shirts. Luckily I found 2 white shirts we already had for the boys to use. I ended up doing all the work though, no big deal, it was easy and fun. Each family provided a big dinner each night, and we had Smore's. The food we eat when we geat together is phenomenal. We provided a low country shrimp boil (my favorite dinner ever!)

When we got to the cave ticket windows and saw just how much they charged for their numerous tours, we all opted for the cheapest one and the shortest one to appease the small kids: the self-guided tour. With sweat rolling down our backs, we started our walk to the cave entrance, when suddenly one feels the breeze from the cave entrance. Wow, what a difference in temp. It didn't even feel chilly inside, just heavenly. After the cave we walked down to the river. Chase and Tayler found a dying bat on the ground, I felt so bad for it, but had no idea what to do other than to tell a park ranger on our return walk.

Chase Turns The Big 8!

Chase turned 8 on September 3rd. He was very excited to be 8 because he will be getting baptized soon. For his big day we went on a family outing. After getting his hair cut, we went to Chuck E Cheese as well in Buford, GA. Then we went mini-golfing in Gainesville, GA. We had birthday cake and opened presents at home.

 

Little brother Peyton wanted to emulate big brother Chase by dressing just like him. What a compliment!

Peyton Turns The Big 5!

Peyton turned 5 on July 24th. My parents and sister Lisa and nephew Xavier came out from Utah to celebrate with him. We spent the day at Alabama Adventures Water Park. Our good friends, Tina and Tayler Hearn spent the day with us. Afterwards we had cake and pizza at Chuch E Cheese in Vestavia. Tina's husband Ken met us there.

 

 

As you can tell by the pictures, everyone had a great time at the waterpark as everyone is sporting facial sunburns.

Busy Summer

Well, I have not posted in too long. We have had a busy summer traveling around the southeast. Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, as well as the states of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. Chase, Peyton, and I celebrated birthdays, we had an anniversary of 9 years happen, and now we are going to be the Taylor's of central Alabama instead of the Taylor's of north Georgia. We bought a house and will be closing on it this week. Too exciting. When we get settled, I will be posting all about our fun summer and our new house with lots of pics. I am taking lots of pictures of our GA house so I can show the befores and after on this blog, remember this house was completely remodeled due to the fact that our previous renters destroyed it? Catch you soon!

From Dud to Stud

Here are the latest and the greatest pics of the newly painted kitchen cabinets in all their glory. The only thing left to do is paint the strip of wood that is around the bar. Enjoy:

We have decided not to add the glaze to the grooves of the doors as mentioned in a previous post, but that is ok as we are quite pleased with the results.

Sharp Curve Ahead!

It's been a while since I have posted. Since then, we went on 2 trips to Alabama and Tennessee. We travel a lot with Craig but sometimes we get to go just for pleasure. So, from May 24th til June 2nd we were able to take a vacation to the Smoky Mountains and then to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, TN.

First we went to AL to help our friends out with their son Tyler's graduation party. Craig's friend Ray came up and spent the weekend with us in Pelham, AL at the Sam's Club. Chase and Peyton met 2 boys Chase's age and they had a blast riding their bikes on top of two big rock piles over and over.

Then we drove to Elkmont campground in the Smoky Mtns where we spent time with Craig's uncle Carroll. He is a host there for 2 months this summer.

Uncle Carroll with Peyton and Chase.

  It was so beautiful, but the trip up to the campground was fraught with danger. Craig bought a special GPS that is made just for RVers. Leaving Alabama and entering TN thru Chattanooga, Craig typed in the size of our 5th wheel, the height and the weight, and our destination and the GPS was supposed to only send us on roads that would accommodate our RV and vehicle. I think Rand McNalley uses the term 'accommodate' loosely because the road it took us up was so frightening that the ONLY way we made it to the campground alive is because a higher power allowed it to be so.

The road up the mountain was very skinny, oftentimes with either a sheer drop on one side and/or a steep cliff with low overhangs of rock on the other. Our trailer is as tall as an 18 wheeler and is 40 feet long, not counting the Ford F250 Craig towes it with. It was also very winding with sharp, blind corners. My stomach was literally in my throat the entire 10 miles up which lasted 40 minutes and felt like 40 miles.

 Craig had no choice but to swing wide into the oncoming lane many times as we took these sharp, blind curves in order to avoid scraping off the top half of our trailer on the sharp overhangs. At any given moment a car could have been taking the same curve going in the opposite direction and we would have had a head on and a descent down a cliff. Many times Craig would swing wide and honk his horn to try and warn any oncoming traffic, but thank Heavenly Father that EVERY single curve that we had to take wide, there wasn't a vehicle in sight.

 If you do not believe this was a miracle, then let me tell you that the next day when we took the same road down the mountainside (sans trailer) that every time we came down around a sharp, blind curve there was a car right there taking the same curve travelling up the mountain. (Coming down the mountain not towing anything we were able to stay in our lane the entire time.) I am shaking just writing this and my heart is pounding very fast with the memory of it.

Needless to say Craig was very upset with the GPS for taking us up that particular road when there was another road that started at Gatlinburg that had no cliffs, only flat "breakdown lanes" on either side of the road in which one could pull over if needed. Of course, we didn't know about that road until we got to the ranger station in Elkmont where the ranger about had a fit when he heard what road we took to get there. No one could believe we made it up there in one piece.

Stress aside, it was fun to hook up with Uncle Carroll again. He showed us the neat village of abandoned vacation homes that is nearby, we got to see the famous fireflies, we saw live bears, drove around Cade's Cove, and the guys got to go inner tubing. Both Chase and Craig each lost a flip flop in the river. Carroll came and ate with us each night and we had a great time talking and reminiscing.

Our 5th wheel in Elkmont Campground.

Bear near Cade's Cove.

Kids looking at the abandoned village.

Restored Appalachian Clubhouse near abandoned village. It is in use for weddings, reunions, or other parties.

 

Later in the week, we changed campgrounds to one in the valley near Gatlinburg and were able to see other sights around both Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and see other parts of the Smokies that we had never seen before. We were able to go mini-golfing twice and the boys got to drive the world's slowest go-carts in PF. Chase and Peyton met two more boys their ages at the campground and had a grand time playing with them.

River in Greenbriar section

Moonshine Brewery in Gatlinburg.

And The Painting Continues

Well the tooth fairy has visited us again. Chase lost another tooth on May 1st. He wanted $3.00 but we negotiated for $2.00 since he says he knows that the Tooth Fairy is either "you or dad."

Looking at his face, he just lost the one on the left; the one on the right he lost a few weeks ago.

The kitchen in still coming along. Craig is putting 3 coats on every box. Except for the highlights we will be painting into the grooves, all the cabinets should be done by this week. I'm crossing my fingers.

Here are some examples of two small trash doors that we painted to get an idea how the highlights will look:

The door on the left is painted with an experimental color and shows the highlighting; the door on the right is in the Ticker Tape that we used in the kitchen and is plain. I am trying to imagine how the highlighting will look against the Ticker Tape. The door on the left is practically pink and the paint marker we used had a too wide tip and Craig had never done it before, therefore didn't really know what he was doing.

Here is a picture of my mantle with my spoon "T" picture and the old-fashioned fan. I really like it.

You may recognize the train letters that are at the head of this blog. They are the letters or our first names. "C",
"G", "C", "P", and "T" for our last name. Everyone thinks the "T" is an "I" and I wanted to clarify that.

Lastly, I don't think I posted the pic of Chase's new bedside table, It is a table from Grammie that we were using as a plant table originally. It looks so cute next to Chase's bed instead.