March Break

I am in the process of cleaning up my computer again.  I am low on space and that means I need to delete more pictures.  So while I am backing up 1000's of pictures onto 2 different external hard drives, I realized I missed posting our family trip to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg Tennessee during our March Break.

So for four of the past five years we travelled with parts of our extended family to Tennessee.  This year everyone with the except of Kyle and Melissa were able to travel with us.
The weather this year was cooler than it has been in the past.
Here are the highlights of our trip:
1.  Mark's homemade cinnamon buns for  Sunday breakfast

Kids watching Uncle Mark make breakfast

2.  Hot tubing

Kids enjoyed the hot tub 

3.   Relaxation in the chalet

4.  Sunday afternoon hike 

Led by Jaelyn and Ava

Carsten found a baseball

Trying to walk a straight line

5.  Go-carting

Ready, Set, GO!

Some drivers

6.  Our big nature hike

Daddy and his girls 

The outhouse that still worked

A barn

Dragon-like tree

Super Ava

Daddy and Jaelyn

Ava comforting Savannah after she fell in the water

The whole group

Family photo

The bad influence

Monkey see, monkey do

Like father, like daughter

Copycat syndrome

Jaelyn the plant lover... but no picking wild flowers

Interesting tree 

Alex and Daniel

 7.  Wonderworks Museum

Earthquake stimulator

Tornado Stimulator

Rock climbing

NASA Suit

Super-sized lite brite 

Bed of Nails

Bubbles

8. Cades Cove

Ava singing in a church

Lots of deer

Brian and Amy

My parents

 9.  Gatlinburg

Moonshine

Ice Cream

Hope you enjoyed!

How I spent my day

At some point during the night, Jaelyn joined me in bed and Brian found his way to the couch.  At some unearthly hour, Brian got up and went for a run.  Ava scampered to the living room to watch Netflix and Jaelyn followed shortly thereafter.  I continued to have an unrestful sleep.  The dog tried to get me to play by jumping on me and I rolled over.   Brian returned from his run to find me still in bed.  You may think wow, all you do is sleep.  Don't you ever get up?  Well it is Saturday, the only day I can attempt to sleep past 8 AM.  Yes, all the above happened prior to 8:30 AM.
We all had showers and met up with Grandma and Grandpa Roffel at Countryside Restaurant. Pancakes, eggs, bacon, home fries, and toast were enjoyed.
We then made a stop at the vet to get some dog food, so we could feed Bexx.  From there we check out the rummage sale going on at the girls' school.  A short stop at home had me making a card for the bridal shower I was heading to.
I dropped the girls off at gymnastics and continued on to a bridal shower for the beautiful Jennifer. When that was done there, I picked up the girls and headed for home.
Jaelyn has been very eager to make more bracelets using her rainbow loom.  The latest crafting craze.

"The Loom" 

I headed to Youtube to learn how to do a hex fishtail. I have now spent hours playing with the loom.

Here's a link to a "How to Guide".  Not sure how helpful it has been.  Just when I see some progress, I have an elastic break and I have to start over.... GRRRRR. 
Here is my latest attempt.  I am stopping for the night before I mess this one up too.

I am able to do a simple fish tail.

Jaelyn actually made this one for me :)

Maybe someday I will get a hexfish tail bracelet done.

Brian and I brought take-out from Gonzalez Authentic Latin Food home for supper.  For those Chathamites, it is a mobile food truck located by Chatham Plumbing.  I was very sceptical but the food was really good.  If you like Mexican I recommend giving it a try.  Here's the link to Gonzalez Authentic Latin Food.  They also have a Facebook page.  The girls' had McDonalds happy meals.

Jaelyn is now trying to sleep with me in the Lazy-boy chair.  She's not tired.

Laundry has been ongoing through out the day and is now waiting to be folder.  But that can wait for another day. My bed is calling my name again...

Somedays Doesn't Always Go as Planned

A typical Saturday morning usually starts with Brian getting up way too early to head out for a way too long run. I typically roll over and go back to sleep until he gets back a couple hours later. We then have a lazy breakfast and slow morning.  
This morning was supposed to be another one of those mornings. However, somedays don't always go as planned....
Around 6:45 this morning, I heard a couple of beeps. I thought maybe Brian had decided to set his alarm. I went back to sleep. Around 7:15 Jaelyn asked if she could get out of bed and play the iPad. Brian came back into the bedroom to get ready for his run. I asked him what the beep was earlier. He says the carbon monoxide detector in the basement went off. As we were discussing that we probably had to get a new detector for the basement, the main floor detector also went off.
So we quickly got dressed and the girls, the cat and I went through the Tim Horton's drive-thru for breakfast and went to my parents place for the morning.
On a whim we decided to get the girls haircut at my mom's hairdresser friend. Jaelyn and I have discussed that we could donate her long locks of curls for cancer patents. She wanted to do this in the summer, but I felt now would be a better time. So both girls had their hair cut today. Ava a trim and Jaelyn 13 inches.
Jaelyn became very emotional when her hair was first cut but she is now running around happy that her hair is short. When she went to bed she said, "I just love my new hair mom".  I am happy that she can help a less fortunate in the future.

The before

The 13 inches of hair to be donated 

The cut....

The after 

This photo freaks me out a bit....Jaelyn looks way too much like me here when I was a kid.

Jaelyn playing with the braid

Ava and Jaelyn showing off the braid

Jaelyn proud of her "new" hair

Jaelyn and Ava loving each other

Brian ended up fixing something on the furnace and the carbon monoxide detectors are no longer going off :)
This afternoon we continued our unplanned day by going to Erieau and checking out the frozen lake.  

Welcome to snowy Erieau

Snowdrifts

Ava and Bexx 

Open water by pressure cracks

Daddy and his girls walking on Lake Erie

Mommy and her girlies

Some of you may remember that we donated Ava's hair almost 3 years ago.  Here is a flashback of her major hair donation.

The before

During

The after

You wanna guess what it is going again tonight? Yep it is snowing.  Hopefully this snow stops sometime this month and April showers can bring May flowers.
Until the next time....