Cabin Getaway

For us to get away for Fall Break is a NEW idea to us....but thanks to my aunt it was able to happen.

We rented a cabin for 3 nights. The only requirements were 1) river and 2) hot tub.

Maybe I should've included a larger couch, but still this place was perfect for us.

The first day the boys grabbed their fishing poles to go catch some fish. I don't think anyone was more excited about it then Brooks though.

Bronson caught two pretty fast.

(why does he look like he's 15 here?!??!)

Camden caught three (no he did NOT jump in to get them, he's wet from the hot tub)

Then there was Brooks. Who kept trying and trying.

This is the smile he gave when I told him Camden had caught his third and he still had zero (and it was also dinner time)

Yes, fishing all day for the older ones and basically getting out and in and out and in the hut tub for all the littles.

I was on the porch reading (Everly never left my side)

Or I could lay down on the couch the watch everything out the big window. It was just so peaceful. I loved that there was no wifi, and no way for anyone to get a hold of us!

And I KNOW this happened in the middle of October, but quite honestly, I have had a hard time looking at the pictures of fish to even post them. How ridiculous is that? Anyway, here are the LESS gutsy/mutilated fish pictures

Brooks be-heading the fish with Everly watching VERY closely.

I can't tell if she liked it or not but she just couldn't look away and she kept grunting and pointing.

All this time poor Emerson was curled up in his cave upstairs with a fever.

It was actually a rather comfty "cave" so don't feel too sorry for him.

That night it was tinfoil dinners and s'mores around the fire pit.

And juuuuuuuuust when it was about to get dark, ol' Brooksie caught himself TWO fish.

Phew, because I don't think he would've slept well had his boys kept out-catching him.

At nights there were ping pong games, pool table tournaments, board games to play and World Series games to watch (since we don't have cable or anything at our house, this was a treat)

The river itself was actually freezing. Like SO cold that watching someone swing into it on the rope swing and then them not being able to breathe made you laugh for a long time. And if you were tubing then you really didn't want ANY part of you body touching the water. 

YET, it still didn't deter the kids.

(if only I had gotten Brooks' reaction on video when he hit the water.....bwhahaha)

Emerson started feeling better and still hadn't caught a fish. Bronson threw the line in, hooked a fish and then let Emerson pull it in. So Emerson SAYS he "caught" this one. :)

Then Brooks made him gut the fish. Emerson's commentary and disgust was so funny. He kept saying, "I'm going to regret this"

Everly, as always, is so helpful during card games. Poor Iris tried to have so much patience.

(Mom and Dad, Iris beat me at "Golf" fair and square. Wow. I've really lost it)

Another night we dutch-oven-ed it like real mountain people. I guess we are legit now, right?

Getting the charcoals ready.....

Dutch oven Shrimp Jumbalaya, grilled freshly-caught fish and dutch oven peach cobbler. 

Kids said it was their BEST dinner ever.

(while I had myself a Cup-o-Noodle. How did I get such a seafood loving family?!?!)

Like I said, I deleted the fish pictures but there ended up being 9 caught to grill up. Brooks thought of doing it in the kitchen....hahaha, silly boy. There was NO way that fish smell was coming inside. So there he was outside cooking them on the grill.

I looked over at my family, eating along this peaceful river with waterfall sounds, barefeet and clothing-less children abounding and I thought......

This. is. Perfect.

It really did feel like a little bit of heaven to me. Through all of October and November there have been 4 days I have not been puking quite a bit. Three of those days were while we were there. 

Like I said, a little bit of heaven.

SHE IS THREE!!!!

Miss Kellyn Pat turned 3 this month.

It felt like it took FOREVER for her birthday to come since every day since August she's been asking for her "Minnie Burday".

The Little Miss Birthday girl woke up to a Minnie balloon which she carred around with her all day. She was SO pleased about it.

UNTIL....... I had her take a picture with it before her party. 

For SOME reason she didn't want a picture with her Minnie balloon, Minnie shirt and Minnie skirt. #thatsKellynforya

IT was a no brainer that she would want me to make a Minnie piñata. She loved it SO much. Kept talking about it. Singing to it. Pointing to it.......but she did NOT want to touch it or hold it.

And I found a shirt that said piñata=love, so I just HAD to buy it to wear to birthday parties. (gotta love children photographers)

It was just a family party (isn't that enough guests for a 3 year old?!?!?), but she still got SO excited when we brought out her cake (with a Minnie on top) and sang to her. #herdimple

And THEN we told her to blow out the candles and she was NOT and I mean NOT going to do that.

Big siblings to the rescue! Candles blown out, cake eaten. Now time for presents.

A talking Minnie, a Minnie phone and a light-up Minnie Halloween necklace.

Clearly she hit the Minnie-jackpot.

Speaking of hitting a "Minnie jackpot" it was time for the piñata.

Kellyn's emotions once again flipped and she did NOT want to hit the piñata. The other kids were MORE then happy to help out.

Happy 3rd to my emotionally roller-coaster riding spark of my life. She is the most hilarious child. I love her and I love that her Minnie birthday finally came.

Now if Christmas could just get here I don't have to daily hear about "Ho-ho" bringing her a baby doll.....

Flood and a true blessing

This month South Carolina was in the national news for some MAJOR flooding. We had constant rain for it felt like a week, but here where we live we probably only got 8-10". (As opposed to Columbia and places close to the coast with over 20" and dams and rivers flooding)

Well, a few weeks BEFORE that we had a few days of GOOD HARD rain. It started while we were at Royce's tball practice where the kids actually caught a frog and a few tadpoles in the creek there.

The rain continued and the next day when the boys got home from school Camden came upstairs and said, "Mom, whatever you think, we did NOT do that downstairs."

I didn't know WHAT to think!

Then I went downstairs to their room and realized there an inch or two of water all over the floor.

Clearly it was a dream come true to some of my kids.

AND the tadpole who could just swim wherever he wanted in the room.

What had happened is the "Sump Pump" in the "mudroom" (literally it's a red clay mudroom) wasn't hooked up right and not draining all the water coming under the house and up through the red clay. So it spilled out into the laundry room (love that I had 8 loads on the ground to fold) and seaped through the walls to the boys' room.

I really was so bothered by it all. The vacuuming up all the water, then mopping, then doing all the laundry, while dinner never got done, yadda yadda.

But looking back, I realized what a blessing the flooding downstairs THAT DAY truly was. 

Why?

Well, had that two-day rain thing not shown us that the sump-pump wasn't working, we would've DEFINITELY found out on the week of flooding in South Carolina. We would've had SO much water in there, it would have been crazy!!!!

We also didn't have any baseball games, soccer or anything that night and I DID have leftovers in the fridge to serve for dinner (I don't always.....my family eats too much)

AND back in September I also had the HEALTH to do all the cleaning, mopping, laundry etc.

You see, we Smiths here have our own little blessing coming our way.

The little boy/girl tie-breaker should be here in May.

Lucky, lucky us.

13 kids

THAT'S how many we had around here for a few days on Labor Day Weekend.

My close friend watched my kids for me when Brooks and I went to a wedding in June in Virginia.  I was THRILLED to return the favor by watching her 5 kids so she and her husband could have a MUCH NEEDED weekend get-away.

I wanted them to have fun (and like me...DUH!) so I researched a new park 30 minutes away with a river and waterfall to go to. We piled everyone up in the Yeti and we were OFF. It was loud and crowded. See?

About 20 minutes into the trip Emerson asked where Aleeya was.

ha-ha real funny.

I guess he was serious and everyone confirmed she was NOT in the Yeti and we indeed had left her. We turned around and drove BACK the 20 minutes to the house. Of ALL kids I knew Aleeya would probably be hysterical and I would pull up and there would be 3 cop-cars around my house.

THANKFULLY, 1) only one of those happened (the Aleeya crying part) and she was safe and sound. 2)It was one of MY kids and not my friend's and 3) She stayed inside sitting on the couch (safe) the whole time. (actually she was praying there....poor thing) I apologized proFUSEly and realized why she hadn't gone out to the Yeti when everyone else did...... I had sent her to her ROOM 15 minutes before we left for FREAKING out and not being able to handle something. She just needed to chill and get-a-grip in her room for a while and didn't hear me gather the troops. #momoftheyear

Flashback: I remember being left when I was about Aleeya's age when my family went to Lagoon. I sat and stared out the window just PRAYING they would remember me and turn around. They did eventually when they were 1/2 hour away from home, so only 1 hour waiting.  I can definitely symphatize with Aleeya. But I turned out okay, right?!?! 

It was now to late to go the the park again so it was dinner and then playing with Legos (and apparently stealing my phone to capture this picture)

Then the LARGEST rainstorm came. One of those rainstorms that makes you VERY happy you weren't at a park, with a river and a waterfall.

This is how deep it got! The brick at the bottom of the picture is the first step up to our porch!

All the kids had a BLAST in the rain and playing soccer in it and getting soaked. So maybe it wasn't a HUGE fail that night after all?

The next morning we took everyone to Aleeya and Iris' soccer game. They probably had the biggest cheering squad there.

We then did a bunch of Saturday chores (aren't we nice babysitters? Like the most fun EVER?!).

I was STILL determined to take them to this "fun" park though. Later on we loaded them in the Yeti.....all of them this time......grabbed a bunch of doughnuts and we were off.

It was a super fun park. I knew I picked a winner.

Then we walked down the nature trail a ways to the river and waterfall.

Turns out with the huge rain it was up pretty high and flowing pretty fast so just the older ones could really get in.

They made their way over to the waterfalls and kept sliding down them. It looked like they were having a ton of fun. Bronson and Isabel (12 years old) did it the most.

I saw Isabel wearing her glasses and Brooks said, "should she be wearing her glasses doing that?" I commented she must know what she's doing and anyway, we couldn't yell over the sound of the waterfalls for them to hear us anyway.

The VERY next time she went down she hit a bump and the glasses went flying. We just saw her come up, walk over to the side and face plant it in the dirt. (I TOO know the feeling of losing/breaking many a pair of glasses at her age and the dread of telling your parents yet AGAIN). Immediately she got on her knees and started praying to find them. 

It started an all out glasses hunt in the river with Brooks even jumping in.

The poor girl never found them and I felt SICK for her.

While looking for the glasses Emerson slipped on a rock and split his lip too.

 At first glance Brooks figured he would need stitches when we got home. 

My BIG event that was supposed to be "soooooo fun" ended up ending in tragedy and misery. #babysittingfail

I texted my friend to make sure SHE knew what happened so Isabel wouldn't have to break it to her and apologized like crazy (and begging for our friendship to remain!) for not thinking to grab them from her!

It turned out to be a pretty good time to break news like that to her since she was still on a 

get-a-way-high and was very forgiving.

I took their kids home and put them to bed before the parents got home late Saturday night.

Moral of the story: apparently if you need a babysitter, we aren't your best picks.

As far as ol' Emerson..... it turns out he didn't need stitches. The lip started healing pretty well by itself but it was rather fat and swollen. The next day at church was fast and testimony meeting (where anyone in the congregation is welcome to come up and share their knowledge/faith on Jesus Christ, etc.). Emerson stood up to go forward and the VERY FIRST THING HE SAID was:

"For those of you who don't recognize me, my name is Emerson Smith"

I WAS SOOOOO EMBARRASSED!!!! He really thought people wouldn't recognize him with his fat lip. 

As bad as I thought our babysitting adventures were these same friends STILL wanted to go picking apples with us at our favorite apple orchard the next day on Labor Day.

We actually had such a nice time.

and Everly was sufficiently stuffed with apples found on the ground.

My kids love their apple cider and apple cider doughnuts. Emerson even brought his OWN money to buy his own jug of cider and a dozen doughnuts.......but I'm not sure if you can recognize him in this picture.

The main/only reason I go up there is really just for their apple cider icees. They are probably the most heavenly thing to me. #nectarofheaven

As eventful as the weekend was I STILL kept my friendships, I STILL had all my kids AND I recognize every one of them.

So maybe it was still a win, right?