Drew, Trent, Paige & Hailey
Once again the Royalties came for vacation!!! We were so excited to see them. It had been 6 months since our last visit together when we made our surprise trip to them back in January.
We had been planning and making plans on what we were going to do for the time they were here.
They got in on Friday afternoon and we all had some lunch. Then Jackie & I with Paige & Hailey ran out to a couple of stores to get some things for the week. Friday early evening Brian went with Jamie to get a load of hay and during chore time everyone helped out then we just hung around and relaxed since Jackie and Brian were up most of the night before traveling.
Saturday Jackie & I took the girls food shopping and the boys went with Jamie & Brian. They went to help out with a fundraiser for Drew's football. They helped wrapped up smoked BBQ ribs, Boston Butts and Drunken Chickens that were preordered and were being picked up that day. Later in the afternoon we went over to the lake for a little swimming. It was REALLY hot here this week of vacation, hitting the 100's easy every day.
Lots of time was taken up with cooking, eating and then picking up from cooking and eating. We had some really delicious meals.
Sunday was a day of rest mostly. I believe it was 106 degrees on Sunday so we stayed inside most of the day, except for getting the morning and evening chores done. We also decided to go to dinner Sunday night and have a break from cooking.
Monday was our first full day. This is the day we rented the boat on Dale Hollow Lake. This year we got a Pontoon boat but it had a big enough engine to pull a tube so we could also go tubing. We packed a cooler of some sandwiches and snacks we made and another cooler full of water and Gatorade's, as it was suppose to be in the 100's again for the day.
We tubed a bunch of times and beached the boat so we could swim and skip rocks and look for shells.
It was a wonderful, relaxing day. Thankfully this was the one day Jackie & I got pictures. The rest of the week we were just too busy to remember to take pictures while we were doing things.
Hailey & Paige ready for tubing
Drew, Trent, Hailey & Paige skipping rocks
All four kids tubing
Brian taking a turn driving the boat
Jackie & I tubing
Our boat this year
Drew, Trent & Hailey swimming
Our tube
Paige & Hailey, so cute!!
Drew & Trent ready for tubing
Me & Hailey, I love this picture Jackie took of us :)
Paige & Jackie
Drew, Me & Trent
Trent & Jackie
Jamie & me
Jamie & Silly Drew
Hailey, Jackie & Paige
Paige, me & Hailey
Trent & Drew skipping rocks
Paige & Hailey looking for shells
All the kids having a breathing contest
Drew & Trent doing tricks while tubing
Beautiful Hailey, Jackie took this picture
Brian
Jamie tubing, it wasn't fast enough for him LOL
Paige & Brian tubing and having fun!!
We had a great time on the lake and since it was such a long day we decided to stop and have dinner out. I'm sure we will get a boat again next year. We have done it every year now and haven't been disappointed yet.
Tuesday was a recoup day. Some of us got a little sunburned and the kids were really tired. So we just hung around for the day. Caught up on some cleaning and some laundry. The boys played xbox and the girls did crafts and us adults chatted, played some cards and just relaxed.
Wednesday, 4th of July was a nice day too. We had been invited to our friend's house for a 4th of July party. Most of the morning was spent making up some food and getting some coolers and bags of goodies ready for the party. We got to the party around 3pm and ending up staying till about 10pm. Jackie was a love and came with me around 7pm to do the chores while the kids and Jamie & Brian stayed at the party. The kids had a great time having a squirt gun fight and also doing old fashioned games, like sack races and the three legged race. There was LOTS of kids there to play with so we basically didn't see them the whole time unless we went looking for them to check on them. We all had a great time.
Thursday was another big day for us. We had reservations to go White Water rafting on Pigeon River. Jamie & I had to get up at 5am to get the chores done while Jackie and Brian got all the kids up and got them breakfast so we could leave at 6:15am to be there on time. It was a little bit difficult because the rafting place was in Eastern time while we are in Central time so we lost an hour once we crossed the timeline. We had to best time though. We ended up having to go into two separate boats. Jackie, Brian & Trent were the first ones to fall out, thankfully nobody got hurt. Jamie was next to fall out of our boat and then Drew fell out. Victory goes to Paige, Hailey & I, we stayed in our boats the whole time!!! It was lots of fun, I just wish we all could have been in the same boat together. It may be something we will try again next year. Hopefully we can find somewhere closer and somewhere that has a boat for all of us together.
Once we were finished rafting we headed over to the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg tourist area. We took a drive on the strip with all the stores and museums which took us forever since there is so much traffic there. We were able to stop at one of the stores and Jackie and Brian got some t-shirts. We then went to get some lunch at a terrific place called KT's Bar & Grill. Everyone was able to get something they liked and it tasted great!!
We were then going to bring the kids go-carting but a storm blew in out of no where and it was a severe storm. Raining, high winds and all of the electricity was knocked out. So we decided to head on home and finally got home around 7:30pm. We got the chores done and just had a few snacks in the evening whenever anyone was hungry.
Friday was an off day again for us. We got everything all caught up again and just hung around the house.
Saturday was a down day too. We just enjoyed spending our last day together.
The Royalty's heading home to MA early Sunday morning at 2am. We were so sad to see them go. We all really enjoyed our time together for vacation. I can say enough how much we appreciate them taking the time and LLLOONNNGGG drive here to us in TN.
It's now our turn to go to MA. We hopefully will be going sometime in December or January. We are in the process of figuring out the breeding schedule for the goats so we can plan for the trip without the issues of births and milking.
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