So as you read in my last post here, I pretty much decided on a whim to take the older girls and little kids to the mountains for an overnight trip. Apparently I should have blogged in between that post and THIS one because my brother thought I had gone on this trip because David and I were fighting. Let me assure him and you that, well… it just wasn’t the case. Dave and I are FINE. As with any marriage we have times where we don’t like things that the other does, but we are in it for the long haul. I was not getting away to get away from him! He would have gone with us but he had to work, so it was only me and the kids.

I just simply wanted to get away for a day and see some different scenery since the kids were on fall break.
Now that I’ve cleared that all up…*AHEM*

Our trip began early Wednesday morning. I decided we should leave by 9 am since it’s over a three hour drive up there and I planned on stopping at Babyland General Hospital on the way. Now if you have never heard of Babyland General- it’s not a “real” hospital. It’s the place where cabbage patch kids are born :) It’s a great place for kids to go and mine had a great time! And yes- Devin has a doll. It’s a cabbage patch kid named Isaac and he loves it. He will make a great Daddy one day! Here are some pictures~

Devin and Makenzie at the entrance :)

Some of the original Cabbage Patch Kids!

You can see the cabbage patch babies coming out of the cabbages!

So after Babyland General, we headed to Hiawassee. There is a mountain you have to drive over to get there so we were about 1/3 of the way up the mountain and I hear what sounds like Makenzie gagging. Oh if it were only her gagging. Makenzie began to projectile puke. She had gotten car sick from all the turn backs and sharp curves on the mountain. I pulled over as quickly as I could and took her out of her carseat. While I was getting her undressed and trying to clean up the vomit, I noticed there were a few yellow jackets swarming. Turns out… there were SEVERAL yellow jackets swarming. Apparently I had pulled over right next to a yellow jacket nest. What are the freaking chances of that?! The kids were all screaming and flipping out thinking they were going to get stung and I was too since the bees started smelling the vomit and were all over Makenzie’s carseat. The older girls got out of the van and were swatting at the bees- Madison was actually standing in the middle of the road at one point. It was actually pretty funny… if you are like me and try to see the humor in anything. Anyway- by the grace of God somehow I got all the bees out of the car long enough to put Makenzie in and drive up to another pull off area to finish the clean up job and nobody got stung! Whew!!

So we finally get to Hiawassee and after the girls whined and moaned all afternoon wanting to go home because they were bored (and finally figured out I wasn’t leaving…) they hushed and actually had a decent time. We didn’t do too much (because it’s a small, country town and there is really not that much TO do)- just took the little kids to the park with my mother and then went to eat dinner.

I was very blessed to get to meet up with one of my friends from high school this morning before we left. Her name is Becky and we’ve shared pretty much the same path throughout our lives. We both had babies young, are dealing with crazy teenagers now and both love to write, although I’m certain she is WAY better than me at it ;0) It was great to get to catch up with her over breakfast. I only regret we didn’t have more time because I could have talked to her all day! I hadn’t seen her in 18+ years so there was so much I wish we could have talked about… Hopefully we will get the chance again soon :) The girls loved her and they were kind enough to take a picture of me and Becky together:

On the way home we took lots of pics of the pretty leaves and the mountains- here’s a few so you can drool over how pretty it is! You know, I never appreciated the beauty of the place where I grew up until I moved away and don’t get to see it that often…

As nice as it is to get away though- it’s even nicer to be back home, because as crazy as my home is most days… it’s MY home. It’s what I know. And I wouldn’t have it any other way ;)