15 Minutes

In 15 minutes, we can drive here:

 We are loving where we live and the beach!!!

You are Special

Conversation tonight driving home from a friends:

Lizzy: Mom, why did I get to stay up late?
Mom: Because you are special
Lizzy: I am not special
Mom: Why do you say that?
Lizzy: Jesus made me wrong, I wanted black hair

I guess she still has identity issues and wants to look like an Asian.

The Great Smokey Mountains

For Labor Day we decided to venture outside of Charleston. On the recommendation of a friend we went to Gatlinburg Tennessee home of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park with our friends David and Diana Hall.

 

It was absolutely beautiful and just what I needed. I have been craving a hike just like I sometimes crave ice cream if you know what I mean. The mountains were not super tall, but good enough they were mountains with trees and trails to explore. We enjoyed hiking to a couple of waterfalls

and also enjoyed driving around a scenic loop. We stopped a few times to view some old cabins and churches.

The coolest thing was that a bear—a black ran across the road right in front of our car. What are the chances? It was AWESOME! Unfortunately this was the best picture we got of the guy cause Adam fell asleep and woke up when I yelled “Bear!”

While there we rented a cabin. There are tons of cabins in the area to rent and I recommend it.

Each day we would relax on the porch and the kids would go for a swim in the hot tub. After they went to bed the adults would enjoy games and a nice soak in the hot tub sharing stories and looking at the stars.

 

On Labor Day we finished up our trip at Ober Gatlinburg Amusement Park. The park itself was OK and I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it. We took a tram up the mountain and at the top it is an amusement park in the summer and a ski resort in the winter.  

The view from the top was beautiful and it is safe to say that everyones favorite thing to do was to ride the alpine slide. Lizzy said “I hope I can go as fast as I did at the Great Wall” It was great to hear that she remembered that experience from over a year ago.

Overall, it was a relaxing weekend and just what we needed.

By the way, who do you think wins for best watermelon face?

 

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Preschool Starts

Lizzy has been so excited to start preschool again and the day finally came!

The end of James’ Modeling Career

Obviously my kids modeling careers would end once we moved back to the US. When my friend came to visit the US this summer she mailed me a few of James last catalogs. Most of these were taken anywhere from Nov 2009 to January 2010. It is hard to believe it was almost a year ago and he was so small!

These are a few of my favorite shots:

 

The rest can be seen here:

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Daddy Please

Daddy, please don't kiss me anymore. Only kiss me in the morning when your whiskers aren't so rough on my cheek.

Aunt LauRieee

In July, my sister Laurie came to visit or as Lizzy called her, Aunt Lau-Rie with a heavy emphasis on the rie. Lizzy also has an aunt Laura so distinguishing them was very tough so she had to specify with a bold pronunciation on the rie. It was so fun to have Laurie with us for a week. We would have kept her longer if we could have. The kids of course fell instantly in love especially since she came bearing presents. She brought James a car and as soon as she gave it to him he was convinced that her suitcase was full of cars and that she was holding back. It was pretty funny.

We did some touristy stuff with Laurie that we hadn’t done yet. The Touristy stuff here is kind of pricey so we thought we would save it when company comes to visit. The new things that we did were to eat breakfast at a local, Southern Restaurant. Adam and Laurie got the “Big Nasty” which consisted of a piece on fried chicken topped with sausage gravy inside a homemade biscuit. I couldn’t bear to order that. Adam and Laurie loved it. I took a bite and it was OK. We also had grits—again, OK.

 

Next we took the ferry out to Fort Sumter where the civil war began. It was a fun ride through the harbor and history surrounded us. We only had an hour at the fort which went by really fast. We listened to a ranger tell the history for the first 20 minutes or so and then explored the rest of the fort. We never did make it inside to the museum, but I bet the outside was way more fun anyways. We even saw some dolphins in the water on our way back to shore. Dolphins are abundant in the water here which is pretty cool.

Laurie, the kids and I also went to the Middleton Place Plantation. The grounds were beautiful and so picturesque. It was really cool to because near the barn and stable yards, they had a bunch of stuff set-up like in the plantation time and you could participate or watch a few of the old craftsmen. We got to help milk a cow, watch a potter, a cooper and see a blacksmith shop and a weaving shop. We also got to grind some corn which was cool and of course pet all the animals.

Lastly, we checked out the Caw Caw Interpretive Center. This was a nature park where you could walk through a pretty cool swamp, see a lot of birds and rent canoes or kayaks. It was pretty, but it was so hot we were excited to go into the air-conditioned visitors center. That made Lizzy’s day since they had “animals” inside (some live fish and some stuffer otters, beavers, etc)

We had a great time with Laurie doing new things and the regular stuff like the beach and history walk, etc. Can’t wait to see you again!

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