Thanksgiving Week

Our Thanksgiving week was a wonderful week packed full of activities. Seems I uploaded the pics backwards order, so we'll start with the most recent events and work backward through the week! :) Above is the annual picture from the Fantasy of Trees. I am so pleased with it!
Here's Josiah talking to Santa.

The kids enjoyed visiting with Santa so much that I had to call them onward in order to allow other children a turn with Santa, too! How different from the years when the kids were afraid of Santa.

Zac took this one of the four of us at Fantasy of Trees. I love it!

Here's Granna, Z-Pa, and Mackenzie and Josiah.

My two precious babies. Aren't they sweet?!

Uncle Zac with Josiah and Mackenzie.

Mackenzie

Josiah wanted his picture taken on this rock at Dollywood, so Mackenzie jumped in, too!

While at Dollywood, Granna and Z-Pa let the kids go "mining" for arrowheads! They loved it, and they found 6 or 7 arrowheads. That was a highlight of the day, I do believe.

Granna, Z-Pa, Mackenzie and Josiah with the arrowheads.

Earlier in the day, as we entered Dollywood, the kids got to feed the ducks.

Fun times.

Two sweet kids enjoying the ducks at Dollywood.

Candid pic of the kids with Uncle Zac at Dollywood.

Uncle Zac, Josiah, Mackenzie, Granna, Z-Pa

Here's our table set for Thanksgiving Day!
I do enjoy having Thanksgiving at our house.

A humongous THANK YOU to Betty for all the work she did in the kitchen to prepare for Thanksgiving. I helped, but she surely did the majority of the meal.

More food. What a blessing, indeed.

Ariel view of the pies. I made the chocolate and pumpkin pie, Betty made apple and cherry, and Uncle Dale (Betty's brother) brought a lemon meringue and chocolate chip pecan pie! The kids had specifically requested chocolate, pumpkin, cherry, and apple. That was funny. We made them all and were happy to have Dale join us for Thanksgiving. The kids were admiring the pies that Dale brought. Josiah exclaimed, "Wow! A spike pie!" When he saw the meringue. Too hilarious.

One last food picture from Thanksgiving Day. We had the four of us, David's parents, David's brother, David's Uncle Dale, and our two neighbors from Bulgaria, Geri and Trifon, all together for Thanksgiving at our house.

Even earlier in the week, on Monday night, David and I went on a date...just the two of us. Thanks to David's parents for keeping the kids so we could go out. We enjoyed dinner at The Flatwater Grill. It was fabulous. The walls of the restaurant are glassed in windows right on the lake. What a date!

One morning, while David and I were both at work for a few hours, the kids got to make things with the Easy Bake Oven and Cupcake Maker, thanks to Granna and Z-Pa's help!

Both kids thoroughly enjoyed Uncle Zac, though I think most of the pictures are of Mackenzie with Uncle Zac. Josiah latched onto him and was quite the little shadow for Uncle Zac! I don't think Uncle Zac minds too much. ;)

And even earlier in the week, on Sunday, November 21, 2010, was Zearl and Betty's 40th Anniversary. We got them this cake to celebrate with our H2H group that evening at our house.

A wonderful week. Good company. Good visit. Wonderful memories made.

I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving, as well.

Anniversary Weekend Trip

This past weekend we spent one night in Pigeon Forge. Both kids tried ice skating at Ober Gatlinburg for the first time. I was shocked that they BOTH wanted to try it, and even more shocked at how balanced they were on the ice! All four of us thoroughly enjoyed it.
Here's a picture of Mackenzie and me ice skating together. :)

Here's a picture of the kids "doing it by themselves" with me nearby...just in case!
(They did come away from the railing some, too!)

Josiah "skating" by himself. :) (with a little help from the railing, of course!)

Mackenzie and Josiah in front of the toy solider at The Inn at Christmas Place.

The Glockenspiel in the two story lobby inside The Inn at Christmas Place. It really worked, too! Every hour the two elves strike the bell, Santa comes out of the top, and the clock sings two Christmas carols.

The kids going up the stairs in the lobby with the clock in the background. I just love clocks! Especially cuckoo clocks!

The kids peering over the railing at the elegant nativity scene high up in the lobby.

Up close of the nativity scene in the lobby.

Then to Dollywood at Christmastime! I rode in one elephant with Mackenzie; David and Josiah rode in another one. It was raining, so we did not have to wait in line at all! We just walked right up and got on any ride we wanted to...very, very nice. :)

And since there were no lines...the kind man operating the Lemon Twist (i.e., Tea Cups) took the time to take a picture for us! I thought this one of all four of us in the teacup turned out pretty good. :) We had a fun weekend...then we came home...Mackenzie had her first ever school Christmas program on Tuesday, then came home and she and Josiah both began vomiting late Tuesday night...all night long...and into the day on Wednesday...nice.

(More posts to come with some pics from her Christmas program...)

Our Wedding

The horse drawn carriage delivering me from my room to the wedding gazebo where David was waiting.
Horse drawn carriage with Moon Palace Resort (Cancun, Mexico) rooms in background.

Opening prayer by Martin Bolden, random missionary in Cancun who officiated weddings for The Moon Palace...he really did a good job, too!

Cutting of the cake, which by the way, had moist strawberry filling and was heart shaped!

Rice being thrown as we exited the gazebo. My mom and Mark were in attendance; David's parents and brother were in route! (Remember, we had a December wedding...well, flights were delayed and we had NO IDEA what happened to David's parents...flights arrived into Cancun without them...we had to make a decision about whether to continue or post pone the wedding as it was late afternoon already and not much daylight left...we went ahead with the wedding, still not knowing the whereabouts of David's parents or brother...after the wedding, much worry, and Stateside help from Debbie Duke, we found out that they were, in fact, still coming but delayed! So. We met them at the airport still dressed in wedding clothes!) Made for some funny memories. People at the airport cheered for us!

(Also pictured above is Pilar, our wedding coordinator, who did a fantastic job with our emailed instructions.)

Picture session afterwards on the grounds near the gazebo.

I like this one with the ocean in the background.

Our hands with my bouquet.

Have I mentioned that it was a VERY WINDY day?! My hair and veil were everywhere!

Obviously, the sun was setting fast in these last few pictures. If you just looked through all those pictures, bless you! That was a lot of pics! Thanks for walking down memory lane with us.