California Trip with Calvin

Well,
      we (Calvin and I) were so blessed to be able to go to a family business conference in California with Scotty for my fathers company, who my hubby works for. Annie stayed behind with her Grammy and Paw-Paw. Actually Calvin would have stayed behind if he could, but being only 8 weeks old we couldn't really be separated, me being his only source of food and all. Another plus was we got to be there with my parents, and two of my brothers with my sister-in-laws, and we got to see a few cousins and aunts and uncles. It was a great conference but I didn't get any pics from it since I was busy paying attention to the conference and taking care of my little man. Since our flights were payed for out to Cal. we decided to stay a couple of personal days after the conference was over so we could visit Yosemite and Sequoia National Park. I had never been and was dying to visit. Of course we packed a lot in a couple of days, and had many, many, many hours in the car with a crying baby who we discovered HATES! his car seat, and still does.  Anyway.....  On to the pictures.........

Calvin's first plane ride. We were so nervous because at this point he was only 8 weeks and still in a very fussy stage of life that we couldn't quite figure out. He actually only had some minimal fussy periods that ended quickly thank goodness. Here we are leaving knoxville.

 This was one of his happier times. Actually I had to leave the conference and take him up to the room because he was crying too loud just before this, then I gave him a bath and that settled him down. Look at that happy boy! So cute when he isn't crying constantly.

 We got to stay at the Awesome Ritz Carlton in Marina Del Ray near Los Angeles California. The conference was also here so it was great. This was the view from our room. Beautiful.

 This is One of the many beaches of Malibu.

................And this is us on one of the many beaches of Malibu.

 Santa Monica Pier.

............................. And this is Calvin and I with the Santa Monica Pier in the backround..

 California Sunset

  Brother Pete got to rent this Mustang Convertible for the first night we were there. It was pretty cool looking.

 Me and my cousins daughter Adaya. She is so adorable and such a sweet content baby.

 Ben and Bri getting some practice with babies since they are going to be parents soon themselves. Plus they just like babies, and love the chance to hold them.

 See what I mean. Calvin like Uncle Ben, he just doesn't know it yet. At this point he didn't really like anybody. I'm talking about Calvin people.

 Yay! When you're in Los Angeles you have to visit Hollywood right? Well we did the touristy thing and visited the hollywood sign and all. Not that little sign, i'm talking about the big mambo jambo one that's in all the movies.

 This was the car we rented while in Cali. A Dodge Charger. We randomly saw the Hollywood sign from far away, so Scott just decided to turn on a back road into a neighborhood to get us closer to it so we could get a good picture. Well lo-and-behold, we ended up driving through some really neat old neighborhoods and popped out right at this place you could go hiking, and it had a really good view of the sign.

 And there she is in all her glory............well not really. As you can see she is having some work done. We weren't that impressed, but it was fun to say we have been there.

 Cool place to go hiking or trail running,if I lived out there.

 View from the mountain (hill).

 Proof we were there.

 Proof that Ben and Bri were there. Haha!

 Classic stars on the hollywood walk of fame. This was a very touristy place, and we blended right in with everybody.

 My baby, holding my baby. So Handsome AHHHH!!!!!!!!!! I love them both soooo much.

 Houses in MAlibu. I don't even want to know how much these babies probably cost.

 Another Beautiful sunset pic. I didn't even know that I got that bird in there until I downloaded the picture. It looks awesome though doesn't it? Ok that sounds a little proud.. nevermind it's late and I'm getting off track and distracted. Pressing onward.

 The guys. Left to right- Husband,brother,father,uncle,brother. Yep! I'm related to them all.

 Benny Boys birthday. That slice of cake he got could have fed the whole table. It was humungus. Not quite sure what dad was doing with the goose made of leftovers but it looks like it's hovering over the desert to get some.

 Downtown LA.

 Leaving the city for some much needed beauty of mountains. I love how different everything looks out west as apposed to East Tennessee.

 More mountains. The views change rapidly around here.

 Got to see some bears driving into the Sequoia Park on our way to see General Sherman.

 Yes we hit snow, and actually had to rent chains at the bottom of the hill in order to be able to even drive to general sherman. It was a close call on time but the Lord was kind to give us just enough time to see the tree and make it back down to return to chains before they closed.

 Putting the chains on since the roads were covered and icy and slippery.

 Look at those magnificent trees behind you honey.

 Driving on the scary roads. Those chains make a huge difference.

 Theres us in front of General Sherman, no not the tree on the left of the pic. General Sherman is actually the one farther back behind us.

 Ahh that's better. Such a huge tree. I was blown away by the size, it actually took my breath away, or maybe that was the freezing temperatures.

 Info on the tree in case your interested.

 We really dirtied this car up, people were staring at us driving around town the next day so we ran it through a wash in 40 degree weather. HAha. That's my Scotty, always likes to keep a clean car. Personally I would have left the dirt so we could be like "Yeah, we drove through some crazy snow in a little charger with tire chains", but thats just me.

 Sheer Magnitude. Amazing how big it is.

 The next day we drove to Yosemite, yes lots and lots of driving as I said before. I pretty much spent most of the time in the back seat with Calvin trying to keep him from crying the whole time and driving us crazy. Look at the beautiful snow covered trees.

 Yay! we made it.

 In front of El Capitan on the left, and Half dome farther back on the right, on our way to the valley.

 El Cap.

 Frozen waterfall.

 El Cap

 Deer

 A very rare happy boy. He just woke up from a nap here.

 Half Dome.

 frozen dried up waterfall.

 Amazing views from every angle when we were in the valley.

 Half Dome.

 Calvin in a daze from all this driving and cold weather.

 Of course we had to get us some in-n-out while out west since we don't have these out east.

 We were fans.

 Driving along the Pacific Coast Highway.

 Calvin getting to put his feet in the ocean on the other side of the country. Not many people can say that, especially at his age.

 Santa Monica Pier. I had to get a funnel cake. I love those. Scott didn't want one.......

 but once I got one he of course helped me eat it.

 And yet another beautiful sunset pic.

 The weekend after we got back we had our annual girls outlet shopping weekend. That was a blast but I don't feel like going into detail about that trip. I'm actually quite exausted right now so I'm going to bed. Good Night Folks.

     

Yours Truly

It's the Holiday's, nough said

Ok, well yes it has been a while since I have updated so heres my updates in picture form, starting back in October and moving into November. I'll try to be brief, and since I have so many pictures, I'm going to do our California trip on my next post. Ok then here goes.............................................

It all started long ago in the month of October when the Brisk weather began to move in, bringing with it color change all over the Great Smokey mountains, and then the leaves began to fall, and so began our season of "FALL". To me fall is always the beginning of the holiday season, although there are no holidays right away. I guess it's because that's the first of my seasonal decorations I pull out. Anyway, so what better way to celebrate fall than going to a farm with all kinds of fun things to do and see, like...........

Sliding down big plastic construction pipes cut in half. This is the country folks, we don't got no real slides round here. Annie was yelling at her uncle Matt to take her down. She was a little afraid of the scary looking slide.

 Then we got to move on up to the petting area, where we could look at some real live sheep and goats, and chickens that bite. Of course the only thing they let us actually pet were the cute little guinea pigs and rabbits, which of course were still too scary for my little pumpkin. Even seeing her cousins ty-ty and Libby pet them wasn't enough to convince her they weren't going to chomp her fingers off. notice she kept her hands in her pockets far out of reach of the little monster, while Ty-ty dove right in to pet him.

This was my little guy at the farm. He was mad that he was too small to do.... well.......anything.

 They also had what I call a redneck trampoline. A big balloon looking thing filled with air and surrounded by sand on all sides. Aunt Shanny was kind enough to bounce with Annie.

 Annie was testing their corn in the crops here making sure it was ready to pick. (Don't worry she didn't really eat it, Ty actually gave it to her to eat because he knew better than to try and eat it himself).
 This was a fun trough filled with corn kernels. By the time we got out of here Annie was about 3lbs heavier, and I couldn't figure out why until I looked down inside her diaper and yep there it was. I know what you're thinking and no, she didn't eat it people, she was just stashing some away to play with later.

 Clsssic

 That same weekend we got to Dedicate our little man to the Lord at church on Sunday. Pray for us folks, that we could train our children up to love the Lord and that we would be good examples to them as we live out our lives.

 That same Sunday, (we pack a lot in) we had our annual family fall day that my wonderful husband originally set up when we were dating to get the family together to hang out. There's a lot of us so it's hard to get us all somewhere together at the same time. Anyway It became a tradition and now we do it every year. Ben and Bri, we missed you guys this year. Here are the cousins going to pick out pumpkins for the pumpkin carving contest.

My little country girl chewing on some straw.

  

 The handsome Ty trying to find that perfect pumpkin.

Family photo opp. The shadows kind of ruin the photo but hey, we don't get many family photos so I had to throw it in there.

 Me and my girl gutting the pumpkin. That goopy stuff didn't bother her one bit.

 The egg toss. I think Shannon and Matt may have cheated and hard-boiled their egg because it dropped several times and never broke.(Haha just playing). It was pretty funny though that it never broke.

My parents crack me up, they started pulling out their tools to make carving easier. If you know my mom too, you would totally understand. She's like mrs. handywoman, she can fix many things and make many new things if you put a power tool in her hands. Look at those rockin biceps mom. Nice.

 Here are some of the finished products from the pumpkin carving contest. Matt and Shannon had carved my favorite which was a cute owl on a branch. Matt, if business doesn't work out for you, you can always draw for a living. He drew this out for them to carve.

 Dave and Lindsey definitely got the prize for most original. They carved a rasta-dog with a pipe in his mouth, and a beanie holding all his dread locks. Can you see it? And the little drums too. Awesome creativity.

 Mom and Dad did thid pretty design which is some kind of emblem for something english or french I can't remember. It looks just like the real thing though.

 This was our little creation. Let me just tell you right now we have had better years like when we did the statue of liberty and it looked awesome. I don't know what happened this year, anyway, it's the smoky mountains with a moon and stars, and even a shooting star, but it also doubles as a face with two eyes and a mouth. Can you see it? I know it's a little sad but o well.

 Our stars came out great! Don't you think?

 Later the kids were all tuckered out so they jumped into Nana and Poppy's bed to watch the movie Cars. Actually they were sent in there so the adults could all watch a show called "The Walking Dead" about zombies. Pretty scary stuff for young children to watchif you know what I mean.

 These were my homeade rice crispy pumpkins. I love theme snacks.

 Well that about wraps up this post. I can't remember who won the overall competition of the day but I can tell you it wasn't us. HAha

Yours Truly