Hi, again, I just realized I never told about my wonderful trip to the Smoky Mountains in June.  I don't like to announce trips ahead of time or during, too much, as it just announces that "we're not at home", LOL, which in this day and age is not a good thing to do.

Anyway, for the past year we have been planning a special trip for this summer.  You see, we have a dilemma.  My folks and sister live about a half hour from us, but Mr. C's Dad and Step-Mom live in New Mexico, and our kids are both military families.  Right now, one of them lives in South Carolina and the other lives in Virginia.  Both are roughly 12 hours away.    Mr. C still has to work, we aren't retired yet, so vacation time is limited (although generous, as he's been with his company a long time).  Although we love our Big Sky Fifth Wheel, we made the decision to not make any trips West in it as  that is too time intensive, drive time wise.  Especially after Mr. C's Mom dying so unexpectedly brought home to us just how short time can be and how suddenly there is no "tomorrow" we try very hard to be sure to see his Dad and Step-Mom at least once a year.   So, here's the dilemma, we want to see Dad and Janet, and we want to see B, our daughter and the grandkids and N, our son, and the grandkids, but they are opposite directions and all fairly far away.  Usually we drive ourselves ragged trying to get in as much time as possible with them and find ourselves exhausted and not really enjoying any of it because we're so worn out.  I have to be honest, here, too. . . we've been empty nesters for about 10 years "off and on" now and are used to peace and quiet and our own schedule.  So, how do we meet all those needs/wants???

After trying to do separate trips the past couple years and having lots of drive time we decided we would double up a little.  So, we met Dad and "Mom" in Laughlin and spent a couple extra days in Las Vegas for our "self time" (saw Terry Fator) and I already blogged about that trip.  Then we planned a special trip for the kids time.

We told them a year in advance, worked around Mr. C's schedule and the grandkids school schedules and planned to meet in the Smoky Mountains.  So, we took our "Condo on Wheels" (roughing it has never felt so good, LOLOL) and rented cabins at the same campground for the kids, one for N's family,

one for B's family.















 A couple months before we went it turned out it would be possible for my Mom and sister to go along for most of the time.  So, we drove out with G and Mom following us and rented a cabin for them, also.

We all met there, there were 12 of us from 81 years of age down to 4 years of age, quite a span to keep all happy.  The only ones who were not able to join us were my Dad (he helped financially, but wasn't able physically to make the trip) and M (N's wife as she couldn't get leave).    Dad, my sister and myself, celebrating Father's Day early, since that is the weekend we were in the Smokies.





We had a wonderful week.  We spent time at Dollywood:

We went mining at Sheffield Mine and really hauled home the loot, LMAO:  but we had fun, LOL






















We stopped at Clingman's Dome (highest spot driving through the Smoky Mountains.  We had a funny story there and I'm so glad they used their little noggins.  One set of our grandkids are very very tall, (so is their Daddy) but the other set is equally tiny (so is their Mama).  When we got to Clingman's Dome the 2 little girls E and L had to go potty.  So did Papa, so he took them to the potties and sent them into the girls while he went next door to the boys.  These are cinder block house style potties and I don't know why it never dawned on any of us that they wouldn't be regular potties.  But the girls came back out immediately and stood there patiently waiting for Papa (they were within all of our sight at all times, they weren't waiting there alone). So I went to see why they were done so quickly.  I got there and their eyes were as big as saucers and they said, "Nana, we can't go in there."  I asked, "Why not?"  They replied, "We were scared, it's too far down."  Puzzled, I took them back into the restroom and immediately realized, these were huge latrines on the top of a mountain, they really truly were too far down (the images that conjures just horrify me, try to imagine a rescue attempt, if you will!!!).  The seats weren't horribly big, just regular size, but that's pretty big when you have a tiny little behind, and unfortunately, girls HAVE to sit, LOL.  So I helped them and we took care of business, but it was so cute.

It was a lovely day and a very nice couple took a group picture of us:  So, here we are in all our glory, all 4 generations:

Just to let you know, the tallest male is M, our son-in-law, married to B, our daughter in the hat (due to her epilepsy she has to wear hats and dark glasses as Sun and flashing lights are triggers for her).  My Mom is in the center with N, our son, between Me and Mom (Mr. C and I are on the left) and my Sister is in blue on the right.  The kids are A and K (tallest boy--9 and girl--7).  The little guy in the orange shirt is J, he's just 4.

Hi, yes, I know, it's been awhile since I've been on here.  I told you in the beginning that I never was able to keep a diary going, either, but here I am again.  Without going into any details this past year has been a hard one for me (mentally, physically, and emotionally) and I often cope with stress by withdrawing from everything and everybody (kind of go into hibernation mode).  I thought I had finally gotten past it in January with my blogging and clay etc. but apparently not, as I'm still struggling.  However, enough of that and on to my challenge.

Mr. C had a long weekend this past weekend and we decided to take another short camping trip.  We ended up at Whittington Woods Campground in the Rend Lake area in Southern IL.  It's beautiful here, although very hot.  The campground is nice, although I'd like a bigger "yard" for the picnic table etc.



The particular site we're at also doesn't have a fire ring, but it's really too hot for a fire anyway, we'll save that for our trip in September.  We've seen deer, wild turkeys, a small snapping turtle (right at our trailer) and of all things, there are poultry here, and we've been visited by turkeys and chickens, LOL.






                                                                Here's Mr. C checking out the poultry, LOL.


The pool is lovely, very nice and clean and just the right temperature.  It's an interesting pool, as it has steps in and is 2-3 ft all the way to the rope, then about a foot past the rope there is a steep slope to the rest of the pool which is 5 ft.  It turns out to be the perfect depth for me to exercise my legs, hips and knees without it hurting too badly (but that's one of those stories I'm not dwelling on, remember???).

Little Snuffles has gotten a bit bigger than I had hoped and isn't nearly as "cute" as she once was, but she's still the love of my life and such an intelligent, spoiled rotten pup you've never seen.  She still can't bear to be left out of anything:  Here she is swimming in our pool at home:    Yes, she has a life jacket, the pool's 4 ft deep and she's only about a foot tall, LOL.

She obviously likes riding on the float better than actually working at the swimming part!!!