The Wilderness

We spent our two days of fall break taking a quick Morgan fam vacation to the Wilderness hotel and indoor water park in the Smokies.

We spent most of our time playing in the highly anticipated indoor waterpark. Rhett had been talking about it non-stop since we decided to go. He had a big time splashing in the wave pool.
The place wasn't huge or anything so it was easy just to let Cade run with his cousins and do the slides. I didn't feel like he needed to stayed pasted to me. I was a little nervous for him to be in the wavepool alone because it was crowded and well....wavy. I made Bobby do wavepool duty. I'm not fond of being in cool water when it feels like winter outside.
Rhett ran with Amelia alot. She loves to give him hugs......and kisses. 
Isaac tried his hand at the surfing and he did a great job!!
There was a huge bucket that dumped water every few minutes.  After several attempts I finally caught a picture of Cade in the waterfall.
He and Cooper had been waiting patiently for the big dump earlier and I was standing by hoping to get a good shot of them getting doused. Unfortunately, when the water came falling down it was like every kid in the place dove right in the way and I ended up getting shots of the rear ends of a bunch of strangers.
I did get this one of some overgrown kiddos trying to play in the spray......
Grant and Rhett enjoyed playing in the little spouts of water.
Talk about wearing a kid out..... Rhett got his fair share of playtime and then was ready to tucker out.
Luckily he was just tall enough to be able to do two of the three slides. He.wore.them.out. I started counting the number of stairs that we had to climb to get to the top and I finally lost count at 90.....and I guarantee that we climbed those stairs at least that many times (well, it felt like it anyway). Everyone had their turn at the purple and yellow tunnels.



Wendy and I spent most of the time walking around with our cameras. Between the two of us I think we compiled some pretty good photos. 
We attempted to go to Cade's Cove but made a wrong turn and ended up stopping at a gas station in the middle of nowhere to use the facilities and get junk food to sustain us. After that fiasco it was determined that putt putt down the street from the hotel would be a safe and easy to find alternative. And what's putt putt without vampire teeth?
One of us, whom shall remain nameless, took this friendly game a bit too seriously. No names.
We broke into two groups so I didn't get to see these silly boys putt any. Rumor has it that Cade got a hole in one.
Oh, and so did I. I am a quality putt putter. It takes a lot of skill to putt well while you have your camera backpack on your back and the camera slung over your arm. 
This was the crew hanging with Bobby and me. There were several off the course shots and more than one momentarily lost golf balls but we had fun nonetheless.

Grant somehow managed to score a hole in one even in the midst of all of these creepy gophers!

We had lots of fun playing with cousins and swimming in non-swimming weather. Kudos to the water park and all of it's fun! We'd love to visit again!

Scarecrows Are For the Birds...

Grant had scarecrow day at school today and he was NOT happy about it. I was very surprised because the night before we had his clothes all ready to go in his bedroom floor and he was nothing but excited. But when it came time in the morning to actually dress he nearly cried.

He looked at himself and said, "I just look ridiculous".  He made me promise no less than 10 times that he would not be the only joker dressed like a scarecrow at school. He even went so far as having me pack a pair of jeans so that in the event he was the target of some lame clothing joke, he'd be able to run to the cubby and change. 

This reminds me of another time I tried to dress a child in overalls. What's the holdup with overalls in this family?? 

For the record I went to school to check on Grant and he was perfectly happy and lovin' life in his scarecrow attire. Thank goodness the rest of kindergarten played along or I would have never heard the end of it!

Apparently They Got My Memo

We completed our 2009 Tour of Concerts (I'm pretty certain) on a rare Tuesday night date night with some awesome fun friends. We followed up with my favorite guitar playing Aussie, Mr. Urban, and attended his All For the Hall concert-a-thon. We had brushed this concert off for weeks saying we weren't going to go. Then, the impossible happened and there was divine intervention-- Brad Paisley signed on to perform as well. Does anyone remember me saying in my last concert post that they should team up?? Well, apparently Brad got the message!

Michael and Kelly were our cohorts for the event. We met at the standard J.Alex's and got souped up on some spinach dip because really, who can rock out a concert without a full belly?
Up first of course, Keith Urban. I had a little deja vu since we were just at his concert not long ago. But, just as before, he delivered and we were pleased. He didn't get man handled this time which was unfortunate because that really gave me a good laugh.
We had a different perspective at this concert as compared to all the others. We were in a row that was slightly to the side and behind the performers. Our seats were close, not as good as usual, but still not bad. We got to see some backstage lighting and camera work and could also see everyone standing below before they came onstage. It was neat to be able to look out and see the crowd too. I'm always amazed at the number of people screaming and going bananas.
Group shot!
And, it's about to get awkward....... What is going on here? Terrible pic I know but it's blurriness is probably for the best :)
Now, my favorite part of this whole entire event was this one.....Brad and Keith guitar dueling on their Start a Band song. I.loved.every.second. What I didn't love was how Brad only stayed for one song. I'll be contacting his agent about that. I mean, he acts like he doesn't live right down the street or something. Probably what happened is that he promised his wife he'd be home to bathe the kids being that she couldn't go because they couldn't find a babysitter. Probably.

I had to tolerate Vince Gill.....and his white gym shoes. I know he's a great and all but under normal circumstances you wouldn't catch me actually paying to hear him sing. And on top of that he sang a song he claimed he wrote for his wife Amy but when the song came out years ago I'm pretty sure he was married to another woman. Chew on that one.



Next up: Little Big Town. They are a spunky looking band. I enjoyed them even though I didn't know their first song.

I feel the name Little BIG Town must be derived from the size of this woman's hair. It was serious. Lots of curl. Lots of Aqua Net.
I did sing along loudly with their Boon Docks song. I like that number. See how fun it is to look at the crowd?? And this place was jam.packed.
Aaaahhh. Dierks. Since last seeing him his hair has gotten back to good and I'm thankful. I am certain that someone slipped a little somethin' somethin' in his water back stage because he was running sprints back and forth across that stage. So much so that I had a hard time even getting a picture of him. I could've definitely had a little more Dierks and Brad and a little less Vince.
Lady Antebellum hit the stage next and they sounded superb. They are one of my favorite newer country bands and I enjoy several of their songs.
Their second song was great but I didn't know even one word. I was feelin' some chemistry here people. I'll wait until the news breaks in Country Today before I make any off handed predictions. He could be her brother for all I know.
Jason Aldean: He has a Big Green Tractor and likes Country Girls. I liked both his songs.

Faith: Where has she been? I went to her concert with Tim years ago but haven't heard much from her since. What? Does she have three kids she's trying to raise with a normal life or something? And if she lives so close to here why haven't I seen her at Target?
I found myself feeling a little uncomfortable for Faith. She seemed a little...nervous...a bit out of touch with singing on stage. And I personally think she should've had on some sparkly skinny jeans and a black fringey tank top instead of her ultra conservative "going to an interview" suit. Still love Faith....think she's a knock-out. Just an opinion.
Now, some are skeptics, but I like me some Taylor Swift. I know she's a teeny-bopper and I'm way not but that's okay. And, she sang Love Story and I know ALL the words to that and for that one moment in time I'm sure I was a good singer. Sure of it.



I did notice a bit of something though..... Take a gander at the following pics and tell me what you think:





Yeah. She's totally trying to seduce Keith but he's so into his guitar that he doesn't even notice. You can't really seduce a man who's married to a woman that was in Moulin Rouge. It just can't be done.


Let's talk about something else I noticed: Shoes. I've already mentioned the ones I did NOT like. Let's take a peek at the ones I DO like.


Taylor: Look at those things. Big black bows. Stiletto heels. I could use those.
Little blonde woman with Big hair rockin' the slouch boots with some major heelage. I really COULD use some of those now that the season is boot worthy.
And how about these little dittys! You've got to be confident in your walking skills to be able to wear these puppies in front of thousands of people. I'd be kinda of scared that I'd fall on the preschool hallway at church because you know that's where I'd be wearing them. Do you see that she's wearing skinny jeans with a zipper?



My childhood is coming back. I am having flashbacks of my multi-colored pastel Guess jeans with zippers that I let my neighbor friend borrow. She fell and ripped a hole in the knee while we were skating at the roller rink. It was a devastating day but I think I could zip my ankles in just one more pair when the timing is right. I'm currently still contemplating it.

One high fist pump for another great concert and having a great time with friends. Next stop: Jonas Brothers......over Bobby's dead body.

Rain. What is it Good For?

Well, you could argue that the rain is great for greening up foliage and I would agree with you there. But, in this instance, it was great for livening up some kiddos that had been cooped up in the house for about 2 weeks. All the precipitation made for some great puddles in our back field....and that made for some really happy boys!

I always like playtime that can also be considered exercise. These guys sprinted at least a hundred times through all the water and they loved every second of it.
They brought out their fightin' faces to go along with all of the screaming, shouting, and laughing going on. Either G ate alot for dinner or it's been a while since he spent time in the bathroom because he's packing a little belly that he usually doesn't have. Not sure what's going on there!

It was a little bit of bad timing in that our field has just been mowed leaving lots of little grass clippings in the water. It was on their faces, bellies, and lots of other unmentionable places!

The fact that the water was only about 12 inches deep at best didn't keep them from jumping in like they were at the pool. 

I'm glad to see the sunshine back but the rain made our grass green and plush, my bushes 3 feet taller, and put smiles on the faces of these three monkeys. 
You can't beat that!

Yep, It's Bendy

The boys got off the bus yesterday and Grant could barely contain himself with urgent news for me from school. He threw his backpack down, pulled out his notebook and reached into the zipper pocket to pull out an "important" booklet. My eyes nearly rolled out of my head when he handed it to me........Fundraising. Uuuugghhh. I despise... deplore...feel the utmost of hatred for fundraisers. I hate it double time this year because now I have to work for TWO kids. They both quickly let me know that I HAD to fill out the booklets with seven names and addresses to which a magazine order slip could be mailed to. That's a total of fourteen names, you see. If both kids took back their booklets the next day they would receive the most awesome, most needed, coolest thing ever:

This stupid 6 foot bendy pencil.

Or as I would rather refer to it: Child's Death Wish ( child strangles while playing with stupid, free,  entirely too long, bendy pencil), or New Gadget to Put Your Brother's Eye Out With (the boy was fine until brother wildly spun in circles with bendy pencil and whacked him in the retina).
Grant actually wanted to use it to do his homework tonight but I spent 3 minutes trying to sharpen the dumb thing to no avail. Grant was offended that I used the statement "useless piece of junk" in the same sentence with his 6 foot bendy pencil. I explained to him that that was three minutes of my life that I wish I could have back. He didn't get it.
The bendy pencil is also great for getting tangled on your feet causing you to fall. Seriously, if you are tripping on your pencil, you probably need to get a different pencil.

My  sincere condolences to those of you that are getting the fundraiser in the mail. Some of you are getting two...... because really, who can think of 14 different people? And tonight while the children sleep, I'll hide the pencils. Then tomorrow I'll toss them directly into the garbage truck when it comes by. Then after that, I'll conveniently forget what happened to them.