By our second week, we were starting to feel somewhat like normal people (if THAT'S possible) and one of our first orders of business was seeing my good friend Beth and her new little angel Lane. Beth and her husband Chad have THE cutest house in downtown Hooterville (oops...i mean Hendersonville) so we took advantage of that and walked to restaurant row and had lunch at Hannah Flannigans. While my 2 monsters were just that, sweet Lane was a total angel the entire meal. AAAAHHH........he got Beth's (and Chad's) calm and cool demeaner.
Me holding Lane and Beth holding Kaitlin with Kellyn waiting patiently to tear into all of Lanes toys. She even got away (with Beth's approval of course) with one of his toy cell phones! Little thief! :-)
Later that evening, I joined my sister to a bachelorette shower she was throwing for her good friend Kelly that she works with. Suzanne graciously opened up her BEAUTIFUL home to a bunch of rowdy women and they were so nice to let me crash the party. It was soooo fun. After opening all the "fun gifts" (and BOY was that educational for me - an boring old married woman now), we headed off for some dancing where we met up with Jim, Scott and our very good friend Tommy.
Tommy, Scott, Angie, me and Jim
And I'm not exaggerating here....Scott has the inability to look normal in a picture. You'll see in pretty much future pics I'm sure!! It's quite funny and we ragged on him royally about this!
That next morning, we drove up to meat a bunch of family and friends at Mt.Pisgah picnic area for lunch. My best friend Jen , in her "spare time" (like that exists for her with 2 kids and being prego with # 3)arranged for a bunch of our old highschool friends to meet us and my dad (Papa Duck - b/c he can talk like a duck) arranged for as much of the Stokes clan to join us also. It was a lot of people which translates into LOTS of yummy food and of course, excellent conversation.
Me and Kaitlin with my cuz'n Gayle and Aunt Margie/Uncle Jerome, Aunt Claudette/Uncle Eddie, Aunt Dina/Uncle Arlie, and Auntie Marilyn
Me, Mandy (highschool friend) and Jen - who obviously did NOT get the memo to wear an orange shirt! HA
Papa Duck trying to rock Miss Kaitlin to sleep in the Hammock. He was terribly unsuccessful! :-)
Papa Duck and Grand Jan trying to sneak off with Aunt Dina and Uncle Arlie's bike but Kellyn came to their rescue!!
After lunch, a bunch of us traveled up the Blue Ridge Parkway a little more to visit one of our old hangout spot........Graveyard Fields. This was a standard place that we would always go hiking during school and at all of our reunion weekends so it just made sense. Now that we have a lot of little kids joining the venture, we opted against a big hike and just settled with some fun in the waterfalls. Despite the very cold water, she had SO much fun spashing around. Girl has NO fear of water, that's for sure! Scares me!
Me, Jim and the girls with Jen, Chris (MY Chris - ok....that's an inside joke from highschool), Jeff and Dusty with her two kids (Max and Amelia)
Granted, we didn't plan very well so poor Kellyn was stripped down to her diaper, which is pretty fitting in Western NC!!
OK.....this is a classic "Cheryl shot" when I hold out my hand and try to get the whole family in the picture. It worked! This is at the top of Graveyard Fields.
Looking Glass rock from the Parkway. I can't tell you how many time me and Mr. KC and Mrs. Xena hiked to the top. I have many very fond memories of that Mtn.
After coming off the mountains, we headed to my sister's house for a little BBQ birthday party she was throwing for her kids. As you can see, Kellyn had SOOO much fun on the slide and unfortunately, the picture of her on the trampoline does not capture a fraction of her excitement. She thought that was AWESOME!! And very shortly after arriving at the party, one of my sisters co-workers snagged up Kaitlin and that's all she wrote!! Too cute!
Hunter and Haley were very excited during present opening!!
That next morning, Jen and I met Chris and Jeff for breakfast.....it was like old times in Highschool, just without all the studying and typical teenage drama!!!
After breakfast, we headed back to Bill and Netties (Jen's parents) for some more fun in the water. Jen's kids Brianna and Brandon were so much entertainment for Kellyn.
Sweet baby Kaitlin was the perfect entertainment for Nettie. They fell in love with each other!
Later that day, my very dear friend and former co-worker Brenda through a little party so that a bunch of my old friends from work could all get together and catch up. Granted, I had my hands full with the 2 girls on my own (Jim met up with some of his old friends) but I still had the chance to see a lot of people that I miss so dearly. It just amazes me to think how different our get togethers are now that most everyone has doubled, if not tripled in size (with kids of course). Our quiet days of chatting and gossiping have turned into madhouses surrounded by blinking and beeping toys and kids pulling at our legs. It's SO fun though, just different!! :-)
Awesome spread of food!! They really DO know how to get to my heart! :-)
Brandi and her hunk of love Brentley. He was sporting his new haircute - TOO CUTE!
Brenda's little boy Lucas was sweet enough to share his toys with Kellyn and Kaitlin and I think this one was moments away from making Kaitlins brain explode. She was MESMORIZED!!!
Krista and Me with Duggan and Kellyn - they are looking at each other like "hey, didn't we hold hands at the park the other day?".
Sabrina holding Kaitlin, Me (and Kell), and Brenda with her cutie-pie Lucas and topping it off with Elizabeth (Cuqi). I MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!
This was too funny, when we got ready to leave....we asked Kellyn and Lucas to give each other kisses goodbye and this is what we got. YOU GO LUCAS!!! HA I almost feel dirty looking at that! ;-)
On the 13th, Papa Jake turned 66. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Papa Jake! Here he is in all of his glory with his grandkids!!
Did I mention how HOT HOT HOT it was while we were there? It's amazing what 81% humidity can do to otherwise mild sounding temperatures. EEKS!! So....Jen and I decided to spend our time together at the pool. We loaded up all the kids (including Jim) and headed to my dad's country club pool. It was awesome b/c they have a little 2ft kiddie pool that is surrounded by a fence so they just can't disappear into the big pool. Kellyn was never big on floaties but when she saw Brianna navigate the waters like a pro in them, she caved and let us put them on.
Here's a few snapshots of our fun in the sun. Kellyn was most fond of being hoisted in the air and Brandon squeeled with delight during his "noodle war" with Jim. Jen has a mack daddy camera and I'm sure she has MUCH better pictures than me but I haven't gotten copies of them yet (hint hint Jen) so this is all I've got!
After 2 days in the pool, Jen and I got even MORE brave and single handedly took all 4 kids (and the little one in her womb) to the WNC Nature Center in Asheville. I didn't take a single picture there (once again Jen - waiting for copies - hint hint) but it was SO much fun. We even got to see 2 wolf pups (4 months old) they were walking on leashes. We didn't get to touch them but Kellyn kept saying "Chase and Xena" as they walked by. We ended our afternoon in the Butterfly Tent where they douce your hand in sugar water and the butterflies will land directly on your fingers. Kellyn was in AWE!! I promise to post pics when I get them (hint hint again Jen - SORRY).
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