Well, actually, it wasn’t the weekend.  We left home on Thursday at 6pm, had a smooth 5-hour trip, concluding with the bright Christmas lights of Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, arriving at 12:30am local time.

The kids and I visited Ripley’s Aquarium on Friday morning.  We had a great time, of course.  This was one of the first times it was really an interactive experience for both of them.  Analise was full of questions, and Josiah was really appreciating things, too.  We got a big long nap in our spacious, quiet apartment, right next to Brian’s conference hotel.  He had worked nearly all night to finish his presentation, and he spent all day over at the various sessions.  We woke up just in time for him to come home and take us down the street to dinner at Bubba Gump’s Shrimp Factory.  We made the cold walk back up the hill, and caught a trolley to ride around town and see the beautiful Christmas lights.

Poor Brian crashed early for the night, and amazingly, the kids slept long and hard for us.  Brian had planned to get up this morning and ride up to the mountain pass, as he’s done the past few years, and he was really looking forward to it.  But he slept too late, it was very-VERY cold for riding (in the low teens!), and after we drove up, we found the road was salt and snow covered, so he wouldn’t have made it far anyway.  So we enjoyed a relaxing morning getting packed up, grabbing breakfast, and driving up into the mountains.  We played in the snow at a couple different stops, and drove the long way home through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

This was a fun trip.  I have probably said this before, but my kids are getting to fun ages so that we can really enjoy traveling.  Yes, the hours in the car can be really long, but we laugh, sing, play and find lots of fun things to see and do.  I’m already looking forward to next year!

Enjoy the pictures!  Our camera has an aquarium setting for low-light/no flash, so some of the photos got very grainy.  Click on each to see the larger version, then you can click the “back” button to come back to this post and look at the others.

Sorry, y’all!  I have just been swamped the past week or 2.  I’m so sorry!  I’ve been busy with my Tastefully Simple business (feel free to do some Christmas shopping through that link!!!), MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers), sick kids, and at the moment, packing to go to Gatlinburg, Tennessee this afternoon through Saturday evening.  Brian’s been working even more frantically on the website he’s developing, the super-busy season of school, and getting ready to present at the conference he’s attending in Gatlinburg.  Amazingly, there’s been very little biking going on 🙂

It’s finally turned cold here in Birmingham.  The leaves have been gloriously beautiful the past couple weeks, and it’s so nice to finally know that fall has arrived.  This is the 3rd year in a row we’ve made this trip to Gatlinburg, and it’s a nice fall getaway for us as a family.  Here’s a glimpse from 2 years ago with a little 4-month old Josiah and a super cute 2-year old Analise.  I didn’t post any pictures from last year, but Brian’s parents went with us, and we enjoyed the Ripley’s Aquarium.  Like last year, we’re staying in a nice little apartment/townhouse next to the conference hotel, but his parents aren’t going.  We’ll enjoy our little place, go swimming, walk around town, see the Christmas lights, and drive up into the Smoky Mountains a little bit.  The kids and I will do the aquarium, I think, while Brian’s at his conference tomorrow.  Should be fun!  VERY VERY cold (for us Southerners!) but fun!  The high on Friday is forecast to be 36 with a low of 18!  That is about as cold as it gets in the south!  Hopefully, we’ll check in tomorrow or Saturday with some pictures.  Happy weekend!

Ok, I just looked back at our Toones Alive archives and found virtually no photos from this fall break trip in other years. This is the 4th year we’ve made this beautiful, fun trip. Amazing because I know we’ve always taken lots of pictures. But I’ll make up for it now! I’ll spare you the chatter and narration and just give you the pictures. Maybe I’ll come back tomorrow to narrarate and expand 🙂 (I started out promising my mom “a couple pictures” posted tonight, and lo and behold, I’ve got 15 out of the 150 we’ve taken!)

A quick stop mid-way through the trip at one of our favorite landmarks… a Citgo-turned-pumpkin patch, complete with a petting zoo, pony rides, a giant pumpkin for jumpin in, and several backyard playsets (for sale) for playing on!

I found this picture of Analise and I from the 2005 trip, right after I found out I was pregnant with Josiah.

We made it to Clemson and visited the South Carolina Botanical Gardens. Brian and I stopped here just before he proposed to me in March of 2002. Ahh… sweet memories! My how life has changed!

Analise took this picture of us! We were actually impressed she managed to get us in the photo at all! She was pretty excited to be the photographer.

The frosty morning over the field outside our little modular cabin. It was COLD this morning!

Beautiful Lake Hartwell is very, very low. We just looked at news reports, and it’s 23.5 feet below full pool, and it will hit an all-time record low this week. In case you’re interested in why (we were!) it’s because Lake Harwell is at the very northern end of the water supply for Georgia’s Savannah River, and water has to keep flowing at a certain level for the power plants and for the National Wildlife Refuge. You can sure see the cumulative effects of a couple years of drought!

The view of the Georgia-North Carolina-South Carolina mountains from the Clemson airport. Each year, Brian’s taken an “epic” ride, usually around 100 miles on the roads he used to frequent when he was at school here.

The beautiful fall colors (not quite their peak) going up Sassafrass Mountain, the highest point in South Carolina. Brian rode up here this morning, and we all drove up this afternoon for a little hike.

The kids and I enjoyed the horses just feet outside our door. We were feeding them carrots, so they liked us immediately!

This guy liked Josiah a lot! I love this picture! I didn’t get a picture of a few seconds later as Josiah was continuing to climb down, and the horse started nibbling on his hair, which certainly does look a lot like fresh hay!

Analise great picture Analise took for us! I’m glad to see we’re raising a photographer!

Tomorrow morning, Brian and I are heading out for the last race weekend of the season in Greenville, SC.  Thanks to my lovley mother-in-law, we’re going by ourselves, and I’m SO EXCITED for a quiet weekend.  The kids will have a blast with Beverly (and Tom, but he’s super busy so mostly it’s her taking care of them) and spending the night at their house.  And we are thoroughly going to enjoy a car ride with no Dora & Diego music, no kicking from the backseat, no endless snack requests, bathroom stops anytime we want or don’t want them (our rule is if the kids are sleeping there’s NO STOPPING), and just some time to enjoy each other’s company.

These races were Brian’s best of the season last year, and there’s also a wonderful fall festival going on in Greenville, besides the beautiful downtown and river walk area.  I’m looking forward to it!  We’ll keep you posted!

Enjoy the glimpse of our weekend!

Playing at the playground during the bike race…

A rare, sweet moment of being siblings.  There are VERY FEW pictures like this one.  Makes my heart burst 🙂

Brian leading one of the early laps in the race.

The finish sprint.  Brian’s got the red helmet just to the right of center.   More photos and his race report on his blog.

From last week.  I just got a new short haircut, and Analise was dressed in her pink and brown rodeo attire (essentially boots and braids 🙂 ).  She didn’t get the whole self-timer photo concept.

Friday evening, Brian and I got to go out with our friends, Lennie & Kim, for yummy Mexican and a relaxing dessert evening at church.  I’m so lucky to have a good babysitter in the family 🙂  It’s a real treat to not have to deal with dinner and bedtime AND be out with adult conversation and company!

Saturday morning we had homemade waffles, and then the kids and I headed out for a walk in the lovely cooler weather (at least cooler to us… 60’s in the mid-morning!).  We walked all the way to the bridge and fed the fish, and collected acorns on the way home.  Then we hurriedly got ourselves ready for family pictures with Brian’s parents and brother.  Um, that didn’t go so well.  Analise was grumpy and she said she “couldn’t smile because she couldn’t remember how”.

We had good naps, and then we joined Brian for a quick trip to the bike shop.  Somehow, we ended up picking up ice cream before we heded home for dinner.  Hm 🙂  I had invited Brian’s parents over for spaghetti and homemade breadsticks, the usual pre-race fare.

Today, we headed to church to work in the kids’ classroom for the early service.  We headed straight from church up the Interstate to Brian’s bike race in Dalton, GA.  The 3-hour trip seemed much longer, as the kids were not entertained by anything… not food, music, coloring, movies, books or toys.  We were all very happy to arrive at the quiet downtown race course!

This was the perfect bike race setup for me with the kids.  They had a bouncy house, and Analise and Josiah were nearly the only kids bouncing, for more than an hour.  They were thrilled.  We snacked on animal crackers from the “racer hospitality tent”, as we headed over to watch the race.  The course was short, and located on a nice little park that more than entertained the kids for the whole 40 minute race. Brian did great – 4th place!  I’m sure he’ll write more on his cycling blog.

After the race, we picked up dinner for the kids and Brian, while we headed down the road to Rome, GA where I was going to meet a friend.  Darby and I had a great time catching up at a burger place.  It was a nice addition for me in a  busy day.  Not surprisingly, the kids were happy to stay in the car watching movies and resting after their bouncy-busy-play day, while Brian worked on the laptop with them.

The trip home wasn’t nearly as long, as the kids were asleep the whole way.  Whew!  We were only gone 11 hours, but it felt like the whole weekend!

What a weekend.  We had a fabulous time.  So much I could say, but I think I’ll let my 25 pictures (out of nearly 250!) speak for themselves.

Our stretch of beach (Seagrove Beach, between Panama City & Destin, Florida)

Our condo… We were in the top right apartment.

Our view from the balcony.  It was so relaxing and refreshing to sit out there.

My two fun boardwalk pictures, from our short jaunt over the first evening when we arrived.

My beach babies… they loved it.  Analise could have stayed on the beach all day.  Thank goodness we walked over once on Friday evening when we arrived, 3 times yesterday, once last night to hunt little ghost crabs with flashlights (probably the most fun of all!), and twice today.

This was Analise’s favorite way to enjoy the surf 🙂

Josiah was determined to move the beach, shovel by shovel, from one place to another.  He carried one shovelful of sand for almost our entire morning walk!

Analise and Lauren had so much fun together.  I’ve got lots of cute pictures of them running in the sand and surf laughing and playing.  It’s so easy to get good pictures at the beach!  And we always had a bucket for our seashell collecting.

The beach angels!

Anna, Analise, Lauren and Josiah splashin’ it up in the surf.

Josiah and Anna spent a lot of time digging.  In this photo, poor Josiah had just gotten a bucket of sandy water dumped on him.  Analise was trying to help.  I’m not sure if it was Josiah’s fault for sitting in the hole they were filling or Analise’s for dumping it on him.

A couple “wildlife” photos.  We saw dolphins jumping, jelly fish washing up on the beach (making today’s splashing more dangerous), and lots and lots of pelicans.

We took our little-used bike trailer (Thanks, Poppa Dale!!) with us, and I rented a bike for the day.  I haven’t ridden since California, let alone pulled a trailer with kiddos, but thankfully you don’t forget how to ride a bike 🙂  I pulled Anna and Josiah, and Kim pulled the older girls.  What a blast!  We had so much fun cruising around!  Makes me want to start riding more around here, in spite of the steep hills!

Really, it was a fantastic weekend.  The Moons were so awesome to share their condo with us.  We’ve done so much travel for cycling, this was a relaxing trip to just enjoy being somewhere… definitely a nice change!  Brian and Lennie rode 60 miles yesterday and 50 miles today.  Kim and I got out a bit each day by ourselves, and the kids, of course, always love being together.  The girls had a “sleepover” in their own bedroom, and they did great.  We enjoyed fresh steamed shrimp from a nearby fish market and watched a couple non-kid moives after the little ones collapsed into bed.  Today we wrapped up the fun times with a trip to the ice cream shoppe to soothe the kids sadness at saying goodbye.  I’m already looking forward to our next beach vacation!

Another fun adventure was our day trip to Huntsville.  Brian did a long bike ride in the area, while we explored the US Space & Rocket Center.  It was VERY FUN!  The kids lasted longer than I thought they would, and they seemed pretty interested in all the fun space things to look at.  Then we took our lunch to a nearby playground at the Monte Sano State Park.

The Rocket Park was very impressive.

Um, can you find my family hidden below the space shuttle and boosters?  This was HUGE!

Have I mentioned its impossible to take posted pictures of my kids?

There was a Kid Zone that Analise and Josiah really enjoyed.

There’s an adult ride called, Space Shot (“Soar 150 feet in the air with 4 G’s of force during liftoff of the Space Shot simulator”).  I rode it, and it was VERY SCARY.  They had a mini (fun) version for the kids, and though Analise wasn’t sure at first, she did try it, much to my amazement.  She loved it, probably riding it 7 times before we left.  Of course, Josiah had to do it, too, with much hesitation.  But he just followed her lead, and he was laughing his little belly laugh the whole time.  It was so cute to watch them!  (I’m hoping to post a video, too, eventually…)

I’m finally getting caught up on photos, particularly this evening I’ve done the photos from Grandma Sandy & Poppa Dale’s visit in early August. Have I mentioned how much fun we had? I’ll let you see for yourself…

Checking out the trains at the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum.

A cool photo, thanks to Photoshop 🙂

One of my new favorite Josiah photos.

More trains… this time at home!  Poppa built some great tracks for the trains.

A fun afternoon rainshower.  I’ll work on finding Josiah some more boyish boots 🙂

Thanks to a surprise in Samford’s academic calendar, Brian had today off!  It’s never been a school holiday, but this year his students swore there was no class, and Brian was excited to find they were right.  There is always a big cycling race in Atlanta that he’s never been able to do… so within minutes, he was registered 🙂  His parents stayed with the kids, giving us a kid-free getaway!  Sweet!

On the trip over, we saw lots and lots of Louisiana cars heading to Atlanta, and our hotel had many LA cars in the parking lot.  We stayed in a very nice Doubletree hotel (the bed was absolutely heavenly… like sleeping on a cloud!).   Last night we were busy picking up race numbers, driving the race course, and checking in, so it was a late night.  Brian was up super early, for the 7:15am start.  Thankfully he could ride the short distance to the start, so I stayed in the cozy bed for an extra hour or so, before heading out to the race course.

There were 11 laps, and Brian made it an EXCITING RACE.  He was in a break with 2 other riders, and they had 40 seconds to 1-minute gap.  I was so excited!  This was a HUGE race, with lots of top pros, and the payout was $20,000 over 35 places.  I could hardly sit still in the 12 minutes between each 5-mile lap.  The break did eventually get pulled back to the main field, unfortunately, but Brian did win $100 in a prime while they were out front.  The sprint was downhill and crazy fast, with 100 riders jockeying for position, and spinning as fast as their legs could go… probably hitting 50-55mph into the finish.  Brian ended up 41st.  Still, it was so exciting and fun to see him be such a big part of the race.  Here’s a link to a good picture on Velonews.com, a well-known cycling news site.  (Brian was hoping the caption would have been more telling, with something like, “A look at the day’s most promising break”, as what’s written sure doesn’t capture the excitement!).  Brian’s written a detailed report on his blog.

We were able to go back to the room to shower and relax before checkout.  Of course, then we had to make our obligatory Trader Joe’s stop, since we were withint 50 miles of my favorite store 🙂  Highlights in my shopping cart…

• Gyoza Chicken Potstickers (great quick dinner tonight, and though they were good, we have been spoiled by tasting Corrie‘s homemade ones!)
• whole wheat and tabbouli salad (greek with bulgar, parsley, tomatoes, onions and cucumbers… a treat for me)
• TJ’s Mocha and Chocolate yogurt (!!!!  Can’t wait to try it!  We CANNOT like this too much, because it’s nearly impossible to bring cold stuff back with us, like if we’re at TJs in Chicago.)
• Vegetable Root Chips – very colorful, and I thought they were tasty.  Sweet potoes, parsnips, batara (?) and something else.
• Vanilla paste – I love this.  One of my favorite baking essentials.  Only at TJs.
• Freeze dried strawberries.  A favorite snack of the kids.

Then we had a nice quiet lunch at Joe’s Crab Shack (we didn’t plan the Joe-theme!).  We were home by 4pm, and it’s amazing how sweet and cute my kids are after less than 24 hours away!  What a treat to have such a nice spontaneous getaway!