Past UPDATE: Carr Family Vacation

UPDATE:  Carr Family Vacation, August

View from outside our condo

This last summer, all my family were able to get together for a big vacation in Gatlinburg, Tennessee in the Smoky mountains.  We had such a fun time exploring the area, 

being in nature, and just being together.  

Early on in the vacation, the older cousins had a great time getting reacquainted with fun wrestling and  jumping on the bed.  Elliana was so excited to see that Gracie and she had the same pajamas. Their favorite activity was falling straight on their faces.

Sienna loved all the attention from Aunt Laura, Aunt Jenny, and Natalie and well everyone!  Sienna and cute Tanner were everyone's favorite cuddlers (although Sienna is still quite squirmy!) Tanner is Cheri's newest little boy, 2 months younger than Sienna, but catching up to her fast! 

 Elli really loves older girls especially- so she had a great time copying and following around Ashley.  She and Natalie were very sweet to share their dolls and barbies with her too which she fell in love with all week.  After this, I bought Elliana her first barbie!

The extra attention to Todd really bolstered his self esteem too.  (Tanner really drew them in but we told Todd it was because of him.)

Gatlinburg had a really awesome hands on Aquarium which was a huge hit with all the kiddos.  

You could get "inside" a lot of the tanks and look at the animals close up.  Elli enjoyed that a lot!

Shark Tank!

Penguin Exhibit outside.  Quite mesmerizing.

Sweet little Ryann- so content and just so happy.

Can't miss a stop at Hard Rock!

We took a drive up to a mountain top resort where we took a chair lift up and rode alpine slides down.  They also had lots of kiddie rides and even some water slides.  It was a fun afternoon.

You can see from her face that Elli really enjoyed it!

And the winner is... MOM!

Uncle Dave and Zak getting in some shooting.

So there was a miscommunication, and Dad and Mom didn't make it to the bottom of the hill before some of us went down the alpine slide.  Jenny and I were sad so we reenacted our flight down the slide.  I think we had almost as much fun reenacting it as we did actually going down the real slide!

And Family Night is essential!! Charades! Dad acting out some random animal (if you remember tell me in the comments).  Everyone was laughing quite heartily throughout.

Poor Ryann was quite confused why her Granddaddy was acting so weird!!

Hiking in the Smoky Mountains.  We had already shipped our hiking backpack so Elli went in my beco sling and Sienna in the baby Bjorn.  Elli was pretty happy as long as she was on MY back-- but man was I sore!!

Gracie and Uncle Chris

                          Ryann and Uncle David

Grandaddy and Zak!

Best Friends!

Sharing Secrets!

Backpack Buddies! Tanner, Elli, and Sienna

We were able to take an Adults White Water Rafting trip which was a blast!  We had a river guide who let us try a couple cool maneuvers.  I know Dad bought the pics of us on the boats, but somebody (Cheri- I'm blaming you) hasn't gotten them on the internet and sent them out to everyone!!  We also got big group shots but not sure where those are either- lets blame Cheri again.   

So until I get all those, this is what you get. 

One funny note, the whole bus seemed really annoyed at us for taking this pic because everyone else was on the bus ready to go to the river, but us.  Oh well!!!  Glad we got the pic now though, right, 'cause it's the only one we got!

The kids had a great time with Cheri, Chris, Mom, and Steph who agreed to babysit and then go on the calmer rafting trip with the older kids when we all got back.

Some of our other activities: Dollywood, Mini Golf, exploring Gatlinburg, just hanging out, and the hotel Waterpark!  I can't find any pics of the waterpark either- so Cheri, why don't you work on that too? I know you aren't busy or anything with all your kids and activities. :) Priorities, come on. 

Tanner and Sienna- too adorable

When it came time to go, Elli was so sad to leave everyone.  She didn't want to leave.  It was really hard for me to leave too.   I just hugged my mom and cried.  I cried part of the drive home too.   Its just so different saying good-bye when you feel like you are going to another planet, like your whole world was changing, because in some ways it was.

I don't feel like I am so far away now, though- technology like what's app texting and Skype make a big difference.  And our church being world wide makes such a firm foundation to build on wherever we are.   But- at the time, everything felt so uncertain, unreal even.  We left straight from here to our good friends Nichole and Kenny's for two days, and then got on the plane that brought us to Taiwan.

Now we have been here 2 and 1/2 months.  I have a feeling these two years are going to fly by.