Home again and we have EGGS!!!

Ok, so maybe it is a little silly to be so excited about these sweet little eggies, but I am! We came home yesterday to cute little brown eggs. Quite a few of them really. Olivia (our best buddy and home caregiver while we are gone) had collected about a dozen and a half and there were 4 or 5 more actually in the coop when we got home. They are small now, but they will get bigger/more normal sized after a while. None of the easter eggers are laying yet because their eggs would be blue and green. Anyways, here they are, our first eggs.......

Our vacation was extremely fun. The more time I spend in Gatlinburg the more I love it. I love the outdoors, especially the mountains and Gatlinburg just seems to have it all. We arrived home last night and left again almost immediately for a wedding. I have yet to unpack suitcases. Today has been spent mowing, working in our garden and picking sweet corn. Oh man, I have so much to put up. Truly I feel blessed to have so much good food to put away for the winter, but it is a lot of work!

Here are some vacation pics.

Anna, Kayla (my niece) and Madeline at the BEST pancake house ever in downtown Gatlinburg.

We celebrated Gideon and Katelyn's (my other niece) birthdays while we were in Gatlinburg. They are two days apart. Here they are with their cool backpacks mawmaw and pawpaw got them.

Gee got a horsie from Aunt Esther and Uncle Scott. Aunt Esther even demonstrated it for us!

Gee loved his Spidy man backpack from Aunt Jami and Uncle Jason.

Blowing out the candles on their brownie ice cream cakes.

Riding the pony (i.e. killing time while mommy shops) in downtown Gatlinburg.

Riding the bee ride in Dollywood.

While the big kids were riding a roller coaster at Dollywood we decided to play that claw game that "nobody ever wins." You know the one where the metal claw "almost" grabs the toy/candy/whatever. I never let the kids waste their money on that thing but we were bored and the little ones wanted to give it a try. Wouldn't you know it, on the first try we won Chloe. Go figure.

We all got soaked on the water ride.

One of the hikes we went on lead back to this great swimming hole. The water was chilly, but it was lots of fun!

This look from Anna cracks me up. She is getting ready to give me the "I am sad" Anna look, to which I almost always reply "Anna, cut it out." (Anna is a major drama queen and I am trying to reel in her "moods").

Pawpaw jumping off the big rock! All the older kids and most of the adults jumped off and had tons of fun. I was super impressed though with Madeline though. She actually jumped off that sucker with Ryan! No pic though because that was a video moment.

Obviously I have no new news on the adoption. We are still #1 and our agency is still be promised every day that the new referrals will come in. They know there's a chunk of referrals just waiting still, but they can't make the referrals get there any faster.

Julie