A Summer to Remember

Summer is over and it hardly seems possible. But, true to form, real life has intruded upon our lazy days of summer and plopped us down in crazy busy world. School has started, Cambrie and Tyson are already completely acclimated to their new positions in 1st and 3rd grades. Wow! Did that happen fast! This blog post will concern itself with catching everyone up on our summer adventures, and all the rest will soon follow. Hopefully!
Eric and I decided to take a family trip to Virginia this summer, mostly because we adore and love our family, but also because my Great-Grandmother Fannie had recently been placed in a nursing home unit of the hospital and we felt we all needed to see her once more before it was too late (in this life at least). Before we could leave for VA I wanted to attend girls camp and it was a blast. This was my first year attending girls camp as a leader and I hadn't been since my YCL days in high school. We have the most amazing young women in our ward and it is a privilege to serve them. I think we leaders laughed more and sometimes stayed up later than they did! I had to leave girls camp a day early, so Eric and the kids drove up very early on Friday morning, picked me up in the mountains, and we started driving East.
We had a great time driving. This was Chase and Ella's first time driving across country. Ella was a little fussy the first day, but once she realized she was stuck in that car seat indefinitely, she settled down.
Truly, our only West to East fun event was visiting my cousin, Justin, and his family. We loved spending Sat. and Sun. nights with them in their home just South of Memphis in Mississippi. Going to church with them on Sun. was fun, too. Jessica was a perfect hostess and the kids had so much fun playing with Kyleigh. Early Monday morning, we left to start the I-40 long drive through Tennessee. Thankfully at the end of that long drive, we only had about another hour before hitting my home town of Wise, VA. We were very happy to finally get to our destination!!!!

Here is a picture of us on our second day, which was also my Dad's birthday. I was so grateful and excited to be home for his birthday. I LOVE YOU DAD!!!

The first few weeks of our trip really revolved around visiting Mamaw Fannie at the nursing home. It was easier while Eric was with us, because we could take turns. She usually had a lot of visitors, so we only took one or two of the kids at a time to visit her. Eric took Tyson to play bingo with her. She really loved watching him play the bingo card for her. All the ladies there thought he was so cute! It was really wonderful to see Mamaw Fannie's eyes light up and the smile on her face when she saw the kids. It was truly beautiful and something I will never forget.




We went to the Best Friends Festival in Norton, VA. They had games for the kids and music and entertainment. Here you can see a picture of Tyson on the climbing wall. He did very well, especially considering he was wearing flip flops. Eric also got in on the action by guest starring in the performance of a juggler/unicycler. I was rounding the corner on my way back to the stage area, where our seats were up front, and I was shocked to see Eric up in front of the crowd performing. I ran up to our seats to get a better look and it was well worth the rush. As you can see in the picture below. Eric assisted the performer by standing straight up and holding his arms up high. The performer then used Eric's arms to brace himself as the rode around and around Eric's body. Now, I'm not sure why he picked Eric for his assistant. It could have been that Eric was the tallest man in the audience, or perhaps it was because Eric had a Flyers shirt, or maybe Eric just looked like a sucker. Because, once the performer was done, he revealed that Eric was missing his watch and a poor man in the audience was missing his wallet and hat. Eric racked his brains for awhile just trying to figure out when the guy unbuckled and removed his watch. He hadn't felt a thing!






We wanted to take Eric to do something special while he was with us for the week, so we took a day trip down to Pigeon Forge, TN to Dollywood! We love Dollywood. It may not be able to take the place of Disneyland in our family's hearts, but we certainly had a blast. So much so, that I decided to get season passes for me and the kids and we used them twice more during the summer. (We'll get to those trips later.) Eric and I raced around riding all the big kid rides. They had several new ones that were really fun. One was a concept that I had never seen before, but I'm afraid you'll have to visit Dollywood to ride it, because I'm not going to take the time to try to explain it in print. Mom was an angel and she loved just hanging out with the kids for most of the day in the kid friendly areas. Needless to say, we were all exhausted by the time we left the park at 8pm. Thankfully Eric felt well enough to drive us home.

























Here are pictures of us the next day visiting my grandparents, Bill and Lillian Gobble, at their home. They love banana popsicles, and so we all had one. We just love them so much. They're the best!













Eric left us the Tuesday morning after Father's Day. We wished he could have stayed with us for the rest of our visit, but I don't think his clients or his partners would have been very happy with him taking off for six weeks. We missed him, me especially, but we were determined to make the best of it. Here are some pictures of the kids having fun. Dad pulled out his kids' cars for them to drive around the carport and yard. They also loved riding Dad's big boy four wheeler. He would drive them all over their property while they rode with him, hanging on for dear life.
Ella learned how to do a hand stand on her head and she wanted to do it over and over. She really is a little dynamo. Amazing!
Tyson bought himself a pair of toy pistols, cowboy style. He and Dad used just about all his caps in one evening of playing shoot out. They had a great time chasing each other all around the yard.




















BACK TO DOLLYWOOD!
We headed back to Dollywood with Dad in tow this time instead of Eric. He had a great day just doing whatever the kids wanted to do and ride. Dad has always been great at winning us prizes at fair, etc... and this trip was no exception. He won the boys a football and a basketball. I'm sure he would have won more balls for the girls, but I told him we couldn't carry anymore balls around. Chase, Ella and Cambrie all won a stuffed toy by fishing. Tyson really enjoyed spending some time with just him and grandpa, and he loved the BBQ.












Perhaps Chase and Ella's favorite part was playing in the water area. They loved being soaked with the water. Ella kept looking straight down into the holes and waiting for her face to get blasted. Her laugh is infectious, but it was particularly hilarious during her water play.






We arrived home after Dollywood much less tired than the last time. When we got home and put the kids in bed, Dad offered to stay home with the kids so that Mom and I could go to the hospital to stay with Mamaw Fannie for the night. We knew Mamaw Lil was with her with the intention of spending the night and we didn't want her to do so alone. My great-uncle Joe was also there, but he was very tired and had not had much sleep. We sent him to the couch in the family area and Mom, Mamaw Lil and I hung out in Mamaw Fannie's room until the wee hours of the morning. We talked and laughed. It was very special. It was the first night I had been able to spend with Mamaw Fannie since she had been moved from the nursing home unit down to the ICU where visitors could stay for the night. It turned out to be such an amazing blessing. At 9:30 the next morning, July 4th, Mamaw Fannie passed away and joined her husband, son, and many others who were waiting for her.
She was an amazing, strong, loving and beautiful woman. She lived her 97 years to the fullest degree. I love her so much. Everyone who knew her did.
I will be forever grateful for that last night with the three women in this world I love the best. My Mom, my grandmother, and my great-grandmother. They were and are a powerful force of love, sacrifice and service. Mere words will never fully explain them or their influence on my life. I don't know how I deserved to have them, but I am so thankful I do.

It was appropriate that she died on the 4th of July. She loved her country and always enjoyed the 4th. Also, more than one person had been known to call her a fire cracker. So, we felt it entirely apropos to take the kids to the fireworks that night. I know she would have wanted the kids to celebrate life as much as she did.






The next two weeks until we left to drive back to AZ, were spent mostly spending time with Mamaw Lil and with my other grandmother, Goldie, who had also been in and out of the hospital. I wanted to spend a lot more time with her than I was able to, but I just couldn't take all the kids over there at one time.

Here we are at a Civil War reenactment that was held on Main Street of my hometown. It was held on Main St. because that is where the original battle was held and the courthouse was burned down. Here you see Tyson and Cambrie quite chummy with our 16th president. I've never been to one of these before. It was certainly an experience. The kids spent the entire battle freaked out because the guns and cannons were so loud. Watching them was probably even more entertaining than the soldiers.




Tyson would be upset with me if I didn't add a picture of his Great-great-uncles, Joe and Lee. They look pretty ruff n' tumble, and well, they are. But, they do have hearts of gold and they loved their Mommy(Mamaw Fannie). They barely left her side during her last few days in ICU. The kids pretty much decided they should be cowboys. So, the boys got cowboy hats and we found Cambrie a cute pink one at a yard sale.



Yes, you guessed it. Before we headed back to the real Wild West, we went back to Dollywood one last time. Again, it was fun! Sorry, but I'm tired and ready to go to bed, since I'll be up in about 4 hours to get to my class at the gym.