Our trip to the hollar

Last Friday; me, the kids, mom & grandma headed down to Tennessee for our family reunion. I picked the kids up from pre school at 10:30 am & picked up my traveling partners. We were on the road by 11 am. Nate stayed back home & partied it up with his band mates at our house. In the words of Sawyer from LOST, "Son of a b%$#*"! I'm kidding. I just read Jorge Garcia's (Hurley's) blog & have LOST on my mind. Okay...where was I?

I'm going to be honest here, the drive to & from Tennessee was pretty much hell. It's a 6 hour drive down to where my family lives. NOTE TO SELF: Get the DVD players for the van FIXED before the next road trip. When you have triplets (or multiple children), it can get pretty loud. They all talk at the same time, they scream at each other, they tell on each other, they spit, they say "poop" three million times and the list goes on. God love my granny & mom for not going insane with me. Grandma has hearing aides & said it was hard for her to hear anyway. I told mom, "If I were her, I would just take the hearing aides completely out." At that point, I, too, wished I was hard of hearing.

I don't think I've posted this, but Jonah is pretty much potty trained. Praise Jesus! I never thought I'd see the day. Seriously folks...if you have one that isn't getting it, just go with the flow & one day they will pick it up. This brings me to the potty issue. Frankly, that is what wore me out the most on this trip. My kids hate public bathrooms. I mean, who really is a fan of them? But my kids are very sensitive to noises & the loud flushing sounds (which are echoed because of the bathrooms) make them nervous; as well as the "hair dryers" in the bathrooms do. Therefore, Jonah did not pee once on the trip. I tried & tried to get him to go. I even let him try outside & on the toilet seat I have in the van for emergencies. It was beyond frustrating.

We made it in to town & went to eat dinner before dropping Grandma off at her sister's house & heading to the cabin. We ate at the Bob Cat & I got catfish. Holy Mary Mother of Moses, that stuff was phenomenal. In all my 34 years of going to Tennessee, I hadn't eaten catfish. I'm not a fish eater & was always scared to try it. I can't believe what I was missing out on. In fact, we went back on Saturday night so I could get it again.

After dinner, we dropped Grandma off at her sister's (Virgie) house. She stays with her when we go down. The kids loved Virgie. They called her, Girvie. And her daughter, Trudy, was there as well. Trudy is deaf & Jasper picked that up not long after we had gotten there. He said to me, "Mama, Trudy can't talk." I said, "That's right Jasper, she is deaf. She can't hear us, but she can see us. And she sees when we wave at her." After that, there was a lot of waving go on. And when he & Isabel saw her signing to her daughter, they stopped dead in their tracks. It amazed them.

So we finally got down to the cabin. We got unpacked & gave the kids a shower before putting them in PJ's. I figured they would be out. My kids, unfortunately, are not car sleepers. Well, that night was horrible. I bet I was up 15 times & I think I got a total of 2 1/2 hours of sleep. I remember laying there about 3 in the morning thinking, "As soon as they get up, we are heading back home." It turns out that Saturday was a great day. Well, minus Jonah pooping all over mom's floor. He just stood there & pooped thru his PJ's. He'd poop, walk a bit, poop a bit, etc. Anyway, the weather was beautiful & hot. We took a hike in the hollar. We looked at all the beautiful creeks. We stayed busy & the kids took an afternoon nap....as did I. It was much needed & appreciated.

We went out for the evening & headed back to the cabin. That night was much better. I only had to get up a few times. We got up & got our food cooked for the reunion. Mom cleaned the cabin & we got all our stuff loaded in the van & headed out. The reunion was good & the drive home was...hell! Did you think it would be anything else?

I almost wish we would have stayed an extra day or two. I think the kids really would have gotten in to a routine more. But, the time down there was nice. And the kids wont stop talking about it. As always, I have a TON of pictures that I will post soon!