Lincoln Family Reunion - Smithville, TN July 2011

so far this is going to be a "in order in the events" blog for my reminder, I'll fill in the details later. 

Rented a vehicle for the trip (new Buick Enclave) because our van needed some work and wasn't reliable.

-left Wednesday evening, around 5:45.  It was a mad rush to get ready because I was alone with the kids and frustrated trying to pack up waiting for Dave to drive home from MN.  Had LC pizza for supper before leaving, froze extras.
- drove to St. Louis, I drove the whole way, Dave worked in the car on his laptop using his Verizon internet connection.  We booked our hotel while driving, since we weren't exactly sure where we were going to stop.  We stopped at the Collinsville Hampton Inn around midnight, got checked in, and got kids to bed asap. 

Thursday:
The next morning we got breakfast, then let the kid swim in the pool for a short time. 
Back on the road after reconfiguring the car seats in the truck so Violet could help take care of Vanessa - both girls were in the third row.  We made a deal with each kid that after lunch, if they took a nap in the car, they could watch a movie.  Grandma Jo got each kid a portable movie player, which for the kids, made the car an attractive ride.  Made a few stops for food and bathroom breaks, arrived in Smithville, TN around 7 pm, checked out the cabin at Lakeside Resort (nice!) and drove over to Lydia's lake cabin for dinner.  She served BBQ ribs, cornbread, salad and fruit pizza-pie.  Carol was there with her 4 kids, my kids took well to the De'Felice kids.  Vanessa clutched me the entire time, wouldn't go to anybody.  She warmed up after an hour of hanging onto me and walked around for awhile.  Night got late, so we got back in the truck and decided to make a run to the local Walmart to get a few groceries.  Violet came with me, my sis, and my parents.  We wandered up and down the aisles to get some stuff...coffee, milk, eggs, fruit, lunch meat, yogurt, peanut butter, bread....Dave came inside with Calvin and Vanessa to use the bathroom, I picked up a sippy cup for Vanessa, paid...then we left to head back to the cabin and put the kids to bed.   Vanessa slept in the portable crib in the closet of the room Violet and Calvin shared.

Friday:

Woke up, mom was making kids breakfast.  She had gotten Vanessa up too.  We talked about what to do and decided on hiking in Burgess Falls.  Mom, dad, Rachel left before us, we got there and hiked the paths that were bumpy, uphill, downhill, around curves, up steps, down steps, and at moments had scenic overlooks that featured waterfalls, it was beautiful.  The moving water roared.  I discovered half way through our little hike that Vanessa's diaper was very messy...and I was with no diaper bag.  I threw away what I could, we washed her off with water from a bottled water, and she went diaperless the whole walk back. 

Ate lunch at cabin, sandwiches and fruit.  Kids napped.  My mom and sister Rachel went to a nearby arts and crafts museum and looked at all the stuff on display.  Mom bought a painted clay plate that featured a landscape with hay bales.  On the way back we stopped at Hurricane Bridge and took some pictures of the scenery.  We decided to check out the resort's pool, so after they woke up from their naps, we took the kids swimming at the swimming pool, it was incredibly warm water. Not much of a relief on a hot day. But the kids had fun. I had to coax Calvin to get in the water with me.  Friday evening was at Lydia's, she served dinner at 7, fried catfish and chicken, french fries, hushpuppies, corn on the cob, and lemon cake for dessert.

That night we got back to our cabin very late, I moved Vanessa into our room. She slept terriby, waking up to scream every couple hours.  Every time I picked her up to comfort her she clutched to me super tightly and didn't want me to let her go. 

Saturday was our designated day to rent pontoon boats and hang out on the lake all day. 
I put two french braids in Violet's hair.  We packed up our stuff and headed for the marina at the resort waiting for Lydia and others to drive up with the pontoon boats they rented for the day.  We all got on and all 3 boats drove to a smaller cove by the shore, anchored and tied together.  Violet and Calvin both got in the water, both wearing life jackets.  Calvin wanted someone to hold him the whole time, he jumped right into Jacklyn's arms.  Violet was happy to swim on her own with her life jacket all over the place.  Vanessa was really cranky, and took a nap in her stroller.  While she slept, I got in the water with everybody else.  Danny and Dana brought their ski boat and took Dave and I waterskiing.  Mark and Susan brought their ski boat too, they took others out skiing.

Violet got a chance to try waterskiing.  She held onto a bar that attached to the boat and put on child size skis and Dave helped her get going, she held on for a few moments til her skis fell off.  She was scared to let go of the bar on the boat but got over that fear when she realized the boat could turn around and come back to get her.  I was proud of her for being brave and trying it. 

I ended up with Violet and Calvin at some point in Mark and Susan's boat on the way back to the resort boat slips to pick up our packaged lunches.  We collected 40 box lunches and came back to the rest and we all ate lunch together on the boats. 

The boating came to an end a few hours after lunch, we had all had enough swimming and sun.  We headed back to our cabin and the walk UP the hill was long and hard, both kids were exhausted and wanted to be held, which was tough.  It was hard enough pushing a stroller up a 45 degree hill.  We made it...and the kids immediately got changed and fell asleep in their beds for a long nap.  We had to wake them up around 6:30 to get dressed to head over to Mark and Susan's house for dinner.  Violet and Vanessa wore their yellow dresses.  Mark's house was hard to find, lots of twisty roads and difficult directions, but we made it.  Very gorgeous house, it had a perfect view of the lake.  They served pulled pork sandwiches, a variety of salads, watermelon, and brownies.  Kids enjoyed running around with the other kids, Violet and Lily hung out a lot.  Violet told me when they got together for the first time at Lydia's the first night "Mom, I think we're friends." :)  Mark let off three chinese lanterns into the dark night sky, which floated up high and eventually disappeared.  It was a great place to end up in a conversation with anybody that walked by.  Vanessa continued to be a mama's girl, not wanting to hang out with anybody except me.

The night got late, we left after dark, and went back to the cabin to put the kids to sleep.  After they went to bed, Rachel re-taught me how to play cribbage, and Dave picked up on it too.  Dave's first hand he ended up scoring 24 points, a crazy high record, but ended up losing the game.  My dad sat next to me and advised me of my next moves but Rachel won the game.

Sunday was a "whatever" day.  Nothing was planned, we did have a plan to leave for St. Louis but didn't have a set time.  We ate breakfast in the cabin, I did some laundry, packed up our stuff, loaded the car (this all took hours), and went to Lydia's to hang out and say goodbyes.  She was emptying her fridge of all the leftovers so we helped her and ate lunch there.  Kids played with their dogs, throwing the ball and playing fetch.

My mom and dad and Rachel all had plans to stay in Nashville before their flights out in the morning, so we all caravaned to Nashville and found a local ice cream shop and ate treats together called Pied Piper Creamery.  It was only an hour from Smithville to Nashville, I rode with mom and Rachel in their car, Dad rode with Dave and the kids.  Nice to have some "girl" time in the car!

Our drive back to St. Louis I think was uneventful.  I thought we were never going to get out of Nashville, because before we got on the highway, we had to stop and change Vanessa's diaper twice.  We told the kids once they had eaten supper and taken a nap, then they could watch movies.  That plan usually worked well, they did just that, and settled into watch Veggie Tales and Thomas the Train.  I think Vanessa took a nap, I don't remember much of the drive, other than it was long.  I worked on booking a hotel room in the passenger seat, Dave drove.  We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Edwardsville (just east of St. Louis) and the night went smoothly. 

Monday morning after breakfast we let the kids swim before taking off for Iowa.  Dave was in the pool with Violet, Calvin just stayed near the steps, and Vanessa stayed in the stroller.  Dave worked with Violet on swimming, and helped her a lot.  He told her to hold her breath and she'd float, which gave her confidence to swim on her own across the pool.  By the time she was done, she had jumped in the deep end all by herself, rose to the top, and swam back to the edge.  She was floating on her back, swimming backwards, going under water, just swimming like a little fish, I could tell she was elated and excited with her new swimming ability.  I'm glad she had that time to get some swimming in because we've been in swimming lessons all week at The Falls, and the class I signed her up into has her doing underwater bobs, back and front floats, kicking, swimming, and all sorts of things I think she may have been uncomfortable doing had she hadn't gained that swimming confidence the weekend prior.

So we got back to Iowa sometime around 5 or 6 in the evening.  Lots of stops later, food and bathroom breaks....we made it.  Home sweet home.  And a week of catch up.  I had so much to do...laundry, open stacks of mail, meal plan and go shopping because we didn't have much in our cupboards, catch up on finances and balance the checkbook, write my blog so I didn't forget what we did, get ready for the next week full of swimming lessons, it has been a solid week of returning to "normal operations" since coming back.  But it was all worth it!!

FYI:

Those I can remember who came to the family event:
-Lydia and Paul Kingsborough (Lydia is my Grandma Rowena's sister)
-Grandma Rowena Hardinger
-Ruth Hardinger and Michael Norton
-Rachel Hardinger
-Jon and Joanne Hardinger
-Angelo and Carol De'Felice and their 4 kids: Jacklyn, Caroline, Christopher, and Nicholas
-Danny Deislinger and Dana Abraham and their 2 kids, Jared and Alexis
-Lucy Abraham (my Grandma's sister)
-Bob and Ashley Abraham and their two kids, Lily and Rex
-Scott and Jill Kingsborough and their son, Cole
-Mark and Susan Lincoln
-Deen and Carol Lincoln
-Ben and Pollye Lincoln