Quick Trip to the Mountains

**Long Post Alert**

Last month we made a quick trip up to Blue Ridge, GA to hang out with family in celebration of my Dad's 60th Birthday. We had a blast, especially for such a short amount of time!

Saturday morning we went tubing on the Toccoa river. We were nervous about taking Jack tubing since he really doesn't like getting in the water. But his tube had a bottom in it, and he just sat in there the entire time. He had no problem. We wondered how it would go with Eliza, too, since I just had her in the Baby Bjorn. But she did fine too. Surprisingly, it was Cat who was scared and antsy during the tubing trip. She fell out of her tube right after she got in the river, and didn't really trust the tube after that. She was pretty clingy, but still managed to have fun. None of us thought to get a waterproof camera before the trip, so the only picture we have of anyone on a tube is of Dad and Kelly, since they were the last ones to get back to the parking area.

Cat cheesed it up with Will & Colin...

One of TWO family pictures we took this weekend.
As in, we are ALL in the pictures. Hell might have frozen over too.

Jack checked out the river to make sure it met his approval.

It sure was fun! Can you tell?

Back at the cabin, Eliza enjoyed playing with Pops.
(Sorry for the blurry picture--but I love both of their expressions!)

And we decided to take a big family picture.

Front row: Colin, Drew, Megan, Andy, Susannah, Me, Eliza, and Cat
Back row: Noah, Will, Kyle, Kelly, Dad, Riley, Ben II, Jack, and Ben I


Then we took some pictures of just the adults.
Jack entertained himself. By climbing, of course.

I requested a picture of just us kids with Dad.

Here I am with my Dad my 3 "original" siblings.

When Dad and Kelly got married, they adopted two awesome kids
from Kazakhstan, Riley and Kyle. They are so fun and we love being around them!
So, here is Dad with all of his kids. We were prompted to depict our rank in seniority.

Andy was giving me a hard time, so I might have threatened
to stick some fingers in his ear, or nose, or both...

And he might have threatened to throw me off the mountain.

Then, since we were on such a roll with the family picture thing,
I decided to try my luck at another photo of our little clan.
This didn't quite go as planned...

That night we hung out in the cabin.
The kids colored on their new banner art paper from Pops & Kelly.

And watched some movies.
Riley was SO sweet to hang out with Cat & Drew in the basement!

The rest of us played the Wii, with Outdoor Challenge
taking up most of our time.
Here's Dad. Stomping moles?

Will & Kyle worked together on the mine cart racing.

Andy was good enough to take care of Eliza for a while on Sunday morning while we packed and got ready to leave. I just love these pictures! Eliza did a good job with him. She made him smile, she tasted his finger and tested his mouth, and she taught him how to play Animal Scramble. Move closer, okay, Uncle Andy?
California is too far.

By the time we got on the road,

Cat & Jack were all tuckered out from a busy weekend.

It was a wonderful little vacation -
it doesn't get much better than fun and family.
Happy 6-0, Dad!