Almost All of the Davison's at Norris Dam State Park, Tennessee

Jon's parents celebrated their 40th anniversary. Their request was that we all go with them to Tennessee to one of their favorite campgrounds. Glenn, Tristan and Ryan were not able to go but Jeff, Lisa and their kids along with Jon, Josiah and I and Jordan with Keegan. We totaled 13 people and had a lot of fun!

Jeff and Lisa aren't big tent campers so they rented a cabin for their family. It would have been rather difficult to camp with the little kids, especially Keegan was almost 8 months at the time. Larry, Piper, Jon, Josiah and I all tent camped. The temperature got down into the upper 30's at night and it never really got warm during the day so it was a bit of a challenge but a lot of fun! Here are some pictures! I would like to add that it was freezing and we are all wearing MANY layers so none of us look particularly beautiful or happy for that matter but we did have fun.

left to right: Jeff, Josiah holding Mason

Jordyn holding Keegan, Lisa

Trinity, Jacob

Piper, Jon

Chelsea

Keegan was quite a trooper. The cold didn't really seem to phase him.

Sammy never seemed to get cold either but he doesn't have quite a fur coat.

Winnie took every opportunity to lay in the sun!

We split up the meals between Lisa, Piper and I. We went to the cabin to eat lunch both days. It was nice to be warm and play some games and the kids got to take naps. Mason brought his Halloween costume to show us since we wouldn't get to see him in it. He was so cute. Jon has finally started to recognize him as a person as he is now 3 so he spent some time with him. It was cute.

If you could just hear the roar that went with this costume!

Jon: "so you see, you are still little so what you want doesn't matter"

Mason: "huhhhh? said with a big smile!!!!

We went to the dam and took a small trail and then went to the Lenoir Museum which is a museum of Appalachian history as well as an 18th century Grist Mill. I did a terrible job taking pictures on this trip so this is the only picture I took but you can see the dam a little in the background. Oops.....

It was a great time! I feel blessed to have in-laws that I enjoy spending time with and who after 40 years of marriage choose to love each other every day! What a great example for Jon and I and our future children!

Josiah's 1st Family Visit

10 people is a lot to have in our house. It isn't tiny but it sure isn't 10 people big but that's what we had for Labor Day weekend. There were people everywhere but we made it work and even managed to have fun!

Their trip down didn't go exactly as expected. They ended up with a flat tire that needed replaced on their way down. It couldn't be fixed until the next morning so they didn't arrive on Thursday evening as originally planned but they got here on Friday morning before lunch. Chelsea wasn't able to come on this trip or we would have been 11 people strong.

Friday night we went to Josiah's first football game. He got a lot of playing time and the final score was 40 (Liberty HS!) -3 (Blacksburg). Everyone was dying to see him as they hadn't actually see him yet. It was also Keegan's first football game.

I got to hold him quite a bit during the game. He was so cute. When everyone would cheer after a good play he would open his eyes really huge and look around like he was shocked but he didn't cry at all. I was so impressed.

They finally got to see Josiah after the game and he gave out sweaty hugs. Yuck!

Saturday we went to Smith Mountain Lake to swim at what we call our private beach. You technically aren't suppose to swim there but we haven't ever been told to move. It was a beautiful day for swimming. We all had sooooo much fun. Trinity can swim like a fish and Mason really enjoyed swimming in his ring. Keegan LOVED the water. He actually started to fall asleep sitting in the water in Jordyn's arms right before we left. I wish I had taken a picture. I of course didn't take many pictures because I was swimming and Jon of course didn't take any. I swam with Jacob and Josiah mostly. They had fun swimming to the bottom of the lake.  It was super deep very quickly. 

Make sure to turn the volume up before you watch the video of Josiah and Jacob doing some stunts in the water. 

Here are some pictures of our time swimming.

Jordyn and Keegan

Sammy got in on the fun too. He will swim as far out as you throw his stick. 

That afternoon almost everyone took a nap and the adults rather enjoyed the quiet. That evening we were all craving something sweet and since I had just picked apples I decided to make apple crisp with some help from Trinity and Mason. We all picked out our aprons and started by peeling apples with the Apple Peeler, Corer and Slicer. They thought it was great fun.

The Apple Crisp was quite good. We all enjoyed it that evening.

They got up and left on Sunday morning. It was a short trip but a lot of fun. Who knows what we will do next time.