Cheney Family Reunion 2014 - Gatlinburg, TN

Hello? Anyone there? Probably not. But I need to keep this baby up so here's the latest.

I spent last week with most of my immediate family in a log cabin in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I drove over to my parents' house with the kids on a Friday. (Dan wasn't able to come. He had to work. We missed him so much!) Mom hopped in my car and we caravaned with my dad and sister over to Knoxville. We spent the night in a nice LaQuinta, but then the people in the next room over checked in and left their dog to bark and bark for hours and hours. So annoying. We got BBQ from a local joint and went to a park that night.

Saturday we had to kill time before we could check into the cabin, so in the morning we went to a natural history museum on the UT campus, then another park, then lunch at a chick-fil-a in a crowded and noisy mall.

We did lots of grocery shopping and then headed to Gatlinburg. So did the rest of Tennessee. We were stuck in traffic FOR.EV.ER.

We finally made it to the cabin around 7:30, ate some pizza, waited for Kirk and Ryan's families to arrive, and called it a night.

Sunday we went to church, which took place in an old theater while their building went through renovations. It was strange. My dad said it was the only time he's gone to church in a place with cup holders.

We took a scenic drive later that day through Smoky Mountain National Park.

More Sunday fun.

Taking pictures of the kids taking pictures of each other.

Monday we had a picnic and played in the river at Metcalf Bottoms.

That night we also had a kids' talent show.

Tuesday we headed to Ober Gatlinburg, a little amusement park type place, which was really fun. I rode the chair lift and alpine slide with each of the kids and some water rides with Sam. They also mini-golfed and played on the playground.

A little lesson in form wouldn't hurt, huh?

Right before the treasure hunt.

To be continued...

Dan's Movie Corner

Last night we Redboxed the movie Divergent.

Some movies have this inexplicable way of making you forget all of the worthless movies you've seen before, because you're absolutely convinced that the movie you are watching currently is the most worthless movie ever.

Divergent has that special something.

Our fun Fourth of July weekend

Our Fourth of July week kicked off with finally agreeing on a paint color for our entry way/main flowing area. Hooray! Before we had time to change our minds, I went out and bought the paint and started the cutting in. Before and afters to follow in another post. I just had to say how excited I am that after months and MONTHS of having paint squares painted on the wall and spending way too much money on paint samples, we finally made a decision.

Now on to the good stuff. My dad drove over on Friday and spent the day with us. We started by attending our ward's pancake breakfast and flag-raising ceremony at the church. Then we prepared a picnic and took it to Belle Isle where we found a picnic table for lunch and then let the kids play in the water (next time we'll bring bathing suits) and Dan swam around a little bit.

The weather was PERFECT. Not too humid, nice when we got there, started getting pretty hot right when we were leaving. Just perfect.

We came home for nap/quiet time and then went out to dinner. We came home for a patriotic trifle dessert and then Dad headed back to C-ville. It was fun to have him spend the day with us!

Saturday we went to the DC temple. It was another gorgeous day. I decided to bring along my nice camera and try to take some pictures.

Such a beautiful, peaceful place. You kind of forget that when it takes you three hours to get home...

We had promised the kids we'd take them to fireworks, which were held on the 5th for some reason. So we did what we did last year - we went to Dan's work parking garage to watch them from the top level. Except this year, his building allowed the general public to park there also, which made it way more crowded. We'll think of something different for next year.

The fireworks were great, though. They even had fireworks that spelled out "U" "S" "A". We'd never seen that before. All in all, a really great 4th weekend!

Catching Fireflies

One of the perks of living in Virginia is being able to show the kids fireflies. They loved catching them on their hands and watching them for a few moments before they flew away.