Tag: Family Trips (Page 4 of 6)

Christmas Eve Picts..

February 8, 2009 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

Hanging at the hotel…

We discovered the Hyatt Place Hotel in Atlanta and have been staying in them whenever we can since. They are really nice and very reasonably priced and have a deal where you can earn free nights.

Everyone has their devices.

Mine’s the camera.

We spotted a Guitar Center across the street from our Hotel.

Being in a musical family is fun.

Mike’s first love is the bass.

My programmer doesn’t play an instrument but he runs the sound and power point.

Mike played us a little tune.

I discovered that an amp. can be a good investment.. this one from the sixties still has a hefty price tag.

Our college student is thinking about buying an acoustic guitar.

I liked this one because it had hummingbirds on it.

Dinner at Max & Erma’s

Mike introduced us to one of his favorite restaurants.

It has an all you can eat sundae bar in a bath tub. Need I say more?

Princess J was the master sundae maker.

She loves cherries.

Her sundae won the prize for the sweetest.

We talked about having a sundae party for her birthday.

Christmas Trip to KY

February 6, 2009 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

We had an awesome Christmas trip to KY this year. It was a great time away together. It was the first trip our college student had been able to take with us since Granny and PaPaw visited in April. It was good for us to have time alone together as a family.

We arrived in KY around dark and decided to go straight over to IN to the Perfect North Ski slopes so we could get our two hours of snow tubbing in before they closed. It was 11 degrees out and was supposed to get pretty warm and rain the next day. We decided it would be better to be dry and cold than wet and cold.

The ski slopes were pretty impressive; very family friendly. They made their own snow.. which was good because there wouldn’t have been any if they hadn’t. They had conveyer belts that took you up the hill after you tubbed down. The hill was great. The wind chill made our faces numb.

This was the best we could do for a family photo in the snow.. the blowers blew the snow right into our camera lens. We had several layers of clothes on. I offered everyone scarfs and after the first trip down.. they wished they had accepted. I left them in the hotel. I stayed up late the night before our trip Scotch Guarding our jeans to keep them dry. It helped a little.

After two trips down the hill, our college kid and mathematician hid out in the heated snack bar. The rest of us made it down the hill a total of six times. We thawed out and drank hot coco once and that was still all we could brave. No trips up Mt. Everest planned anytime soon.

The next day was our day to visit the Creation Museum.

We were very impressed by the museum. It took most the day to see it all. I would defiantly go back.

Everything was done with excellence … the animatronics were so real that they fooled us a couple of times.

The story of creation and the gospel were laid out very clearly.

I learned a couple of things I didn’t know… like that they have proven that all humans have the same blood line… I know I was taught something more evolutionary in school.

This is part of the walk through of Creation.

They showed some interesting things about Noah’s ark and the flood.

Had some really cool fossils.

and other exhibits.

We spent quite a while in the book store.

They had several shows including a special effects theater and a planetarium show. It was all very enjoyable. Mike said that he had wished there had been a little more details on the evidence that they had for a young earth. For example they explained that the radioactive dating that evolutionist use isn’t reliable.. but they didn’t explain why. Maybe they will add more of that in the future. They periodically have guest scientist speak there, but not on the day we were there.

They also have a petting zoo and a botanical garden that we missed because the weather was bad that day. We were lucky to get back to our hotel. The wet roads quickly froze over that night and all the traffic into Cincinnati was backed up for over 20 miles. We drove 20-30 miles per hour on the slippery 70 mile per hour freeway. We were so relieved when we made it back to our hotel we decided to just have supper there and stay in for the night.

Christmas eve the sun came back out and we explored the town, hung out at the mall, saw The Tale of Despereaux had a very nice relaxing day. On Christmas day, we drove home. We enjoyed our Christmas phone calls to our family. We were sad we couldn’t be both places at once. The drive up and back was very pleasant. The icicles on the sides of the road on the way up amazed us. The trees and hills were beautiful… made the eight hours pass by quickly.

I am so glad we got to spend Christmas together.

Chewacla State Park

February 4, 2009 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

Mike’s first day off for Christmas vacation we drove to Auburn to go to Shakey’s Pizza and Chewacla State Park. Buffet for Mike, state park for me. I can’t eat pizza, but luckily the cooks were thinking turkey dinner and had some things I could eat on the buffet.

Mike was especially looking forward to eating mojo’s (called by ro-jo’s in SA). There were none on the buffet but when I told them we had driven an hour just so we could eat mojo’s and they brought us some out special. I can’t eat them either but I enjoyed seeing everyone enjoy them.

Mojo- Rojos

Pizza, too.

Two days before I touched a corn dog (didn’t eat it just touched it and immediately washed my hands after) .. rash was a little better.

Our family comes prepared with it’s own game room. My programmer has tons of games on his ipod.

Phones make a handy game room, too.

Shakey’s salute to the old.

This Shakeys is less than a year old.

On the trail again.

It was just a little steep.

Water fall through the trees.

I am getting that “Why do you have to take my photo look again.”

Down stream.

The falls.

Boulders.

It was supposed to rain that day and started to as we were going into Shakeys but cleared up for our walk.

High adventure.

Great pose for princes J.

I am glad the kids still enjoy going to the parks.

Up, up and away.

We found an interesting sign and heard some weird noises.

Beautiful rocks everywhere.

Once we climbed back up the hill we saw what the sign was all about.. there was a rock quarry next door.

Smokey Mountains

February 4, 2009 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

We had a wonderful trip to TN in October!

We stopped at one of our new favorite restaurants called the Santa Fe Cattle Co. It’s half-way between here and there and made the perfect rest/gas stop for our trip. They have really good TX – Mex food.. Nothing near as good at home.

I wanted a photo with the truck out front because it reminded me of my Granddad.

A nice sparrow patiently posed in the truck window for me to remind me of how much God cares for us.

The trip up was amazing. The hills, the trees, and the weather were all wonderful.

The colors were ripe and beautiful. Amazing! I felt like I was seeing color for the first time. I can’t imagine how wonderful the colors in heaven must be.

We drove up to where you hike up .5 miles to the highest point in the Smokies, Clingman’s Dome. It’s the third highest point in the East. The drive was beautiful. Our ears popped. I don’t know how Mike was able to keep his eyes on the road with so much beauty to stare at.

I got some individual photos while we were there.

We stopped at the bathrooms before we made the hike and something about them seemed familiar. Mom told me we visited the park when I was 15.

The air was thin, the trail steep and I was more out of shape than the rest of the crew. I had to stop and rest and take pictures a good hand full of times on the way up.

A sweet elderly lady encouraged me that I could make it. She was on her way back down. I am not sure if I was more encouraged or embarrassed that I looked like I needed the encouragement.

Once you get to the top you have to climb higher up to the observation tower to see over the trees. I think that if someone else had had the camera I would have waited till they came down to see the photos.

They got a little chilly up there waiting for me in the wind.

I handed the camera to a stranger who had her own really fancy camera and she took a photo for us.

We passed by this trail on our way down. We were too wimpy to actually hike it. I liked the sign.

Orange.

Cool roads.

We did find another trail that wasn’t as steep.

The kids were done having their photos taken.

We walked along this stream most of the way.

My programmer took the camera from me so I would stop taking his picture.

He took some interesting photos of fungi and ferns and things.

The stream even sounded beautiful.

These two explored both sides of the river.

Back across the river to sneak up and scare Mom.

Car stops along the way down.

Gatlinburg dressed up for October.

We spent a few nights in Gatlinburg at the bottom of the Smokey Mountains.

It’s very touristy and I didn’t think I would like it but I really did. It was fun.

One morning Princess J and I woke up and the boys were all sleeping and instead of being bored and stuck in the hotel we were able to walk down the street and have breakfast together and do a bunch of shopping before they even knew we were gone.. Everything is in walking distance there.

It was very beautiful. There were a lot of shops with all kinds of artistic kinds of stuff.

This is a hibiscus. I always get excited when I know the name of a flower.

There were several Ripley’s Musems. The little “Herbie” opens his hood and moves. It’s fun to watch the people jump in surprise.

This is one of many mini wedding chapels in town. They had all kinds.

Too much sun for the photo I wanted.

Before we left the mountains Mike stopped at this park that had several pioneer cabins, a mill and other cool museum/buildings to see.

My programmers strategy to get me to stop making him pose for photos is not to smile.

He is missing up my photos. Any suggestions?

Why do you think this church has two doors.. one for the women one for the men? My camera battery died after this photo. Maybe a better strategy would be to hide my battery charger.

We had a wonderful time. We are thinking about going back every year. Want to come?

Happy Birthday to Me

January 10, 2009 / Jennifer Coleman / 3 Comments

Moving this past year caused me to discover all kinds of stuff about myself.. for instance when I looked back at my FL house and saw all the different colors I used to paint it I realized that I am a very colorful person.

Once we settled in a little, I started worrying that I was going to have a very lonely birthday. I was turning 40 and had to choose between keeping it a secret so that I wouldn’t have to share it with well meaning strangers and arranging something so I could celebrate it big with people I know and love.. who lived very far away.

My birthday is in mid-September.. and although I think it’s the perfect time of year and love that I was born on my Dad’s birthday, it’s turned out to be a bad time of year for celebrating…

In Mike’s field of work, fiscal close out is Oct. 1 which often means from mid-September on he is working long hours trying to spend millions of dollars so that his budget doesn’t get cut the following year. He is usually not a lot of fun during that time of year .

The very first year he was able to work it out to take me for a date on my birthday was the year the twin towers were hit by terrorist.. ever since then the week of my birthday has been a national week of mourning the anniversary of 9/11.

So this year when Mike agreed to take me to see the cherry blossoms for his birthday I decided that I needed more time than just a night or a weekend to celebrate my birthday and that I would celebrate all year. So every trip we took, every time we went on a date, in my heart we were celebrating my birthday.

One night, in July, we drove the kids to a concert near Birmingham and went into Birmingham for dinner. I shared with Mike my silly idea of celebrating my birthday all year. And guess what was waiting for me in the bushes out side the restaurant? This birthday balloon. I took it as a sign that my Heavenly Father was celebrating with me.

I will have to keep it in a scrapbook to remind me of His tender love for me.

My generous mom and mil sent me money for my birthday and I bought myself these candle pillars to light when it’s too warm to light the fire place. We enjoy the atmosphere. I looked all over town and on line for candle pillars and couldn’t find any… until I heard the Lord tell me to wait one more week and found that the next week Hobby Lobby had hundreds of candle pillars on sale 50% off.

They turned out even more beautiful than I imagined.

I found this leather jacket at Kohl’s. It was a little more money than I wanted to spend so Mike took me all over town to see if we could find a better deal. None of them were as nice as this one. I waited to see if it would be cheeper on Black Friday.. it wasn’t and they had run out of my size. I looked for it on line on the following Monday and discovered they were having 15% off everything Cyber Monday. I forgot all about Cyber Monday.

I also got to buy several winter tops on sale. I didn’t have many after all those years in FL. I bought three for less than $10 with tax at one sale.

God planned a birthday surprise for me on my actual birthday weekend. A friend from Huntsville invited me to go on a field trip with her. We got to go on a tour of the Capital building with a man that was a member of Martin Luther King’s church and actually marched in the Bloody Sunday march from Selma to Montgomery. He is considered the AL Historian and has his masters in history. He was fascinating to listen to.

We got to look at some beautiful art. I love art.

Here is my friend Lee Ann and her son with our docent, Aroine Irby.

Here our our kids hanging outside the governors mansion.

Isn’t this charming?

And I love this arrangement with the angel.

This is a prayer garden in the back yard of the mansion. It’s cool to know that they have a place to pray.

This is a sculpture of Jesus that was donated to the Department of Archives and History. I love it. It looks very much like my visions of Jesus.

So the other thing that I learned about myself is that I am big on birthdays and think that they should be celebrated big. I was so blessed by all the trips I got to take this year to celebrate my birthday, for the great sales I found, and for the time I got to spend with my friend Lee Ann and her son.

I really want to blog

October 26, 2008 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

I really want to blog… I have Mo Ranch pictures and TN pictures. I had a wonderful time in God’s beautiful world. Yesterday we drove to Birmingham’s Art Museum and saw pages from Leonardo Da Vinic’s notebooks! So cool. They are moving to San Francisco next month.

Selling our house and moving last year forced us to cut back on the best school subjects like science, art and history.. so this year we are doubling up. Figuring out how to squeeze more hours into my school day has been stressful and has left no time for blogging, but it had to be done and has already proven rewarding.

I think everyone is enjoying school. The only complaint that I’ve heard is that they’re having a hard time getting all their papers written so I am praying that God will give me wisdom in how much is fair to expect and how to encourage them to persevere.

I am only good at focusing on one thing at a time so all that focus on school has left the house in shambles. God spoke to me about being faithful in the small things the week we got back from TN. I asked Him to be a little more specific.. but figured He was talking about the house so I’ve been slowly getting that back under control.

Time with God, resting on vacation, school, house work… then maybe I’ll really get to blog again.

Miss you all.

Love,