This October, we celebrated our first ever Lionhood Family Reunion. The event was over a year and a half in the planning stages and finally came together in the Smoky Mountains. To make the trip easy for everyone involved, we picked a location that was centralized for us all, which turned out to be Pigeon Forge, or Seiverville, TN to be more exact. The boys did fantastic on our long drive to Tennessee and wound up sleeping for most of the car ride. We arrived to the property at around 2 AM, which involved driving up a very steep winding road in the middle of the night, which is never a very easy task. There we met the boys grandparents and began unloading the vehicles while the ladies put the boys to bed.
First thing in the morning, we woke up to some pretty amazing views of the mountain tops in the Smoky's and a terrific sunrise. The boys spent the day visiting with their grandparents while Antoinette and I did our best to baby proof a house with four levels and steep outside balconies that plummeted about 50-70 feet to the mountain side below. Pretty scary place if you don't like heights. Great property, featuring a top level with pool tables, private balconies off the Master, huge fireplace in the Master, private bath, and an interior balcony overlooking the level below. The main level below the top level had a gourmet kitchen, huge dining room, giant flat panel mounted in the living room, another Master bedroom w/ private bath, and huge wrap around balconies overlooking the mountains. The lower level was the game level with two bedrooms, a wet bar, air hockey, foosball table, and a hot tub out on the deck overlooking the mountains. Finally, the bottom floor, two levels down from the main, had the movie theatre, another couple bedrooms and bathrooms, and a gaming area for cards/chess/reading, etc. No balcony on this level, but a giant floor to ceiling window overlooking the mountains, too.
Later in the evening on that first night, my brother and his family and my sister and her family arrived, both just in time for the Ohio State game. For the first time since a couple of the new arrivals were born, all of the cousins under the age of 8 had a chance to spend a little time with each other. For the entire night, the place was alive with kids running everywhere. All together, there were 10 children between the ages of newborn and eight years old having the time of their lives. But the days would not be spent just hanging out in this property. We had a few "excursions" mixed into this trip.
On our first day venturing out from the property, we took a 30 minute car ride to Smoky Mountain National Park in Gatlinburg to drive one of the most popular Motor Nature trails in the country. This trail wound its way through the mountains for an hour with several stop offs and great pics of the property around. About half way through the trail, we got a chance to show the boys a Mama Bear running with two cubs through the trees parallel to the road. Although we took a couple pictures of her and the cubs, when you see the pictures flash through, she could be tough to spot in many of the photos. When the trail ride was over, we made our way to one of the more secluded picnic areas in the park and had a huge family BBQ under a very large pavilion with a huge stone fireplace in the center of it. The pavilion was just a few hundred yards from a large mountain stream rushing over rocks that you could put your feet in if you wanted. One thing about mountain streams though...they are very, very cold.
The next day, the weather was a bit sketchy (chilly, overcast, and a slight drizzle) so we decided to make another run over to Gatlinburg and take the kids to one of the largest Aquariums in the country. The Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg was very impressive. Tons of kid friendly things to do in there including fish tanks the kids can actually crawl inside, all sorts of animals to touch (including a cranky old man who kept yelling at us to stop touching the ones that were "attached" even if they were upside down and we were just trying to flip them back over), and a giant under aquarium tunnel that seemed to last forever. You stood on a conveyor belt system capable of taking you not only straight, but also on curves around corners and down even more elaborate sections of the tunnels. At at least three different points, I thought the tunnel had to be ending, but it just never did. Overall, the aquarium was a lot of fun and a great time for all the kids.
The next day, we took a day of rest. Nobody rushed to go anywhere other than a walk to the top of the mountain we were staying on and see just how high we could get. The walk was very tiring since we all took some of the older kids and walked it to the very top to take some pictures of the mountains and valleys down below. The rest of the time, we were in a hot tub, shooting pool, and sitting down to a very large and elaborate dinners that were put on my the ladies.
With a couple days left of the trip, we decided to head back to the National Park to one of the most scenic areas in not just this park, but any park in the country. Cades Cove is essentially a giant loop around a valley floor with picturesque mountains and fields like you'd find on a postcard. Many of the photos taken in the cove will show up in this video log of pictures that should be coming shortly after this post. The loop was a long one, but eventually ended with us stopping by Chimney Tops campground where we found a great picnic area next to a babbling creek to take our family photos and have another outdoor BBQ/grill out. Another great day at the Smoky Mountain National Park.
On our final full day of the Reunion, we decided to visit a place called Parrot Mountain. After a 20 minute drive from our place to get near this place, we wondered where the actual mountain was. Then we reached a sign that told us that we needed to take a left turn. What a left turn it was. When you hooked about 160 degrees so you were facing nearly the way you just came, the road went straight up the mountain with curving and winding roads. We really had to jump on it to get to the top of the mountain and even the parking lot at the top was on a violent slant downward. Once into Parrot Mountain, it became clear why people choose to come here. The place was quite a sight. Parrots everywhere on perches. Big parrots, small parrots, white parrots, colorful parrots. Parrots for petting, baby parrots for feeding, finches for flying around and landing on you, etc. All tucked away into grounds that look like they came right out of a Thomas Kincaid painting. Amazing place and if you're going to visit this area, I strongly recommend you take your kids to Parrot Mountain. The loved feeding the birds and overall, just had a blast. More family photos were taken here of the whole group, which I will include in the video images.
The final morning, one at a time, we said goodbye to everyone and we left that amazing place. The first ever family reunion for our family was over until next year, with commitments from everyone that left this one to surely come again based on the amazing time had by all. Plans for that trip are already in the works as we look to take the family to an entirely different part of the country with the idea to move this reunion all over the map so we can visit new places together as a large group.
On the car ride home, Antoinette and I decided to make a stop in Asheville, NC, which is a place we had heard so much about and wanted to see if everything we had heard was true. While we only stopped there for a short time, it certainly appeared to be. Mountains in the landscape behind every turn and hill, nice little neighborhoods, and a quiet and quaint little downtown area. Very nice and very pleasant. We decided to make our first pit stop here in Asheville and stopped a smidge off the beaten path to a place I saw on the map called The North Carolina Arboretum. My lord, what an amazing place we happened to stumble into. You'll see many pictures of this place in the video update, but it was a rare combination of art, mountains, trees, leaves changing colors, flowers, waterfalls, fountains, hedges, open fields, etc. Amazing place to stop and have a picnic as a family before we continued on with our drive home to Florida.
With the family reunion in the books, we move onto the most recent change in the family which was our celebration of A.J.'s first birthday. Being that he's only 1 year old and doesn't know much better, we worked this out in much the same way we did with Billy's 1st birthday party. Basically, we kept it as a close family affair and at halftime of the Bears game (a day early, but timely none-the-less), we broke out a birthday cake for the little guy, homemade by his Momma, and let him tear into it a little bit. This was quite a weak party as far as those things go, but that's OK. He has two more birthday parties coming up as we welcome multiple visitors to town for the holidays over the next week and a half which will allow us to celebrate with A.J. two more times. How many one year olds wind up with three birthday cakes in a week?
Speaking of A.J.'s first birthday, his life has changed dramatically with this key milestone. For one, his car seat has been reversed into a face forward position meaning that A.J., for the first time ever, can actually watch the movie that's playing on long car rides instead of just having to listen to it while he stared at the back of a car seat. Can't blame him for fussing with that going on. Now he can see where we're going, get a feel for the car moving and the world moving around him, and feel like a bigger part of the family on these drives.
Another key change for him is the transition from formula to whole milk We began phasing this in slowly by giving him combinations of 75/25 formula/milk lukewarm, followed by 50/50 a few days later and a little bit cooler. Then he went to 25/75 and now he's drinking milk already. Just a few days to transition all the way. We've also shifted him away from bottles and hope to have him completely away from bottles all together by Christmas, using only sippy cups. We are also broadening his diet quite a bit.
A.J.'s also a climber now, and we all know that what goes up......must come down. That includes couches. A.J. rips up that couch with little to no assistance only to come flying back down, sometimes butt first, sometimes head first, and sometimes anything else first. Gradually, he's learning how to get on and off of Billy's bed and the couch, so I would imagine it will only be a couple weeks before this is a non-issue too.
Couple final items on A.J. He can talk now...sort of. His first words are Dada, football, eye brow (go figure), Mama, Baba (bottle), all done (when finished eating), teeth, bye bye, nose, and a handful of others. He's also earned the right to start playing with the Iphone (under close supervision, of course). And he's already starting to figure out how to move things around in his little kid games that are trying to teach him how to spell and what his letters are, etc. Of course he has no idea what he's doing, but I just want him to get a handle on how to manipulate the screen. General rules that will allow him to really use the Iphone once he starts figuring out what the games are trying to get him to do.
As for Billy, biggest updates for him are related to the family reunion and now a growing love of watching basketball on TV. Tis the season (at least with College). Billy knows his entire alphabet via the alphabet song, which he will happily sing to you. Not bad for 2.5 years old. He can also count (with a smidge of assistance) to 12 or 13 and is much better at using the big clock on the wall (face clock, not digital) to tell time. Hour hand, minute hand, etc. We use it like this: "When the big hand is on the four, Billy, you are going to bed. That's 8:20, OK? See the little hand on the eight? OK, you watch and tell me when the big hand is on the four and then we'll go brush your teeth, OK?" Sure enough, he'll watch the clock and let you know when that time has come. He also knows one very important lesson in life. 8 PM during football season means football is coming on (at least on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. So every night at 8 PM, he'll say "8 on clock, Dada. Football on?" That's my boy!!!
The last little bit I want to throw in there since you're going to see a whole lot of pics about it were the boys Halloween costumes. Buzz and Woody was the theme this year from Toy Story and the boys loaded up on candy on a three hour walk around the neighborhood begging for as many sweets as they possibly could. Our neighborhood has a tendency to go all out including throwing Halloween haunted house setups right in their own garages up and down the street. Really turns into a massive block party with what seems like hundreds of kids and their parents all crammed into a five or six block area where all the action happens. Anyway, here are the all of the pictures from the month that was.
More to come after visitors come and go with lots of pictures to go with those visits, and of course, we'll have our Thanksgiving updates too!!!
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