On Friday, December 27th we loaded up the van and headed out well before sunrise to start our big family trip to Asheville, North Carolina. My parents rented a house there so that all of us could spend the week between Christmas and New Years together. The last time we all got together at Christmas was two months after Hazel was born, so it was fun to have this time together. Our trip took about 12 hrs and about half way into it, Pepper started throwing up. At first we weren't very surprised, Pepper is known to get carsick and the whole trip was on winding roads through mountains. I was driving and felt nauseous myself. She kept throwing up on and off the rest of our trip but we still didn't think much of it. We finally made it to the house along with everyone else around 4-5pm on Friday. We were all so happy to be out of the car that we forgot about Pepper being sick and let the kids loose on the house and with their cousins. Soon we heard kids screaming and Pepper had apparently thrown up on someone's bed, a top bunk to be precise. Next during dinner, she threw up all over the kitchen floor. I was still thinking it was leftover carsickness but I must admit I was starting to get nervous. I tell you all this because it sadly becomes the main theme of our ENTIRE week!
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| My fogged up camera trying to capture the kids enjoying chubby, baby Robert. |
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| The view from the kitchen into the dining room. |
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| These two had a bit of a love-hate relationship going on but hopefully it won't take them too long to become best cousin/buddies. |
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| The massage chair was a hot spot for everyone. Here's Katie hitching a ride on Joshua's lap. |
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| Alice and Pepper had a lot of fun this trip. |
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| The group in the main floor living room. |
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| Katie now riding on Morgan's lap. |
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| Gramma unloaded a very packed mini van full of presents much to the delight of all the kids. We decided to wait on that madness for a bit and have the cousin gift exchange on Saturday. |
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| Morgan gave this Mater pillow pet to baby Robert. |
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| Tough being the baby brother after 3 girls. |
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| Mike and Cody watching some hockey. |
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| Happy Saturday night baths for the crew. |
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| Gramma and a clean Hazel playing a duckie game. |
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| Gramma and all her grand-kids, minus Nathan, who was probably on a phone somewhere! |
So back to the sickness narrative. We all spent Saturday enjoying hanging out together, running errands and exploring the area. Everyone was happy to be together and feeling good. Pepper slept fine Friday night and did not get sick again. Her appetite was slowly coming back so all was forgotten. About 2am, I was tossing and turning in bed feeling kind of nauseous, not unusual for a pregnant lady in a new bed, and then it got to the point where I realized this wasn't a pregnancy thing. Luckily, we had the master bedroom with attached bath. Shortly after it started with me, Cody made a beeline for the bathroom. We pretty much spent the rest of the night taking turns rushing to and from the bathroom. How Hazel slept through it all, I will never know! By Sunday morning when everyone was getting ready for church, I managed to crawl out of our room, which was right off the kitchen and inform everyone that we were not going to make it. Come find out Mikayla was also down for the count. So, Cody, Mikayla, Hazel (who was healthy and running amok) and I stayed home while everyone else went to church. Things were beginning to get better for Cody and I but still very rough. I could barely move and my hands and feet were numb and tingling. When everyone came home, my dad and brothers-in-law helped give Cody and I blessings and then Gramma took Hazel into her room for a nap while Cody and I continued to rest up. All together it was pure hell for about 12 hours and then we began to slowly come back to life. By that evening I just couldn't stay in bed anymore and we agreed to join everyone for presents.
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| I only managed a few pictures of the group from my perch on the couch but all the kids were greatly enjoying themselves. |
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| Pepper giving Gramma her present from our family. |
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| Yep, we got my mom a giant stuffed moose to add to her collection. All of the little ones were very excited, too. |
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| Hazel very happy with her new bride, Belle and Prince Adam. Didn't take her long to already get him partially undressed. |
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| Yep, this captures perfectly how we felt! |
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| Hazel helping Papa stomp on all the boxes. |
As you can probably guess, after that point it was like a ticking time bomb on who would be hit next with the stomach bug. Each day and night others would drop and there was always someone walking around with a bucket or being quarantined. It made planning our days a bit of a challenge since you never knew who would be healthy enough to participate. Some activities had to be delayed and others scrapped but we still all managed to have a fun vacation. I felt horrible since we were the ones who brought the sickness but everyone was very kind and we all just rolled with it. Luckily, no one else got it as bad as Cody and I and everyone had different symptoms but it always lasted just about 12 hrs. So, now on to the rest of our vacation.
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| The house was fully stocked with toys and fun kids stuff. Hazel found this horse and had a great time with it. |
I was still feeling pretty week on Monday afternoon, so I stayed home with a napping Hazel, my dad and a sick Joshua, while everyone else went on a hike to Chimney Rock.
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| Turns out there were a TON of stairs during the hike so it was a very good thing Papa, Hazel and I stayed home. The view does look pretty amazing, though! |
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| Jane and Mikayla spent the whole time in matching outfits courtesy of Gramma. They even traded one sock so they really could be twinners. |
We had planned to visit The Biltmore Estate, the Vanderbilt's summer home, on Monday but because some of us were still recovering or beginning to get sick, we decided to wait till Tuesday and take our chances. It worked out well and for the most part everyone who wanted to go seemed to be hanging in there. Because it was New Year's Eve it was a bit crowded but not too bad and we all had a fun day together.
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| Kids enjoyed the shuttle rides and the first glimpse of the big house. |
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| It was a very chilly and windy day but we managed to keep warm and have fun. |
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| Enjoying some treats after seeing the house. |
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| Attempting a group photo. |
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| That's enough of that. You can see me making a bee-line for the shuttle in the background (pink rain coat.) |
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| Hazel making use of Jill's karaoke machine. Apparently this is her serious singing stance. |
Here's a video of her vocal stylings:
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| Singing takes it out of you! |
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| Here are some views of the backyard and pond. |
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| Our fleet of Honda Odysseys, minus one more. Great minds think alike. |
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| Celebrating New Year's Eve with ice cream. |
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| Warming up for our big dance party game. |
Here's a video of the kids moves:
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| Even managed to drag the preggo lady out of the massage chair. It was actually tons of fun and everyone had a blast. |
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| I spent the majority of the dance party with this wonderful view. |
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| Serious concentration. |
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| Gramma busting a move in the background. Morgan spent most of the time busy playing star wars or something and we could never quite get him to dance but Ben was a little dancing machine! |
On New Year's Day we ventured over to the Grove Park Inn in Asheville to see their annual gingerbread house competition and display. Mom had been wanting to see this and it was the last day to view it. It was a cold and overcast day so it was nice to have something we could all do together indoors.
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| I took a ton of pictures because there were so many amazing and fun houses. It is amazing what people can do with food! There were different categories for children, youths, teenagers and adults. Everyone did an amazing job. |
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| Some of the crazy girls running about. |
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| Found these snipers taking aim on us. |
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| This was the grand prize winner. Simply spectacular! |
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| Ben picked this as his favorite. |
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| This hotel was UNREAL. It would be very fun to come back one day and stay. Maybe during a different season, though. |
Gramma's one request for this whole visit was to get a group shot of all of us. Because of the sickness this kept getting messed up because we rarely had a moment when we were all up and about and doing something together. We finally managed at the hotel. It's not the fanciest of photos but at least we were all together!
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| I love "getting ready" shots. |
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| If you zoom in on Pepper and Kate, you won't be disappointed!!! |
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Attempting a family photo.
Hazel was super helpful, don't be fooled by her cute smile in this one. |
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| The girls give up!!! |
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Trying for a Terry family photo.
So many fun faces! |
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| Joshua's favorite. |
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| A rare shot of Nathan. Teenagers are so elusive! But it was so fun to have him around! |
We all ended up staying an extra day because a storm blew in. We got a dusting of snow and some ice in North Carolina but all of the way north got pounded on Thursday with about 8 inches of snow and the roads were horrible. It was nice to have one more day to just chill and get organized and spend some time together with all of us feeling pretty good, even though now we all had colds.
Friday morning, we left super early to head home. However, first up was a 2hr detour to Sevierville, Tennessee to visit the Smoky Mountain Knife Works store. Cody has bought knives from their catalog for years and was super, super excited to go there. It is a humongous store and knife museum, much the same as LL Bean or Ron Jons Surf shop. We spent almost 2 hrs inside the store and stopped for breakfast as well. The girls and I were more than done by the time we left but I was glad we stopped for Cody's sake. He was like a kid in a candy shop and would have happily stayed another 2hrs!
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| Nothing like a 3 story knife in a rock statue! |
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| Dead animals everywhere! Actually helped keep Hazel entertained pointing them all out. |
After all the week's adventures it was nice to have an uneventful trip home. We took our time and stopped to have dinner at Dairy Queen in the middle of nowhere-West Virginia. We finally made it home around 9:30pm. We were very fortunate to leave our home in the hands of Gary Griesmyer. We arrived home to find a warm house and totally plowed driveway. We easily put the kids to bed, unpacked the van and collapsed very, very happy to be home!
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| Such a vision! |
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| Hazel, of course, slept a grand total of 20 minutes all day. Good thing she's a happy camper! |
Here are all my random iPhone pictures that I was too lazy to fit into chronological order.
After the gingerbread showcase, we all had lunch at Fuddrucker's Burger place. So yummy!
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| It is weird watching my little nephews become such big kids! Nathan even scored a phone number from a young waitress! |
I am so grateful to my parents for making this trip and family time possible! I, again, apologize for bringing the wonderful stomach flu to the party but am so grateful for the memories!
