To the Mountains of North Carolina Days #3-5

"Brace yourself Effie!"  Do you know what movie that is from?  Well, this post has nothing to do with the actual meaning of that quote... if, in fact you know the origin.  I just want you to brace yourself for the deluge of pictures coming your way.

I'm wrapping up the last two days of our trip.  The 5th day was spent driving back home... in sadness.

Day #3 of our trip was marked with what I hope has become years of memory making for our children.  Janae and I decided to start Family Theme nights (or in this case... family theme DAYS).  I'll explain more through the pictures.

The Family Theme for the trip was 60's Day.  

60's Day started the night before with everyone making tie-dyed t-shirts.



On Friday morning the kids were eager to see the final t-shirt product and put on the finishing touches of their outfits... sunglasses and peace necklaces.


Janae started the day with a "school" lesson.  (We pulled them out of school for this trip.  We had to teach them something!)

Janae made a board of popular wordage used in the 60's.  She taught the kids the words and then we all tried to use the words as often as we could during the day.



The 60's teacher, Miss Janae.


Shelby and Bryn practicing their peace signs.


We decided to head into the local town after our lesson.  On our way in, we had to stop at a gas station so Paul could get his Mountain Dew.  I went in and saw pickled eggs in a jar.  (Gas stations in the south crack me up.)  So, I bought one for Janae.  Does she like pickled eggs?  No.  But, that's just the kind of friend I am.  I am always trying to be thoughtful and do nice things for those I love.

And, as you can see by the expression on her face, she is thrilled that I would think so highly of her.  (Janae and I did not have tie-dyed shirts.  We had matching peace shirts.)  (P.S.  About that... you will find no pictures of us in our matching shirts because.... in our matching shirts I look like a marshmallow standing next to a stick.  Pictures are bad enough when we aren't dressed exactly alike.)


So, yeah, we went into this little town all dressed EXACTLY alike.  To say we got a few stares would be a gross understatement.  

This is the clan of kids, minus Novalee, in front of this amazing furniture store.  Seriously, we went in and it was one of the coolest stores I have ever been in.  I pretty much wanted to live there.  Well, I wanted to live there until all of a sudden these HUGE, hairy dogs came bursting in through the back of the store.  Seriously, there was something wrong with being in this store and all of a sudden two gigantic dogs appear.  They were super friendly.... the whole scene just did not go together.  And so because the scene was so odd, Janae whipped out her pickled eggs and put it in the mouth of one of those hairy beasts.  Initially, the dogs felt the same way as Janae about the egg.  He moved it around his mouth for a second and then promptly spit it out.  He then apparently had a change of heart because he scooped it back up, chewed it twice and then pretty much swallowed it whole.  He must have thought it was dog food unlike he'd ever tasted and he thought he might as well give it a whirl.  

The whole scene was a bit surreal... crazy cool Adirondack like furniture store... 2 hugs dogs in furniture store.... one dog eating pickled egg.  I shudder to think it came back up in that store later.


Then, in keeping with the theme, we went to a drug store that had a snack bar in the rear of the store.  Could you get anymore 60's than that?  

The kids ate ice cream at the bar in the drugstore.





Paul and Gracie- with a super fake smile.






Clearly, we have done a horrible job of teaching Emme ice cream cone eating ettiquette.

In the little town square.  Can you imagine the stares?

After our adventure in town, we had to head back to St. Lucia (aka... the rocks/sand/ dirt lake. On our way to the water's edge, we walked through an old cemetery.  I was very disturbed by one of the grave sites.  Every time I see it it makes me jerk my head... a Kramer (Senfield) head jerk...... and shudder.



Yikes!  Are you kidding me?  What is up with that?  I have to move on quickly!



NEXT....

 St. Lucia for the kids... rocks/dirt/water for the adults... AND fond, fond memories for all.

The kids LOVED playing here!  It doesn't really matter why because all parents like to see kids thoroughly enjoying themselves in the simplest of activities and because I am pretty sure the 4 of us can find ANYTHING to laugh at no matter where we are.

Michael playing Moses holding up the 10 Commandments.

After the water playing, Janae and I had to run to the store for something.  When we came back, there were large chalk drawings of us one the drive.

That's me.  Michael thinks I wear this silver-beaded necklace ALL the time so he always puts in on me in his animated drawings.



I always love his drawings of Janae's hair... except this one was so mean.  She's had some hair fall out due to... who the heck knows... Chemo, steroids, STRESS... 

Really, no one really tell she's lost hair... but he had to draw her hair thinning in the picture.

Tie-dyed fruit platter.



Our decorations.

The kids tie-dyed cupcakes.









The finished cupcakes.  Janae made the peace signs on the top from pipe cleaners.  She's crafty like that!


We went shopping before we left.  Here we are in our 60's dinner outfits.  Seriously, could we have found anything more perfect?








Janae and Michael... they'll grow old together.  In 40 years, I'll post another picture of them on this bench.



We made some lava lamps with oil, water, food coloring and...  What are those tablets that fizz to clean dentures?  Yeah, whatever those are called.




Sue... why does she look so studious doing this?  She's like a chemist.



Well, I guess Kaya looks serious too.  These kids need to relax!  







We were trying to relax on the porch and soak up the sun... and then Emme decided she was constipated.  What if adults cried and screamed and acted like that when they were constipated?  That'd be kinda funny, huh?



The kids had a water balloon toss with... Ready?... tie-dyed water balloons.





Hollywood Kaya!





The last evening was spent around a campfire making smores.  

Below is a picture of the house where all the fun took place.  Lots of great memories in that house.  I am very thankful for generous people like Michael's parents who would open up their house and share it with a family with so many kids.   

Since our line of work doesn't line us up to be featured in Forbes, I am pretty sure money would not have lent itself for us to do something like... get away in the mountains... in a nice house like the one above... and just enjoy being families.







And, I think that's why it was so sad to come home.  Sometimes, I think we have life all wrong.  I don't think we were meant to live life so separated.  It's so hard that way.  Life is so much more enjoyable making meals together, eating together, dealing with kid conflict, cleaning together and playing together.

Life is hard.  But it's also good.  And, God loves to give good gifts to his children.  The Corbett family has been just that for our family... a good gift... straight from the hand of God.

P.S.  The movie line at the beginning was from Mrs. Doubtfire.