The Bakers Went To The Mountains

We are off again...

We have been in the North Georgia mountains for the weekend.  We love it up here.  After just posting about the Orlando trip, it seems like we've gone from one extreme to the other.  Beaches and wetlands...to hiking and mountaintops.  Once again, to admire the artistic hand of God! 

The weather is cooler.  (love it!) And the trees are beautiful!  The best part of Georgia for us is the trees in the fall.  We are at a friend's cabin taking a break from the busy life and learning to stop and rest for awhile.  No phones, TV or internet....the house is all asleep and I can't so I am trying to pass the time with an internet card getting this blog up to date.  You will see in a minute why I can't sleep!

I picked the girls up from school early on Friday which is a nice treat for them and we headed up north to Blue Ridge.  I love Blue Ridge.  I love the mountains and the small town shops they have downtown.  I heard someone refer to another as their neighbor.  I wonder what constitutes a neighbor when you live in the mountains?  There is not many who live near someone else...weird.  Tommy and I always talk about whether we could live where we are visiting.  I don't think I'd like living in Orlando.  Way too busy and too commercialized.  Of course the girls want to live anywhere we are visiting.  They think if they live in Orlando that they would have a week of partying like we had when we were there.  Tommy and I think we could live in the mountains.  We have talked about it a great deal...how they probably shop for groceries once a month...how they probably get snowed in every year...how life seems much simpler and so much quieter.  We dream about him finding a local job in the lumber yard and me taking care of the farm house and having dinner on the table when he gets home.  (wait, that already happens...just not the simple lumber yard job)  We can always dream, but that is not the life God has chosen for us.  I guess we could always put in a request!  :)  I love where we live and go to church, I just wonder how long we could live the VERY simple life??  Oh well, I really chased a rabbit on that one!

Anyhow, the girls and I drove up early Friday afternoon and got settled, went to the grocery store, made a pot of chili to welcome my sweet hubby when he arrived after work.  The cabin we stay in is simple but soooo nice and secluded...you feel like there is no one around for miles.  A beautiful view from the front porch and lots of room for the girls to run and explore. 

On Saturday we had a different kind of adventure.  I have always wanted to go to the Apple Festival in Ellijay.  I always hear other talking about going and we've never gone.  Tommy wanted to take me there so we loaded up and headed back south.  We had no idea truly where we were going and where it was...we just followed the signs for the festival.  We arrived in downtown Ellijay and found a place to park for free and thought for sure it would be downtown.  Wrong-o.  We found out that the festival was about 2 miles down the road.  Why we didn't just get the van and drive down there I have no idea...there were a ton of other people lost and parking downtown so we thought there must be some secret as to why others stayed parked there.  We decided to walk.  Faith, who has more energy than all 4 of us put together complained the whole way.  She was tired, her legs hurt, she was hungry, she thought we were lost, etc...  We finally arrived and paid $5 a head and walked into a time warp.  This "festival" reminded me of an outdoor flea market we had back in Oklahoma.  It was not quite the festival I had imagined it would be.  AND it was PACKED crowded!  I was also shocked to realize that with all of the $$ that was being brought in each year that there were NO public bathrooms...only about 10 port a potties.  So much fun to try to get your young daughter to use one of those.  I covered the seat completely and just said...don't even look inside the toilet!  We bought an overpriced lunch of cold hamburgers.  The fries were good and then we did have a delicious apple fritter.  The girls split a funnel cake.  We walked around and found a bull riding machine which was pretty entertaining for a bit.  Faith did rock climbing and did awesome! 
She got all the way to the top and rang the bell!          

 We made our way through the "festival" and then rode a BUS back to the car.  I do think if we had walked that Faith would have went home with another family.  :)



We came back to the cabin to a delicious pot roast and vegetables, watched a family movie and then went to bed.  That's when I experienced something I thought I'd never.  I woke up because my sinuses were congested.  Then I realized I had to go to the bathroom.  I laid in a twilight state debating whether I wanted to get up in the cold and go to the bathroom.  My leg was on top of the covers and I felt something on it.  I laid there a second and then felt something CRAWLING ON MY LEG.  In the dark I sat up and brushed my leg...that is when I realized there really was something and it was BIG.  I thought it was a big spider so I quickly turned on the light to see where it went.  I was about to turn the light back off, thinking I'd never see it when I saw something on the other side of the room SLITHERING ON THE CARPET.  I yelled for Tommy to wake up that there was a snake in the room.  I told him it was a baby snake about 3 inched long and crawled under the bed...I was thinking...WHERE'S THE MAMA?  So, my brave hubby got a flashlight and looked under the bed.  Didn't see anything.  There are 2 dust ruffles on the bed and he happened to look in between the two dust ruffles and there it was.  The most disgusting thing I have ever seen and have ever had crawl on my skin.  A black centipede.  Yes a centipede.  And in case you've never seen one...here ya go...

So after I screamed about a hundred times, Tommy finally convinced me to go get something to put it in.  I got a glass jar with a lid and we caught that booger...who STOOD UP while trying to get cornered...Once we got it in the jar, the heebie jeebies came out in me all over again.  I was just short of crying!  I couldn't believe THAT thing with THOSE pinchers was crawling on my bare leg!!  And that it did not bite me when I went to brush it off!!  I give God all the credit for waking me up with congestion, debating on going to the bathroom, just so I could get that thing OFF of my leg and out of the bed!!!  Glory hallelujah, I'm itching as we speak.  Gross!  So thankful that Tommy saved the day!  So, this is why I am up at 1am typing like a mad woman trying to get so sleepy that I slip into a quiet coma.  :)

That was Saturday...Sunday we went hiking.  We drove about 45 minutes to a trail called Long Creek Falls.  A beautiful drive!  Beautiful mountains and river!  We hiked the trail to a waterfall at the end and the water was ICE cold.  The girls wanted to get their feet wet and of course both slipped on the rocks and got their jeans wet, but good times!  Max went on this hike with us and was a trooper.  I think that hike was more walking than he has done all 5 years put together!






We plan to leave tomorrow.  I am so very grateful for this time together and away from distractions not only to focus on each other but to have some great focused quiet time with our Father.  No better place to worship than in the midst of His creation.  What an amazing, majestic Lord we serve!

Orlando Fall Break!

Wow...lots to catch up on!  This is why this blog has been difficult for me to keep up with.  I neglect it for a few weeks and it overwhelms me to think about bringing things up to speed...BUT in the long run when the girls have their memory book it will all be worth it!  (I keep telling myself)

We had a great surprise for the girls this year for our county's fall break.  It is getting harder and harder to come up with ways to surprise Alex as she is getting way too smart!  We have had a trip to Orlando planned for about 6 months that they had no idea about.  Since I encouraged the girls to save their allowance for this week, Alex got very suspicious.  Of course it was a hundred questions a day and it is very difficult for me to be misleading.  So, they both knew they were going SOMEwhere but not WHERE.  A week before we were to leave, I convinced Tommy to tell them where we were going so that they were able to get excited and not ask a bazillion more questions on the drive down there.  They were pumped!!

We planned to leave bright and early the first Saturday of the break.  I got a call from Faith's school at about 11am saying she was sick in the nurse's office.  I honestly thought it was the excitement of the trip and she just wanted to get it started a bit sooner.  I picked her up and knew right away that she was not faking.  She was a very sick little girl!  I had to pick Alex up from school early so that I could get Faith to the Doctor quickly and she was greatly disappointed knowing that there was a setback in the original plan.  We talked about how it is not truly our plan, but God's and He knew what He was doing.  The Doctor did not give me the diagnosis I wanted,  :)  (I was really hoping for strep since it is such a quick turn around with the antibiotics) but said the dreaded work....VIRUS.  Ugh!  I hate that word!!  Virus means...no meds...long illness time and this one was really really yucky!  She was pitiful.  So, we decided to postpone our 6am alarm clock setting and wait to see what Saturday held for little Faith. 

Saturday came and she seemed to be better.  She said she was ready to leave versus her losing all the desire to even go the day before.  So, we packed up and headed south.  We arrived at our hotel room late Saturday night and stayed right across from Universal Studios.  It was a really nice hotel.  Poor Faith...this is what day one's excitement was for her...

On Sunday, the girls would receive their second surprise at the Orlando airport.  We were picking up my Dad and his wife and they were coming out to spend the week with us!  The girls had NO idea that was coming!  They were very surprised and very excited!

We then arrived at our condo that we were all 6 staying in for the week.  My Dad and Cathi were very generous in blessing our family with this trip for our Christmas present.  On day 1, we drove to Clearwater Beach and drove down the gulf coast.  It was beautiful!  We love the white sand.  We ate lunch at a great seafood restaurant called Crabby Bill's.  This was Alex's sandwich...can't believe she ate it!!

Clearwater Beach was very nice.  They had a huge public access area and it was not crowded at all.  It was a great time of year to be there since most families were back in school. 

On Tuesday, we went to Universal Studios.  We loved it!!  It was pretty low key and a lot to look at and learn about.  We did not wait in line for anything which was a HUGE bonus.  I have not been to an amusement park other than Six Flags since I was very young.  They have come a long way!  Very nice park and we had a really good time.


On Wednesday, we drove east and went to Cocoa Beach.  We love Cocoa Beach since it is right next to Cape Caneveral.  We ate at a beachside restaurant and then spent the day on the beach.  My Dad, Tommy and the girls all went boogie boarding while Cathi and I enjoyed relaxing and people watching.  ;)  You can definitely see a lot of interesting folks at the beach! 

Thursday was quite an interesting day....I was hoping that Faith had kept her virus to herself, but it reared its ugly head with Alex this time.  We had tickets to go to Islands Of Adventure and we were all very excited.  We had told the girls that they had to ride all of the rides in the park.  (this demand was courtesy of my Mom who did the same to me when I was in the 1st grade...cured me of my fear of rides!)  The girls had been online researching the rides and asking friends at school about all of them.  They were both so excited.  The first ride when you walk into the park is the Hulk.....awesome ride!!!  Alex's face was priceless when she was first strapped into the ride.  She then tried to say she didn't really want to ride when we SHOT out of the loading area which was very unexpected.  I was crying from laughing so hard at her face during that ride.  It was a really great ride and very smooth too.  We decided since there was no wait to ride it a second time.  After that, we rode the log ride (great ride too) and then it hit Alex.  Her stomach hurt so bad she could not stand or sit up.  She tried to convince me to let her stay.  We tried to let her eat some soup and she couldn't.  (for her to turn down any food, you know somethings wrong!)  When she couldn't take it anymore, we decided to take the long hike back to the car and I drove her back to the condo.  She kept apologizing to me for making me miss the park.  She was almost crying for her having to miss it as well.  When we got to the van, she went to sleep and then slept for 4 hours at the condo.  I woke her up and we picked up the rest of the group.  She was so disappointed as her stomach was better by the end of the night.  Once again, we know it is all for a reason!  Here are some pics that were taken of Faith at the park.

Friday was Tommy's 35th birthday and what a way to celebrate than to be on vacation!!  I had arranged for the two of us to have a special dinner at Medieval Times and Dad and Cathi took the girls out on a date to a dinner theater called Capone's.  Tommy and I had a great time and we loved watching the horses.  The food was really good...only no utensils!  Kind of weird, but I was happy when they gave us wet wipes after we were finished. 

Saturday morning, very early, Dad and Cathi flew back to Okieville.  We checked out of the room and then headed to Downtown Disney.  We had a great time there too!  We had a little too long of a time there and we were way too tired to make the drive home once we were finished.  So, we got a cheap room and rested up for the drive home on Sunday.  Whew...what a week!!!

Highlights we will never forget...both Alex and Faith's hilarious faces when riding new rides and then saying how awesome it was when they got off...yucky viruses...late night gator hunts...finding NO mexican restaurants in Kissimmee (except for the lady who said a great mexican place is chili's) jumping in the pool with our clothes on...the alligator that lived in the pond next to the condo...hot tub and steam room...Walmart at 1am...my Dad kissing a bullfrog...2 Ron Jons...living by the GPS...enjoying God's beautiful oceans...the awesome Lego store...so many new and fun experiences...Thank you Dad and Cathi for your generosity and taking the time for us!  We Love You!!