a little post-Christmas trip with friends

A couple weeks before Christmas my man and his buddy Clint put their heads together and whipped up a trip to the Smoky Mountains. 

So the day after Christmas we headed east. 

Clint has been a friend of Anthony's for a loooong time. I think kindergarten or maybe even earlier. 

You may remember the beach wedding from a couple years ago. 
Clint & Kyla's wedding Oct 2011

Since the wedding, we've gotten in kinda a habit of hangin out with "the Browns" and I hafta say we really dig it. 

They're laid back & fun. 

And their kid... 
Avery's a hoot! 100% boy! Cool kid. And pretty funny, too. 

 I don't think Clint combed his hair at any point during the trip LOL 

Anyway, we didn't do a big bunch of stuff while we were in the mountains. Mostly just hung out together, did a little shopping, and of course did some eating. Isn't that always a part of vacationing? 

We had pizza one night and it just happened to have an arcade in it that a certain 2 year old was kinda into. ha 
We joked that the toys, er prizes they give for tickets appear to be the same crap stuff we got at Chuck E. Cheese as kids. 

We headed to this oldie but goodie one night for some grub.  nomnom

Tasty. 
We were all miserably full by the end of the meal. I don't know how you can leave this place without being stuffed. 

On the way to dinner that night Avery was looking at pics on his mom's iPhone. I saw what was obviously pics of Avery opening gifts on Christmas. Being the clever adult I am, I asked Avery "What is that? Your birthday?" Avery said "Noooo it's Jesus' birthday." 

The things 2 year olds say. 

And when you're around 9,000 different candy stores, you eventually just have to stop in one of em.
Especially when the name of the shop is the Chocolate Monkey. 
I mean come on!

Anthony went for the pecans & I was a sucker for the mint oreo. Typical. 

On Saturday there was a game on that the fellas were interested in. 
Big shock. 
So they headed off to Buffalo Wild Wings and watched the game. And Anthony had "first dinner." Or maybe it was "second lunch." #Officereference

Anyway, as it turned out it was rainy so after Avery's nap we headed to an indoor arcade. That's where I snagged this shot of Avery's sweet little smile.

He's a climber this one.

And his favorite game was the basketball shoot.

One night we watched a movie in the condo. Kyla predicted that Clint wouldn't make it through the whole movie. 

She was right. 

He sat like this for an hour probably. 
Like a statue. 
The flash didn't even make him flinch when I shot this pic. 
Notice he's got the phone open. Thumbs in place. Said he was about to text when he dozed off. 

We eventually made it over to the new area in Pigeon Forge they call "the Island" with the huge ferris wheel. 

 It's 200 feet tall which is the equivalent of about 20 stories I think. It was a nice slow ride in an enclosed car. But Anthony was still white knuckled most of the ride. Ha!

They take your pic in front of one of those green screens. I'm a sucker for pics so we got em! 

Throughout the trip Avery would sing "Boys Round Here" by Blake Shelton. He "made it his own" as they say, which was pretty funny. And Anthony taught him how to "mix it" on the red, red, redneck part. 
It took me about a week to get the song out of my head and I don't even know the song. Lol 

I think I had kinda forgotten how active 2 year olds are. There was constant running, wrestling, flipping, playing and talking. 

And lots of cuteness. 

Like when he said the word ridiculous. Big words comin out of tiny people = funny stuff ! 

So anyway. We had a really good time and I wouldn't mind if this became a tradition for us... 

If I could turn back time... to Christmas

Don't shoot me for this late post. 

I meant to do it before now. Really I did.

I posted some stuff from MY side of the fam but not the hub's. Can't be leavin them out. 

So here goes. 

Anthony has only one sister. And she has a son. That's Christy and Dawson. 

I don't know if I've ever specifically mentioned it on the blog, but Anthony's dad died when Anthony was in 4th grade. When Anthony was in 6th grade, his mom remarried. A very good man named Terry. He has two sons that are older than Anthony. They lived with their mom by the time Terry married Anthony's mom. So anyway. That's the rundown for the hub's fam.

We got together the Saturday night before Christmas. 
To eat. 
And to give these kiddos some gifts. 
The nieces & nephews...  
       they're growin up. 

Probably the funniest thing this Christmas was when Kyle got some knives. He's W I L D when he opens his gifts anyway, but when he got the machete he had asked for he may have said something about being ready for the zombie apocalypse. 

Here he is with his dad. 
     And his deadly weapon.

As he headed out that night he mentioned something about chopping some trees. Poor trees.

Movin on. 

Somebody might love him some Alabama Roll Tide gear... 

We actually didn't get this stuff for Dawson - we got him an Alabama iPod case and iTunes gift card, but when he put on the shades and held up the shirt Joey & Jen got him, I just had to capture the moment. 

And what's not cute about this?!

A little brotherly sisterly love... or not

And some smiles & such ~

Oh and there might have been some hula hooping, too. 

Before you ask, no, I don't know why Bryson needed to take his shirt off. And I don't even know how we ended up hula hooping. And yes, you know I had a turn, too. 
And it was almost as bad as when I try to dance. Thankfully there are no pics or vids of it. One perk to bein the unofficial family photographer I s'pose.

We sure did laugh a lot. I won't name names here but let's just say we all don't have the talent of hula hooping. {cough cough Janice} 

That night the weather was a little sketch. So before the night was over, we ended up piled in the storm shelter. 
14 of us... 

{cell phone pic}

Thankfully the weather didn't get bad. Just some wind & heavy rain. 
  So that my friends was Christmas with the hub's family pretty much.

Good times. Good times indeed.