Shake Down Cruise!!

The OHR gang is back in the saddle!  We took the new Outback on its maiden voyage this weekend, traveling to Chattanooga.  The van pulled the trailer over Monteagle with no problems, and we arrived at the Best Holiday Trav-L Park in East Ridge, GA by mid afternoon Friday. 

We drove into downtown Chattanooga on Saturday, and walked around the north shore a bit.  Rode the carousel...

Walked around the fountains...

And we enjoyed some snow cones too. 

We also enjoyed hanging around the campsite.  Here are a couple of pics of our new addition....Foofee!

On Sunday, we drove the van down to Atlanta to Ikea to get some things for the girls' rooms, and a couple things to prepare for the arrival of Anna.  All in all, it was successful first trip with the trailer.  We found a couple things to fix, but nothing major.  And we hit the Walmart to stock the cupboards.  Life doesn't get much better! 

Our Holiday Road Is Back On The Road!

After an 8 month hiatus, the Holiday Road is back on track.  Bud and Shirley visited the Nashville RV Show last weekend, and purchased a Keystone Outback 301BQ travel trailer!  And so...the journey continues.

We hope to pick up the new trailer on Friday.  Since we used to call our motorhome The Holiday Road, and our towed vehicle The Holiday Toad...we are thinking a different name for the trailer.  Maybe "The Laughing Place".  But, our journey is still Our Holiday Road.  We hope to bring Anna home this spring (see Our Fifth Girl), and start our camping adventures again with her. 

Stay tuned! 

Treasure Fest 2010

The OHR gang traveled recently up to New York for 2 family reunions. The first was the Smith reunion, and then on Sunday was the Christy family reunion, held at Midway Park on Chautauqua Lake.

It was a beautiful day to get together with Shirley's family of treasures....her Mom and 6 of her siblings and families.
















The kids enjoyed the rides.



















Stella used her muscles.
















Everyone had a great time!

R.I.P. Holiday Road

We sold the Holiday Road a few weeks ago. The motorhome, that is. It was very sad to see it driving away with someone else behind the wheel. We made a lot of great memories over the 3 1/2 years we owned it, many of them documented on this blog. But our adoption has taken up our time, thoughts and money in 2010, and it was time to move on.

I know I haven't updated this blog in a while. Have been updating our adoption blog throughout the year at ourfifthgirl.blogspot.com, and this one has slipped. But I will try to keep sharing our life adventures from time to time here, even if only for my own benefit of putting memories down in print. If any of you happen to stumble over here now and then I'd like to have something to share. Even though the motorhome is gone, we are still traveling down Our Holiday Road. Life moves forward. Today was the first day of school for Emma, Gwen and Isabel. Life is good! And, maybe next year we will be purchasing another RV to start traveling the highways again with all 5 girls!

Thanks for reading...and stay tuned!

Goodbye Holiday Road

Birthday Parties!!!

We celebrated Stella’s AND Emma’s birthdays last week.  On Sunday we had a joint family party, postponed one day due to the snow.  On Thursday, we had a surprise dinner for Emma at the Franklin Chop House!  Fun all around.

Snow Storm!!

It’s been a while since our last post….been pretty busy with holidays and all.  But, it’s a new year, with lots of new adventures for the Holiday Road gang ahead.  And the adventure started this weekend….with a Snow Storm! 

We had a good old fashioned winter storm warning on Friday, so we built a fire, made some soup and hunkered down.  And now that the sun is back up, it was time to get out and enjoy!

Tonight, we celebrate Stella’s 4th birthday! 

Townsend, Tuckaleechee, Lager and Dogs

The OHR Gang headed east to the Smokies again this past weekend, enjoying a beautiful weekend of fall weather with OHR Gang in Training.....Chris, Jim, Mandy and Adam! 

We stayed at the KOA in Townsend, self proclaimed "Quiet Side of the Smokies".  Townsend is definitely quieter than nearby Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.  Not much going on in this town!  Our campsite was right along the Little River about 2/10 of a mile from the border of the GSMNP.  Awesome! 

We spent Saturday afternoon at nearby Tuckaleechee Caverns, becoming spelunkers!  Well, sort of.

 

We saw some cool cave formations and underground waterfalls.

One of the neatest things about the tour was the underground river which flows at a minimum rate of 900 gallons per minute....and usually much more!  And this is Spring Water!  99% pure in fact...and really tasty! 

After caving, we headed back to the campsite and sat on our riverfront deck.  We enjoyed beer, had a fire, and grilled Sahlens hotdogs and chicken. 

 

I wish everyone could have joined us...we had such a nice time!  And like any good camping day, we ended it with smores around the campfire.  Sorry...no pics of that.  We were too busy eatin'!