Thankfulness

It is hard to believe I haven't written since before Thanksgiving when I posted our Halloween photos.  It is now 15 days until Christmas!  Since I wrote last, we took a family trip to Asheville, NC to stay at the Grove Park Inn and see the Biltmore House.  We stopped in Young Harris, GA on the way there to visit with Gregg's Uncle Raymond and Aunt Sybil.  Raymond ended up having to work, but we had a great time with Sybil.  Zeke adored her as you'll see below.  We found out that Sybil is undergoing treatment for cancer, so please join us in praying for her complete healing.

This is what we saw as we drove up to The Grove Park Inn, except A LOT more cars!  It was like a parking lot.  We found my mom, though, and were able to get checked in to our rooms.  George H.W. Bush had stayed in one of our rooms when he was Vice-President, which, as you all know, was very fitting! 





 (I was 6-years old and Gregg was 15 when Bush stayed there...heehee!),

The kids made themselves right at home, and as you see, used Wynna as a jumping gym!  We made great memories together even though it was challenging to have 3 little ones under the age of 4 in such a small space.  Everyone pitched in to help entertain (and wrangle) them!



On Thanksgiving day, we had lunch at the grand ballroom, which was HUGE!  I cannot explain to you how many people were at the hotel during our stay.  It is one of their busiest times of the year.  They have a huge ginger bread house competition, which brings people from all over the country.  Gregg kept trying to guess how many people he thought were there.  Every time he threw out a number, it would get larger! 

We couldn't believe it, but out of all of those people we ran into The Faulk family, who are related to Gregg in a roundabout way (it's too confusing to explain).  Anyway, they came to our wedding and have come to visit us once to meet Zeke.  We couldn't believe we ran into them not once, but three times, one of which was at The Biltmore House.  I'm so sad I didn't take a picture of them.

After lunch, we took the kids to go swimming, which I thought Zeke would love, but I was WRONG.  He screamed and cried and didn't want to do any of his Infant Swimming Resource "tricks."  I took him out quickly since everyone was staring at my hysterical child.  Good thing we'll do refresher lessons with our ISR instructor this spring!



Just some of the ginger bread houses



Yep, that's ginger bread!



Camo turkey for Dada!



Kariss decided she needed to rest after walking a long distance before lunch!



Watching Granddaddy hairspray his hair!

 

Happy to be out of the pool!

We got to go see the Biltmore House (Gregg's first time seeing it), but Gregg had a different reaction than I expected.  He felt like it was too extravagant, and was bothered by his feeling that Mr. Vanderbilt had poorly used his wealth in regards to bringing glory to God.  I always thought it was extravagant, but I hadn't gotten that "deep" about it.  That's one of the things I love about Gregg...he always keeps me thinking!



View from one of the decks at the Biltmore

 

The kiddos as we were packing to go home on Sunday morning


So...even though we won't do another hotel trip until the kids are older, it was fun to be together.  I know we'll look back on these pictures and remember the good things, not the loud neighbors above us who kept us up late into the night (well, I guess we will remember that since I'm writing it here!). 

Overall, it was a great trip and we are thankful to be able to spend another holiday with family while living near them.  Only God knows where we'll be next year, but we are looking forward to seeing His plan revealed!  Happy Thanksgiving!!!