Birthday Date: ATVs to Edwards Point

When Daniel and I were first dating, Daniel purchased his first motorcycle – a Ninja 250. It was a bike that was small enough that I could handle (I actually got my motorcycle license shortly after we were married), but big enough that we could ride on it together.

When I was pregnant with Jack, Daniel decided to sell his motorcycle. He didn't really have time to ride and I think the knowledge that we would soon be parents shifted his priorities. He likes to tell me that we made a deal before he sold the old one that if he ever wanted to, he could buy a new bike.

Fast forward five-ish years and he had an itch. Earlier this summer I took a road trip to visit my sister in Florida and Daniel took the opportunity to rent his dream bike from an outfitter in the Smoky Mountains – a dual sport motorcycle that he could use to explore the jeep trails and singletrack on and around our mountain. I thought he was having a mid-life crisis and just needed a ride to get it out of his system.

I came home from Florida and he was ready to buy a bike and he even knew which one...

He found it on Craigslist from someone in Knoxville and suddenly we were motorcycle owners again. Our little boys are both gaga over their daddy's new bike.

Daniel has been wanting to take me with him but free time is hard to come by, and dates are even harder to make happen. This weekend I celebrated my 36th birthday and Daniel's mom and sister came to town to watch Jack play soccer. They were sweet to offer to hang out with our boys (win win for everyone) so that Daniel and I could go out.

We felt like we were in college again, getting on Daniel's bike to ride to grab lunch at one of our favorite local restaurants. After eating, we picked up our four-wheeler and headed out to the trails that lead to Edward's Point.

We had tried to mountain bike to this view about a year ago, but missed a turn and didn't make it before the sun set. Daniel has since been back on his own (on his new dual sport), but I hadn't had a chance to go. So we hit the trails. And it was a ton of fun!

We spent two hours exploring, stopping at Edward's Point for a break and to enjoy the beautiful view. We love our little mountain and the access we have to such great vistas of the Tennessee Valley and the Tennessee River below. 

It has been years since I have driven an ATV and it felt good to discover that I still know how to handle myself on a trail. Maybe one of these days I'll give Daniel's bike a try!

Thank goodness for birthdays, lunch dates, and opportunities to spend time together doing activities we love! In other news, Daniel may or may not have laid his bike down after skidding on a thin layer of dust and leaves that covered slick clay...

On my actual birthday night (Friday), we went out with our boys to our favorite local Mexican place. Jack wanted to know if I was going to get whipped cream smeared on my face. I told him, "only if he told our waitress that it was my birthday." So he did. It's been a good weekend, a great way to welcome my 36th year on this planet.

S'mores with the Moores

Golden Graham S'mores Bars – recipe adapted from Macaroni and Cheesecake

A year ago we were still living in a camper at Raccoon Mountain and we invited our good friends, the Reynolds, to come visit us to indulge in "S'mores with the Moores." Both of our families were about to embark on some big changes – the Reynold's were expecting baby #3 any day and we were about to close on our house in Alabama.

Almost a year later, we finally found a weekend where the Reynolds could come down for a quick visit to see our new house. We {meaning Daniel} indulged in taking the two older kids on four wheeler rides and we finished the evening by grilling steaks.

Andrew waiting for his turn to ride our ATV with Daniel.

The best compliment ever is to have a little kid tell you how much they loved their dinner – Sadie {who just turned five} surprised everyone by eating 1.5 ears of corn as opposed to the half an ear we originally gave her. This might have had something to do with the fact that I let her role her corn in the butter dish – sorry Courtney if I started a bad habit – that's how we do it around here :)

For dessert I surprised them with Golden Graham S'mores Bars. Funny that the kids remembered coming to make s'mores with us last year {or at least trying to since last year we had some serious problems with the wood for our campfire not wanting to burn}.

 Sadie taking a turn.

We might have to continue the yearly tradition of having the Reynolds over to make s'mores in the fall.

I think the kids had fun on the four wheeler {I know Daniel did}. Initially they couldn't agree on who should go first... one wanted to wait to prolong her excitement, the other wanted to wait because he was a bit nervous. Daniel told them to play Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide. Sadie "lost" and had to go first. In the end, they both seemed to enjoy it.

 Andrew taking a turn.

Quick funny story: Right before we decided to take the four wheeler out, the golden retriever "puppy" from down the street decided to grace us with a visit. He is 60+ pounds and very playful. Unfortunately he has no concept of how big he is. Right away he knocked Sadie off of her feet and he was jumping on everyone. Normally Sophie chases this dog off {she does not like him AT ALL} but Sophie was off wandering around the woods. She did eventually come back and get into a snarling fight with him, but the golden always thinks that she is just playing. In the end, Daniel picked up this dog and put it on the back of the four wheeler and drove him back to his house down the street. It was pretty funny – too bad I didn't have the camera handy.

Labor Day Weekend

On Friday our long-time friends, the Wheeler's, came down to our place to spend part of the weekend with us. We were really excited because we haven't seen them in over 5 years. Gwynn and Chuck were our first "couple" friends to make after we were newly married and in Cookeville. We are so thankful that we have been able to keep in touch with them and now that we live a little closer, we are hoping to see them more often.

Much has changed since we left Cookeville 7 years ago... they have three kids now and we have a dog and a baby on the way. 

Originally we had planned to go camping but due to the fact that it has been HOT and I am pregnant and finding a place to camp on Labor Day was proving difficult, we decided to invite them to our place to have some fun.

Friday night they arrived late and put the kids straight to bed. In the meanwhile, we adults stayed up way past our bedtime {1:30-ish} visiting.

The next morning, after breakfast, we loaded the kids and canoe up and went to Goosepond for some paddling on the Tennessee River. Daniel and Chuck took all three kids out for a short spin. Then Abi {age two} came back to shore to hang out with Gwynn and I while we visited. The older kids and guys took a longer spin. 

Finally when they came back, Abi decided she wanted to go again. Zoe {age 6?} stayed on shore to swim while Eli {age 7?} went for another ride. The guys made it out past the dock when all of a sudden the canoe flipped over! Gwynn and I were watching and ran out on the dock to collect kids so that Daniel and Chuck could bring the canoe in. Amazingly neither kid panicked and the life jackets kept them afloat. 

The rest of the day, we hung out, grilled burgers and enjoyed each others company.

Sunday we slept in and visited some more, followed by a quick devo, then Daniel and Chuck took the kids out one at a time on our four wheeler. I think the kids {and Chuck} were in heaven :) After riding around the yard, we decided to go into town to grab lunch and then to the Scottsboro Splash Pad for the kids to play.

On the way to Scottsboro it started raining but the kids still wanted to go to the Splash Pad, so we figured it didn't matter since they would be getting wet anyways. The adults hung out in the pavilion while the kids played.

We had a fun, very kid friendly weekend. It is good for us to see that our future can definitely be one of us introducing kids to activities that we love.

The REAL reason for the Four Wheeler...

Yesterday we tried out our mower-ATV combination. It rocked. Much better than push mowing. For reference, it used to take me 2 hours to push mow our 1/3 acre in Charlotte. With the four wheeler, I completed mowing our 3 acre property in about an hour {to be fair some of our acreage is wooded, but still}. 

We {meaning Daniel} will still need to use a weed eater up close to the house and the driveway, but I am really liking this new form of mowing.

This Makes Daniel Happy...

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that we purchased a mower that would require an All-Terrain Vehicle {ATV or 4-wheeler} to pull it. When deciding between a riding mower and a pull-behind, it wasn't too hard to lean towards the pull-behind. The price for a good John Deere verses a ATV/mower combination was similar and the ATV would give us more versatility {i.e. we can play with it too}. 

While deliberating, I pointed out that we would eventually have to buy a second ATV {you know, so we can both ride} and if we do that it will require buying a bigger trailer to haul two ATVs around... but for now, we are excited to have a new utilitarian vehicle.

The ATV also helps us to fit in a bit better. All of our neighbors own ATVs and during all of the snow earlier this year we felt a bit left out whenever we would see them pulling sleds and having a good ol' time. Next winter, that will be us :)

Since bringing our ATV home this past weekend, we had not had a chance to play with it at all. I know this was driving Daniel crazy, but he was sick most of the week AND it has been raining pretty heavily for the past couple of days.

Last night when Daniel got home from work, he was determined that we should take it for a spin. So we did. At first we rode together. Then Daniel took it out by himself – I think he just wanted to ride through the big puddles fast {and he knew I didn't want to get wet} and he wanted to open it up on the street.

Then I took it out by myself. It is a manual that you have to shift with your foot {just like a motorcycle} but there is no clutch to worry about. My biggest problem is forgetting to shift! You can't ride very fast in first ;)

Anyways, it is going to be fun to have around. Can't wait to go out to some wildlife management areas and play on the trails. Oh yeah – there is that part about mowing the yard too...