First Hike of the New Year: Old Stone Fort

The first day of 2017 dawned cold and rainy. Not exactly a great day to be outdoors.

According to the forecast, January 2nd had the potential for sunshine (or at least no rain) and warmer temps, but we already had lunch plans with some of Daniel's family at his Grandmother's house in Manchester, TN.

On a whim, I googled "Manchester Trails" to see if there was anywhere we might be able to take the boys... I probably should have just asked Daniel!

Anyway, I discovered that Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park, also known as Old Stone Fort, had a dam, and a 3-mile loop that included waterfalls.

So I mentioned to Daniel that I thought we should consider leaving our house early enough in the morning to go roam around this park before lunch with family.

He asked what I had in mind, and then surprised me by saying that he grew up camping at Old Stone Fort! I don't know why we have never visited there.

We arrived in Manchester in time to spend about an hour in the park. With two little kids, this time frame was perfect – they could run around and burn off some energy and not get too exhausted prior to our family visit.

Before heading down the trail, we checked out the exterior of the fort (it is now a museum that was closed for the holiday). It was built by Native Americans between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago and you can read about it on the park's website if you are interested in that sort of thing.

From the roof of the fort, we were able to see the dam and take a quick family photo before heading down the trail. Daniel hung back with Isaac while Jack and I went ahead exploring the trail.

There were many side trails that periodically broke off from the main trail and meandered down to the river with views of the waterfalls that naturally occurred below the dam.

Isaac is insisting on walking more on his own these days. Which is great, but can also make our hikes incredibly slow. Thankfully Jack likes to explore and doesn't mind the slowness.

Toward the end, I put Isaac in our kid carrier (he just wanted to be held and he is heavy!). He was not happy about being strapped down. Sorry kid – it won't be long until you can handle longer walks on your own!

We probably went about half a mile before calling it a morning. After we were back in the car (with snacks to bribe the boys), we drove around the campground and Jack informed us that camper camping would be a lot of fun.

Little does know, we are kicking around the idea of at least renting a camper to see what we think about it. Time will tell what we decide.

It was a lovely way to spend our morning and our first hike of the new year. You can't beat a good waterfall and with the recent rain, the water is definitely flowing.

I have a feeling that our next outdoor excursion might involve snow, if we're lucky!

Top 10 in 2016

I feel like a broken record, but I really hope 2017 will be the year I get back on track with Christmas cards. Thank you to everyone who still has us on their Christmas card list, we always enjoy hanging up your cards during the Christmas season.

 

Best Nine photos from Instagram for 2016

I can't let go of our long-standing tradition of out Top 10 list for the year, so without further ado, here it is...

Family photo at a cottage on Lake Simcoe in Orillia, Ontario

10. We kicked off 2016 by taking a first hike of our year which prompted Project Outside365. The idea was to get our kids outside as much as possible throughout the year. While we didn't spend time outside every single day, we came pretty close. I believe my final tally was 337 days spent outside.

First Hike of 2016: Sunset Rock on Lookout Mountain, TN

We hiked, paddled, camped (including Isaac's first camping trip), biked, climbed, swam, snorkeled, and spent many days at playgrounds. Like the start of the year, we ended 2016 with a family hike. It was a great effort and I am proud of us.

Last Hike of 2016: Snooper's Rock on Signal Mountain, TN

 
9. In January, Isaac got his first teeth and we discovered that he had a pretty severe lip tie. After assessing it, researching and making an appointment with a local doctor who specializes in lip ties, we decided to have a walk-in procedure. It was awful to watch him have it removed – seeing your child in pain is always difficult, but we are glad we went ahead and had it fixed. He bounced right back and the gap between his teeth is almost gone.

Isaac has a lip tie corrected.

8. At the end of February, my Grandma passed away. She had been bed ridden for the last three years, but had been able to be in the comfort of my parent's home during this time. We were sad about her passing, but so grateful that she had had the opportunity to meet and spend time with all of her great grandchildren. It was also a blessing to go home and spend time with our family and extended family.

Our family said goodbye to my Grandma in Searcy, AR.

7. In the month of April, Daniel and I participated in our first triathlon. It was the Rock Island Rock and Row hosted at Rock Island State Park. The race started with a 5k paddle, followed by a hilly 5k run, and finishing with a 5k ride. It was a tough course with huge hills, but lots of fun. We enjoyed our first Tri experience and also taking our boys to some of our favorite trails in Rock Island and Fall Creek Falls State Parks. This is such a beautiful part of our state and we hope to be back soon.

 

Daniel and I participated in our first Triathlon, The Rock and Row in Rock Island, TN.

6. This was the year that we decided to let Jack start to explore sports. We agreed that he should only do one activity at a time. He's still in the phase of being easily distracted and not wanting to exert a lot of energy. Only time will tell whether he will really be into sports or not. In January there was Gymnastics, then T Ball in the spring, followed by Soccer in the fall, and also swimming lessons at our Y. We have him signed up for Taekwondo starting this week, he is super excited about it.

Jack started trying different sports, including Spring T Ball.

 
5. This year both of our boys had milestone birthday with Isaac turning ONE in April and Jack turning FIVE in November. We are so blessed by both of these little ones and cannot imagine our lives without either one. Jack will start kindergarten this coming fall (he is currently in his third year of preschool) and Isaac will start preschool. Time slow down!

Isaac turned ONE in April.

Jack turned FIVE in November.

4. This summer Jack taught himself to ride his bike. Daniel was outside with him and he just kind of did it. It took us both by surprise. He has really excelled at riding and has continued to teach himself new tricks like hopping curbs and some very basic mountain biking skills. We can't wait to take him out on trails with us.

3. For our family vacation this year, we decided to go to Canada. We rented a cottage on a lake about an hour north of Toronto and had a fantastic time paddling, biking and swimming daily on our own little portion of Lake Simcoe. During our week stay, Jack discovered a love of snorkeling and spent hours each day floating in the water seeing everything he could.

Family vacation on Lake Simcoe in Orillia, Ontario

  
During this vacation, we also attended my Family Reunion and had a blast catching up with all of those who were able to attend. It was a first time for most of them to meet Isaac and they hadn't seen Jack in a couple of years. We hope to make this trip a more regular occurrence (the last time we had been there was four years ago for my Grandpa's funeral). 

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We ended our trip by taking the boys to Niagara Falls. I don't like the touristy part of NF, but the falls are truly spectacular and we always stop to see them when we are in the area visiting family.

Visiting Niagara Falls, Ontario on our way home from vacation

2. In December we celebrated our 14th anniversary and had our first real night away from our kids. Ever. I'm not sure what took us so long, but 20 hours to ourselves was worth it!

We celebrated 14 years of marriage with a night away at the Bluff View Inn in Downtown Chattanooga, TN.

 

1. By far, our best news of this year is that after interviewing for different positions within his company for the last several years, Daniel FINALLY had the opportunity to change jobs and fields. He spent almost three years working as a Start-Up Engineer for Watts Bar Unit 2. They are the first power plant in the US to bring a new nuclear unit online in the twenty-first century. It was a really big project and Daniel was grateful for the unique opportunity and experience he had while at Watts Bar. Unfortunately for our family, the hours were awful and we are thrilled that the now works in downtown Chattanooga as a Civil Engineer in their Dam Safety division. This was a big change for him, but has been a huge blessing to our family. Working 40 hours a week instead of 70+ (with a long commute) has made a huge difference in our family life.

Dinner with the Watts Bar Unit 2 Startup group to celebrate the completion of the project.

On a separate work-related note, this summer I wrapped up a textbook that took me a year to design for Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina. I have been extremely blessed by the freelance graphic design projects that I have had over the last six years. Unfortunately the last quarter of this year was really slow for me. I'm not sure what next year will hold, but having my foot in the door in the design and marketing field while I stay home with the boys has been a tremendous blessing for me.

Thrilled to receive a copy of a college textbook of my year-long design project for Central Piedmont Community College.

 
We can't wait to see what 2017 has to offer, good or bad. We are ready to embrace the coming year!

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Top 10 List from Years Past:  2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | We skipped 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015

Word for the Year: Savor

Each year I start out with good intentions, whether resolutions or words, that I hope will reflect the coming year, and each year I get distracted and those good intentions are forgotten. But here I am, once again, hoping that the power of intention will help guide me to a year that is better than the one before.

There were parts of 2016 that, for whatever reason, felt heavy and overwhelming. But when I look back at the year as a whole, I see that it really was a good year – some of the best days of my life.

The things that felt hard are now forgotten as I truly release them to the past and look forward to the future with a clean slate.

This year, I want to savor the life that I have.

savor
[sey-ver] 

verb (used with object)
1. to give a savor to; season; flavor.
2. to perceive by taste or smell, especially with relish: to savor the garden's odors.
3. to give oneself to the enjoyment of: to savor the best in life.

A friend who has older kids, recently told me that I am in a slow stage of life, and she is right. Sometimes I get frustrated at the slowness, but when I take time to savor and really relish the life I have been given, I know that I have been blessed beyond measure.

Whether it is a moment on the couch with Daniel where we set aside the distractions of the day to talk, or time on the playground with another mom who is the slow lane of parenting young kids alongside me, or the daily interactions with my boys where I try to focus on enjoying the stage they are in because I know that I will blink and this stage will be gone.

Like the fog on my mountain that suddenly disappears without my noticing it, the dirty diapers and endless games of I spy will be over and forgotten, and I will find myself missing the mess and the goodness that it brought. So this year I hope to savor the good and remind myself that the harder moments that the coming year has in store will not last forever.

Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. 

Psalm 37:3-4 

Words from previous years: 

Fortitude {2010} ~ Adaptation {2011} ~ Patience {2012}

Deliberate {2013} ~ Joy {2014} ~ Peace {2015} ~ Release {2016}

New Year's Eve Hike: Snooper's Rock (Outside 365 | December 2016)

We ended 2016 much like we started it: with a cold-weather hike. To celebrate the last day of the year we knew we wanted to be outside together, but we weren't sure if the weather would cooperate with us. 

With rain in the forecast, we knew we might have a small window. Add in a morning nap for Isaac and things weren't looking too promising.

Then instead of rain, we suddenly had unexpected snow. They were just little flurries and they were more like sleet, but we would take snow-like precipitation over rain any day. Rainy hikes when it is cold can be miserable, but snow/sleet has the possibility of being magical.

So our hike was a go. We got the boys dressed in warm layers and hustled them out the door with Sophie and snacks in tow as well. 

With rain still looming, we wanted something relatively short and I wanted views. So we headed to Snooper's Rock in a section of Prentice Cooper State Forest that is farther from our house. We have been to this view once before and I knew it would be easy, even if it was chilly.

And I was right. Isaac hiked the whole 0.3 miles to the bluffs before being put in the Kid Carrier and Jack had no problem navigating the trails and listening to us on the cliffs. It never did rain on us, but we could hear the sleet gently falling in the trees around us. 

With lots of layers, hats and gloves for the kids, we were in good shape for the quick out-and-back hike.

I'm so grateful that we were able to end the year spending some time together on the trail... even if it was under a mile round trip, and less than an hour outside. It still counts!

We have worked hard to be outside with our kids this year. From that first New Years Day Hike to hours and hours spent on playgrounds with friends. We have been outside rain or shine. The colder months found us inside more (the month of December fell into that category), but we still tried. And I think that is what matters.

I hope that our kids remember great adventures with us every year. From this year, I hope they can look back at this blog and see that we hiked and paddled and camped and swam and biked our hearts out. 

They will hopefully look back and see that we made friends who were willing to play with us, even if the weather wasn't perfect. And that mostly, we had lots of fun with nature as our playground.

Goodbye 2016 and our Project Outside 365. We will continue to strive to spend as many moments outside as we can.

A Look Back at Project Outside 365: 

January 2016 ⎮ February 2016 ⎮ March 2016 ⎮ April 2016 ⎮ May 2016 ⎮ June 2016 ⎮ July 2016 ⎮ August 2016 ⎮ September 2016 ⎮ October 2016 ⎮ November 2016

 

Christmas 2016

Since we have not lived in the same town as any of our family for our entire married life, 14 years ago we started alternating the years we spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with each family.

That meant that this year we celebrated Thanksgiving at Daniel's little sister's house, and then hosted my family at our house for Christmas. Of course when it works out, we overlap some – my brother came to Thanksgiving with us since he lives in Nashville, and we met up with some of Daniel's fam the day after Christmas for our traditional-to-us Hibachi dinner.

In 14 years, this is our FIRST time to celebrate Christmas on the ACTUAL DAY with my entire family. My sister is a labor-and-delivery nurse who works nights, and between multiple moves she almost always has to work some part of Christmas. Since my family is spread across several states, it is rare that we are all together on the actual day, so this year was extra special in that regard.

Two nights before Christmas (Christmas Adam), my sister and her family, and my parents arrived. We shared dinner and let our kids run wild. Jack was so excited to have his cousins here. He has been missing them terribly.

I had a little game for them to play before we all settled down. We passed a package around and every time our music stopped, the package was unwrapped one layer to discover a little prize. The kids had a blast and were happy to collect some extra candy and trinkets. The kids were bummed that my brother wasn't at the house yet, but started making plans on how they would play with him when he arrived.

Christmas Eve morning I made pancakes shaped like Christmas decorations by using cookie cutters. The pancakes were super thick, but tasted great. That afternoon my mom and I prepped for Christmas day by making homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast and homemade rolls and pies for dinner.

Daniel's dad and his wife dropped by for a quick visit that afternoon with gifts for our kiddos. Jack was excited to see an extra set of grandparents. 

Some time during the day, the kids also found birthday party streamers and insisted on decorating our tree with the streamers for a Christmas Eve Party they planned out – we were informed there would be dancing, s'mores and hot chocolate (which we didn't actually get to do). I guess that is their idea of a good time!?!

For dinner, I decided to serve appetizers – we had Meatballs in the crockpot, Spicy Jelly with Whipped Cream Cheese on Crackers, Edamame, Mexican Street Corn Dip with chips, and Ham and Cheese Roll-Ups. It was all delicious (and not too hard to pull together).

My brother arrived after dinner and we collected everyone in the living room to open our Christmas Eve package of new pajamas, popcorn, and a Christmas movie. The kids rough-housed with my brother, ate popcorn, and watched part of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer before being sent to bed.

When it comes to Santa, Daniel and I do not play up the story of Santa at all. We answer Jack's questions honestly, or ask him what he thinks, but we don't really say one way or the other if Santa is real. This meant that Jack informed his younger cousin that Santa was NOT REAL.

I guess we should have had a talk with him. HOWEVER, they must have argued about it some, because at bedtime Jack told Daniel that he thought Santa was real. Sometimes I think it is ok to want to believe in something bigger than yourself, and I am ok with that (though we still probably won't play up the Santa thing).

After the kiddos were in bed, Daniel and I, and my sister and her husband, got to work wrapping all of the presents we had failed to wrap (meaning all of them!). Once presents were under the tree in our living room and stockings under the tree in our den, we visited for a bit before heading to bed.

Christmas morning, Jack was the first person to wake up. His cousins are early risers so I was surprised when he wandered into my room at 7:30.

He was giddy with excitement and wanted to tell me that there were stockings under the tree! Soon my brother-in-law came up to say that his kids were awake and I told all of the adults they needed to go ahead and get up.

Around 8am, the kids excitedly opened their stockings together. Following that we moved into the living room for presents. My sister and her husband leave out "Santa" gifts that are unwrapped – which included a bike for my nephew. At first Jack thought that the bike was for him, and we reminded him that he already had several bikes, and he moved on to opening his own stuff without batting an eye.

We spent the morning letting the kids unwrap their gifts. Isaac was hungry, so he kept shaking his head "no" and running out of the room, but he eventually got in the spirit of opening his gifts and is really into the new Legos that he got and also the Dinotruck that Jack received. He also thought it was funny to lay on all of Jack's presents and prevent Jack from opening stuff. A new Nerf gun for Jack is keeping both of our boys busy – Jack shoots and Isaac collects the darts like a dutiful little brother.

After presents, we shared a breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls and our family tradition of sausage pinwheels.

My dad requested cinnamon rolls this year and it was my first time making them from scratch, but as usual, Pioneer Woman's recipes NEVER disappoint!

Once breakfast was wrapped up, I told Daniel that he was on kid duty for the day and I headed to the kitchen with my mom and sister. The kids and guys spent a bunch of time at the park and letting the kids ride bikes. They also played lots of games and let them run around like hooligans.

I have hosted big holiday meals before, which means I am in charge of planning and the heavy lifting, but it never ceases to amaze my how much effort these meals take and I am grateful for all of the people who have contributed to putting the food on the table over the years while the kids (myself included in years past) all run around playing.

Our Christmas meal included the usual suspects for us: Bacon-Wrapped Turkey, Sweet Soul Taters, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Dressing/Stuffing, Green Bean Casserole and homemade Rolls. For dessert (which we had for supper), we had Pumpkin Pie and Pecan Pie and Cherry Yum Yum.

After our fancy dinner, the kids spent most of the rest of the afternoon outside at the park. I hope it is a Christmas that they all remember. The adults all agreed that we wanted to get out of the house for a bit – for our own sanity, and also to let the kids burn off some excessive energy.

So we decided to head downtown to the Chattanooga Choo Choo – a historic hotel that used to be a train station. You can actually stay in old train cars that have been converted to hotel rooms. Daniel stayed there once as a kid, but we have not been since we moved to the Chattanooga area.

The Choo Choo did not disappoint. There is an ice rink outside where we let the kids watch people attempt to skate and the Zamboni machine that totally mesmerized them all.

There were also life size games of chess and checkers and jenga, but the best part of all is in the hotel lobby.

The elegant lobby is the old train station terminal with an amazingly high, opulent ceiling that housed a huge tree. There was also a baby grand and my brother sat down and played us a couple of songs. The kids insisted on playing too before we shooed them back outside.

Since it was Christmas day, Santa was not at the Choo Choo, but in terms of photo ops, I would definitely consider bringing the kids next year. It was truly beautiful.

That is where our Christmas day took a bit of a turn. Daniel took my parents home early because they were both tired. When the rest of us arrived home, we discovered that my dad was sick. My nephew was also complaining of nausea so he went straight to bed. It turned out that the two of them had a touch of the flu. Everyone was a little nervous considering there were 11 people in the same house to potentially get sick!

Thankfully I was able to Lysol just about everything, and only my dad and nephew were effected (at that time... my sister's family is still passing it around since they went home). Not exactly a great way to end Christmas day. Hopefully we will all forget that part.

After everyone settled down and most of the kids were tucked in bed, we allowed Jack to stay up with the grownups drinking hot chocolate, eating pie, and watching The Chronicles of Narnia for a bit. He was super sweet and told us that he had had a great Christmas.

The day after Christmas the mini plague seemed to have improved – though my nephew had been up most of the night. The kids played together all morning before my sister and her crew went home to Florida and Daniel and I headed to town with our boys to meet some of Daniel's family for Hibachi.

We have been doing Hibachi every Christmas dinner for the last seven years. As I mentioned earlier, my family is almost never together on the actual Christmas day, so it has worked out to meet up with some of Daniel's family. This is the first time in seven years that we met the day after. But sometimes you just have to be flexible and make things work.

I'm so glad we are continuing this tradition. Isaac was completely taken in by the displays of fire and our chef really talked to him a bunch and kept his attention.

Jack insisted on using chop sticks (and did a decent job with the kid version), but wanted to sit back about a foot from the table so that he wasn't too close to the fire. We enjoyed our visit while eating delicious food (that I didn't have to cook).

After eating, Daniel's sister came back to our house for a bit before heading home herself. Jack enjoyed playing Monopoly Jr. and Sorry! with my mom, brother and me. He is totally addicted and says that these games are his favorite. It turns out that Daniel has never played the game of Sorry! before and Jack has been schooling him (both teaching him and beating him). It turns out that Jack is quite good at board games. I think he won almost every game we taught him... more than once.

Daniel and I had to take advantage of having family stay with us to sneak off for one quick date. We headed to North Shore for a coffee and a stroll across the Walnut Street Bridge. We didn't realize until we got home that the cookie we bought to split was left forgotten on a counter somewhere. I guess we didn't need the extra calories!

My parents and brother left Tuesday afternoon. Our household has spend the week returning to our sense of normal. It took me a couple of days to wash all of the linens and towels (in hot water hoping to get rid of the germs). We have been chipping away at Christmas dinner leftovers and cleaning up. We still need to put away our decorations, but I want to savor them for a few more days.

We still have a few family members to see this weekend, but after this weekend, the holidays will wrap up and 2016 will be in the books. 2016 was a strange year, filled with both good and bad. It's hard to believe it is coming to a close. I look forward to 2017 and all that it has to offer.