All Together Again

One Last Trip?

Well, we are all back together again. Before spring was over we had one last trip to Northwest Alabama. We headed back to our beloved farmhouse rental, perhaps for our last time? Before arriving at our destination we made a stop in Tuscumbia, AL. For a small town (just under 9,000 residents), I was surprised at the amount of comfortable amenities. This was only a brief stop in our journey, but we love exploring small town America any time we get a chance.

As with most good finds, our stop was not planned. I was looking for a nearby park to have a picnic after a long car ride when we found Spring Park on the map. I’m always thankful to find great stops on our travels at just the right time. We got out, stretched our legs, had our food, got semi attacked by flocks of geese and ducks, and found this beautiful waterfall below while exploring the park.

Like the water tower says, Tuscumbia was also the birthplace of Helen Keller. Although we didn’t visit her historic home (Ivy Green), it is something I would definitely do if we had the time. They offer daily guided tours, and if we were staying a bit longer we could have seen a play they put on retelling parts of her life. Visit the Helen Keller birthplace website for more info. The website is also a great educational resource for kids.

Once we arrived at the farmhouse we made quick work of unpacking and settling in. Time to relax! Right? Well, my definition of relaxing these days may be a bit different than what it used to be. Having a completely clean home with very little of our stuff in it, a large eat in kitchen to cook away in, and a huge master suite to enjoy is a great treat for me!

I’m always blessed to see my husband and kiddos enjoying themselves. It’s really what I find enjoying. I truly love serving them and seeing their smiles. While there we celebrated our precious baby girl’s one year birthday!!

For my children’s first birthday, I always love having a photo shoot with them. The 100 acre farmhouse was the perfect backdrop. It took some help from a puppet, but we got some good smiles.

We were blessed with wonderful weather during our stay, this made for plenty of time to enjoy the outdoors. Our trip was good, but not without a little drama. Our 4th child had a horrible allergic reaction to something after playing a game with his brothers in the woods one day. After treating him all the ways I knew how, we believed a trip to the E.R. was still warranted. We were right. By the time my husband got him there he was starting to go into shock and could barely walk!

Those with allergies (or with kids with allergies) know how quickly a reaction can change from slight to severe. We are so thankful to the friendly and prompt staff at a local hospital for helping him get better quickly. We are of course also thankful to God that He gives us wisdom and peace in difficult situations and looks after our children. Needless to say, this parenting thing isn’t for the faint, especially when you have half a dozen boys.

We also brought home our oldest daughter, so now we are all together again. It was a fruitful and busy year for her, and we look forward to what God has in store for her next. Before leaving Alabama, we visited the Wilson Dam. Unfortunately, the visitor area was closed, but we saw the dam and went on a little hike around the Tennessee River. I mean “little” because we had to turn around a little soon due to nature overtaking the trail with poison hemlock and venomous snakes. We were not looking for that kind of hike that day.

We decided to go a new route on the way home, you know, switch it up a little. Mom’s usually in charge of scheduled stops and most things vacation (that would be me). Next we stopped in a charming little town called “Parsons” to get a bite to eat.

I took a chance on a place that looked like it might be where the locals go, though no one was there yet. Turned out that I was right, we got there just in time, and people soon starting pouring in. It was nothing fancy, but had good food and friendly service. These days that’s pretty fancy to me! If you’re ever in that part of rural Tennessee, check out Frosty Top. The pizza was good and the wings smelled amazing!

Next we decided to head to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower! Paris, Tennessee that is. We visited Eiffel Tower Park to get the wiggles out of everyone before heading back on the road.

There were two great play areas and even a splash park. They also had pickleball and tennis courts, a hike/bike trail, a golf course, soccer fields, etc…. You get the picture, it was a nice park. As with most of our travels, we take our time getting home. This time it seemed as though we had a lot more bathroom breaks than usual, but we made it. A perk in having all these boys is they can go most anywhere, that was especially handy since we took a rather remote path home.

Back Home

We’re back home now and have been working on tending our garden, chasing kiddos, and our biggest achievement on the home front is that Joshua has finished building our new family farmhouse table! As our family has grown we have really needed a large table with room for all of us and some guests. Stay tuned for an upcoming post on the finished product.

We’ve also had 4 birthdays since our last post! There’s always plenty going on around here… too much to mention. I’ll end with a few of my most recent pics. We hope you enjoy the rest of your summer!!

Til next time…….