April 7, 2022-Hot Springs National Park

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One night in our bed, and then off again we go. Nothing really makes us happier-though I did have a strong urge to start throwing out everything in our house. My goal is to go through the whole place doing a bit of purging and organizing. 

Anyway, back to this morning. We were up when our alarm clocks went off to start the day. There was school to do at home for most of the Dennie kids while Reagan and Anderson headed off to Comm Central. 

I have a stack off books from the library that I am planning on reading to the kids before we finish school, plus I want to finish our history and science books-that may mean we will have to do some work together during the summer.

By early afternoon, Robby was pulling out with Graham, Campbell, Keaton and Whitman. Bentley was also with them, and she was sitting in my spot. They had to stop and pick up propane and gas before heading to our campground for this weekend.

I was at home for a little bit by myself before Reagan and Anderson showed back up from school. Anderson had one thing to do before eating something. Then I gave them a few more minutes of downtime before we left.

The drive here didn't take too long, but I sure fought the wind the entire drive. Before long though, we were pulling into Gulpha Gorge campground. This is the first time that we have camped in a National Park before so that is kind of neat.

Robby was already set up when we got here. They hadn't been here to long, but had most things out already. We parked and helped get a few more things ready for the weekend. The rug, chairs, tent, lights, tablecloth, trashcan. Camping is not for the lazy for sure-it is a lot of work, but really we love every minute of it.

Robby and I walked around the loop while Campbell and Whitman walked in the water behind our camper. It is a beautiful stream about 1 foot deep. I have actually been here before to play in the water with the kids; however, it is a bit too cold to do that today....

Well, not for Whitman. Campbell and Keaton both did get in the water, but they didn't sit in the water like their brother. He was having the best time. I hung his clothes behind the camper so in case he plans on doing any wading tomorrow then he can put the same clothes back on.

Soon we decided that we should take a little hike. Across the water there was the start of a few different trail. There was one that went to town which I really wanted to take, but we would definitely have run out of daylight and energy on that trail. 

We opted for a .8 mile trail though we didn't really realize that it was straight up the side of a mountain. It wasn't that extreme, but it was a 13 percent grade which was pretty steep compared to the other trails around here. We were sure huffing and puffing going up the hill. 

The best part was when we made it to the top and were able to turn around and head down the trail. That was certainly much, much easier. I told the kids that they could mark 2 miles off on their running/walking chart (everyone but Anderson has a chart for when they walk 100 miles and can earn 20 dollars.)

On our way back, we saw our tent from our campsite-it had blown over. We were able to turn the tent back over, and it is mostly okay, but not 100%. Oh well, that is always Walmart. After fixing the tent, we then started on our supper. 

Tonight for supper we had chili-it was a bit spicy, but still very yummy. (It was warm and the weather was cold. Plus the chili had a few tomato chunks-to me, I loved the extra tomatoes for sure. After eating, we realized that it was cold and since the baseball game was finishing on the tv, we decided to move the party inside.

It takes a bit to get everything ready for the evening especially when there was a small chance of rain to night. Soon though we were all back in the camper-Bentley was sound asleep in no time at all. The rest of us watched as Robby made some popcorn for the kids. I am not a big popcorn fan so I had some of a muffin instead.

Sitting in the camper is one of my favorite things-there are just kids everywhere, and tonight they were all chatty. The evening seemed to fly by and soon it was time to get beds ready for the evening. Now they all have a bit of time before it is finally bedtime.

April 6, 2022-Trip to the Masters

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I woke up this morning to the sound of Robby typing. I thought that it was rain at first. We soon were both ready and headed down to breakfast-except it closed at 9. Oh well, we were able to grab a doughnut which was different than any doughnut we've ever had-it was like a Krispy Kreme doughnut without any of the glaze.

Afterwards, it wasn't too long before the Wilsons let us know that they were ready, and we all headed downstairs. We didn't have crazy far to go today, but we did make a day of it. 

There were a few stops along with the way-gas, bathroom breaks. a walk around an outlet mall even-but eventually we were pulling up at Jacqueline around 3. It was a super short trip, but we all had a lot of fun.

We then went right to work-well, Robby did take some of the kids to get drinks at the gas station. I did some school work with Anderson, and before too long it was time for the big three to leave for church since they had a ref meeting.

Reagan had to leave her little work early to come and pick them up. Not too long after they left, Robby and I left with the little 3 to take them to the church house. He dropped me off at Nonna's house while he ran them to the church house.

We went back home, and I continued to work. I finished most things by the time that the kids all did come back home. We worked on cleaning out the fridge before sending them to their rooms-they all had some packing to do. So far though no one has really brought anything down for me to put in the camper. 

Finishing all of the packing is the next thing that will happen around here, and then getting ready for school tomorrow. And then finally it will be bedtime for the crew.

April 5, 2022-Trip to the Masters

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Let's see where to begin our day. Last night when we went to bed, we were pretty sure that we might not just get to see any little bit of Augusta National at all. However, the rain was steadily being pushed back throughout the night, and by the time we woke up, it didn't look like the rain would start until around 1.

Robby and I slept well last night except it was rather quiet in our room. We are used to a fan and never even thought about a noise machine. It didn't matter though because we must have been tired since even though it was silent in our room, we slept just fine.

We woke up a little bit after 6 and started getting ready. Before 7, we were downstairs, and Robby was talking to the front desk. There was still no solution except his card had been charged for both rooms-1200. Yikes, he is fairly confident they will get it straightened out though it will be probably be a hassle.

The Wilsons were downstairs as well so we headed on towards Augusta National. There was a bit of traffic, but soon we were parking with about 5,000 other cars. It was parking like you were at Disney World-everything was very well organized and efficient.

We said goodbye to our phones (you can't bring them in), grabbed our rain coats (we knew we were going to need them), and followed the masses of people. The walk to get in was probably near a half mile. Then they stopped the people in groups and would only let a group through at a time. There were probably about 3 of those stops before we made it into the gates.

Then we walked and walked some more-we could tell that we were now in the golf course area because the grounds were beautiful, but there was still some walking to do before we made it to the course. We stopped a few times to take pictures of different things and walked around a good bit of the course.

Now, don't tell anyone, but other people seemed to know where we were and what hole we were at-I knew none of those things. I don't even think that I have ever been to a real golf course before so there were lots of new sights for me.

Getting around the course was even interesting-sometimes you had to cross the fairway to get from one place to another. After seeing all of the major stops and people, including Bubba Watson, Zach Johnson, Mike Weir, and some other people that Robby is telling me which I don't know how to spell their names), we sat for a bit near hole 16.

After the golfers teed off, the crowd started shouting "skip." I had no idea what was happening, but they wanted for the players to skip their golf balls on the water and up onto the green. We saw two sets of golfers stop and do this-the crowd was super into it shouting "yes" and "aww" if they didn't make it.

One group's caddys even skipped the balls across the water. Of course this caused the crowd to really get excited. And really, it was probably the most exciting thing of the day for me.

We knew the rain was coming so after seeing this we went to the gift shop. There were probably about 500 people in front of us in the line  (seriously not kidding) along with another 500 people in the building shopping (again, never seen anything like it.) The line to get in was organized like a Disney line.

Once we were let into the store, it was still crazy. Not horrible crazy, but fun crazy. I kept having to repeat to myself that Robby was wearing red. Remember no one has any phones so we had already established a meeting place with the Wilsons, but just keeping up with Robby in the store was a challenge. 

When we did check out, there were at least 40 people checking people out so even though the lines everywhere were long, they all moved fast. We bought our few things-oh, and the prices were expensive, but not crazy. They were what I would expect to pay.

The man in front of us spent 900 dollars on his purchases. Nine hundred! And his bag wasn't even full at all. Just about everyone in the place had a bag of merchandise, and I guarantee you that not many people at all left that store without spending less than 100 dollars.

After we finished our shopping, we met up at our meeting tree. Then we headed to the food concession stand. Again, it was Disney-esque. So many lines, so many people working, so much food ready to go. Robby had a bbq sandwich which he really liked, I had a chicken salad sandwich which was pretty good, and we split a pimento cheese. Now, the food prices for our sandwiches were 1.50 or 3-I guess that is kind of their thing: keeping the food prices low. That made it fun for sure.

We were eating and heard the bull horn followed by the announcement-storms coming, lightening and rain, courses closed, seek shelter. We were expecting this, but it did happen a bit earlier than we thought. It wasn't raining yet, but we guessed it was coming.

We waited for a bit and then joined the masses on the shuffle to the car. We did stop at a practice green to watch the golfers a bit more. Now, by this time there were signs everywhere saying that the course was closed, but the golfers continued to practice. We stayed until one man did come and shut them all down and made them finish.

That is when we decided to move on to the car. By this time, I decided that I might should have gone to the bathroom. However, the only bathroom on the way out was already closed. Speaking of bathrooms-large, clean, workers. The guys went to the bathroom once today and had to find the end of the line where a man was holding a sign-like at an amusement park for a ride. The man moved along and stayed with the crowd of men joining his bathroom line. It was quite the sight-and I don't believe that Shannon had a line at all in the ladies' room. Anyway, we missed the bathroom opportunity, and that wasn't good.

That wasn't good because we waited about an hour in the parking lot trying to inch out along with everyone else. Also, there wasn't much cell service either because all 50,000 of the other people in the parking lot had just picked up their phones too after not having them all morning (and the 50,000 number is legit-they say that they have about 50K on practice days and 40K on game days.)

We did make it to the car just as the rain started to sprinkle. By the time that we made it out of the parking lot, the rain was doing more than sprinkling. It was pretty messy for the rest of the day. We did stop pretty soon after getting on the road for a bathroom stop, but then it was just rain and more rain.

There were quite a few bathroom stops. Robby had to go so badly once that we pulled off just for him. The closest gas station had an outside bathroom with a man changing clothes in it-needless to say it was an awkward situation for Robby. We did eventually find him a bathroom before we drove the 10 more miles to our next stop-Sams.

This was more just to walk around for a little bit since we needed to stretch our legs. Then it was on to Buccees in Leed, Alabama. By this time the rain had mostly cleared, and it was fairly smooth sailing. In Buccees, we didn't really buy any food and just mainly walked around.

In Birmingham, we stopped for pizza at Slice. It was a very good stop-Robby and I had chicken bbq which we both liked. Then it was back in the car towards our hotel in Tupelo.

I haven't really heard too much from the kids today-school work for all, Reagan and Anderson had Comm Central. They managed to grab themselves some Sonic as Reagan took Anderson to Raymar to work for a little bit this afternoon. I know that there has been some playing outside this evening so I am sure that they are all good and worn out tonight.

April 4, 2022-Trip to the Masters

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Robby and I slept very well last night-I did wake up once to go to the bathroom and so did Robby. I think that I might could stay in bed a bit longer, but we were getting hungry. It didn't take us long to get ready and head downstairs for breakfast.

The Wilsons were eating already. I know that it has been a long time since I have rated hotel breakfasts, but let's talk about today's breakfast. Robby always prefers biscuits and sausage along with the gravy and not a bagel and sliced sausage like they had today. Granola always makes me happy. I did eat a plan bagel (they had no other flavors) along with plain cream cheese (no other flavors) which was filling but not exciting.

After breakfast, it didn't take too long before we were on our way. We didn't really have an agenda today-just end up in Augusta. Our first stop this morning was Buccees. Robby and I got our traditional order-a boudin kolache for Robby and a blueberry scone for me. We had just eaten so we didn't eat them and haven't eaten them yet.

Then as we were driving on, we saw a Costco. Of course by that time we needed a bathroom and gas, so we stopped in there. The only purchase there was an umbrella to hopefully to scare tomorrow's rain away. Oh, and we did buy 2 6 packs of muffins-Shannon bought coffee cake muffins while we bought blueberry. Back in the car, we had to sample those so we sliced those babies in half and fourths and tried them.

Kennessaw Mountain National Battlefield was our next stop. We ran into the the visitor's center for a little bit-Shannon was able to get her stamp. Then we drove up to the top of the mountain. It was fairly crowded up there, but we were able to hike up to the tip top of the mountain. It was a straight up hike, and we were pretty out of breath by the time we made it.

The next stop was downtown Atlanta for a walk through the Martin Luther King Memorial. I think that at one time we took a picture with the kids outside of his homeplace. We can't remember why we didn't go in, but we think that maybe the it was after hours.

This time we walked all over that place. We went through the museum. Then went through the church that he preached at, and finally we walked to MLKs birthplace. After that walk, we were back in the car on our way to supper.

At some point during the day we did move to Eastern Standard Time. Tony had found Hattie B's Hot Chicken, and it was a great stop. I had chicken tenders which were good along with mac and cheese and fries. Robby had a chicken sandwich that he really liked. We also had 2 waffles that were warm and sugary and delicious.

After supper, we did stop at another gas station for the restrooms. We had some fun on the drive with some winning scratch off tickets-and some losing scratch off tickets. Also we listened to a podcast about the Osage murders. Robby and I listened to the book last year, and I remembered most of what was going to happen. 

Back at the house, I think that the kids had a good day. Well, the girls had a rough night with Bentley. Bentley was a bit off her schedule last night, but hopefully all of that will be better tonight. There was school work this morning which I think was finished pretty quickly.

I do know that Keaton got hit in the face with a softball. She pitched it to Campbell, and Campbell hit it back. Bless her. Keaton has had this happen to her a few times-the others with a kickball which wasn't nearly as hard as that softball. She's tough though.

Reagan went to work this afternoon so she was gone for a while. Anderson and Whitman built one of Whitman's birthday gifts. Tonight for supper the kids had manicotti, green beans, ravioli and biscuits. I am sure that will be their favorite supper while we are gone.

We arrived in Augusta around 8 tonight and drive right to our hotel. Robby knew that he had a very good rate for the Masters week here, and later he saw that there were no hotels around so he was glad that he quickly snagged the two rooms that we had. We unloaded and walked on in the hotel with us each holding a bag or two.

We quickly noticed the free beer all over the lobby which was an interesting site. I had never seen that before in all of our hotel stays. Before we could even comment on that, the clerk told Robby that they had no rooms. They had no room because there were no clean rooms. He said it again before Robby could even mention that he had a reservation for two rooms-had the reservation almost a year. I was debating how bad it would be to clean a hotel room during parts of the conversation.

The man said he knew that when Robby told him. And continued to tell us that he was sending us down the road. He kept telling us how to go; however, he kept saying Motel 6 in his directions. Now, we don't stay in classy hotels, but they are a bit nicer than Motel 6s. Eventually, we figured out that he wasn't talking about a Motel 6, but a possibly upgrade in the chain.

We made it all the way out of the hotel lobby before we all completely lost it and died laughing. It was just all a bit too crazy.

We drove the half mile and arrived to the second motel. All the while, Shannon and I were trying to figure out if we could sleep in the car and what we would have to move for that to happen. Robby and Tony went in to check in and were in there forever!

Finally, Tony did come out to give an update. They knew we were coming, the lady was kind and quickly charged Robby's credit card for the first room-400 dollars. Robby was quick to catch that, but the poor lady had no idea how to change this, charge us the Robby's rate-of course he had all kinds of emails and numbers to confirm his original rate. 

It took about 30 minutes to get things all settled. As of writing this, they aren't yet. The lady was helpful and understood what needed to be done, but didn't know how to do it. Robby's card has still be charged and they are trying to change it tonight. It will all be settled (or he will dispute the whole charge) so he isn't worried at all.

After finding our rooms, which we were very thankful for, we headed out to find where the golf course is for tomorrow. We did that bit of driving around, and then we brought some snacks up to the room and started to watch the basketball game. 

April 3, 2022-Trip to the Masters

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Robby and I both woke up pretty early this morning-we tend to do that on trip mornings. Before 8, I had done my last chicken duty, showered, emptied the dishwasher and helped Robby put clean sheets on our bed. We were moving.

We had to get to church a little bit earlier than usual, so we made sure that the kids were up. I went upstairs once just as a prewake up-turned off the fans, opened the blinds, and turned the hallway light on. I went up there a bit later and told everyone how many minutes they had until we left.

A bit later Robby made two trips upstairs to make sure that people were stirring. Unfortunately, we must have missed speaking to Anderson. I hollered upstairs to ask the boys if I needed to comb the back of their hair. Graham replied that he was fine, but Anderson was still asleep. That did cause lots of yelling-thankfully, Anderson woke up in a good mood and was ready with time to spare.

We had to be at church early today because today some of the youth were in the choir, and Reagan signed up for this. She also signed up to work nursery at the same time, so Campbell and I took one for the team and filled in for her there. That meant that we missed baby dedication and seeing Reagan in the choir.

After church today, we headed to Nonna and Pops' house for lunch. They had pork loin and a huge pan of augratin potatoes that we finished off. I guess I didn't know how much my kids like those-I probably should make them more often-or really sometime since I haven't probably ever made them.

Nonna even had a little Easter gift for all of the kids and there was a cake and candles for Whitman. Of course Whitman enjoyed hearing the birthday song again-I think that he likes a bit of attention. We didn't tick around too long after lunch.

Once at home, the house was vacuumed, and Bentley's kennel was moved upstairs. Soon the Wilsons arrive, and Robby and I were telling people bye and giving instructions for the next few days. We didn't get too far until we had to turn around-well, just the end of the street when Shannon remembered that she forget her cords.

That didn't take long so we were on the road to the Masters. We had more snacks in the car that we could possibly ever need. We stopped right before Memphis at a gas station for the bathroom. It was no Buccees. That is kind of my bathroom standard right now-hopefully, we will stop at one tomorrow.

We did survive that stop and drove on to Tupelo before we had to stop again. Then there was supper at the little Mexican restaurant that Robby found in Jasper. It took us a bit to find it, but when we did it looked so promising (fun lights, lots of people). 

Unfortunately, things that look promising aren't always. Tony's food came out cold and looking pretty sad. He didn't have any of our sauces are things that make food look appealing. Robby and I were sharing a meal, and ours came out about 10 minutes after theirs. Well, we had to tell the waitress that we still didn't have our food. The manager eventually brought it out-but it was wrong!

Once we finally had the waitresses attention, Robby just gave back our food and said we would just eat the cheese dip. The odd thing-the manager, who the waitress said that she was getting and even checked Robby out, never once apologized, made anything right or even made excuses. It just left a bad taste in our mouth. 

Now, Robby and I did completely fill up on cheese dip, chips and salsa so we left happy-ish. That was really all that we needed to be full. I even brought in a snack to the hotel tonight, but I don't think that we will get to it this evening. 

We just had about 20 more minutes after supper before arriving at our hotel. We have a decent room-I have only been in 2 hotels since 2020 so even though hotel living was once common for us, it is just strange now. 

Now the kids: after we left, the kids had a bit of downtime before they all started to leave. Anderson and Graham went to Rock Creek with Brett. They had a big night there. My boys tried to win a free camp, but came up in 4th place. I am sure that they had fun tonight.

Reagan drove all of the others to church tonight because it was 6th grade Bible night. Campbell received her Bible-and I even manged to get a few pictures from the evening thanks to Jason and another friend. Then it was home for everyone and frozen pizzas for supper.

I did send a message about the time that the kids were supposed to start on the laundry so we will see how well that all worked out. I didn't make a specific extra chore list for the laundry and dishes so who knows! 

Bentley is sleeping in the girls room tonight. We heard that the first part of the evening didn't go too smoothly. I probably didn't explain exactly to them when she does go to bed usually. I think that they did get it figured out and hopefully, they all sleep well tonight.

April 2, 2022-Happy 9th Birthday Whitman!

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• Well there was no sleeping in today since there were chickens to let out. I think that I might just become a vegetarian. Actually, the list was long today, and there wasn't time to lollygag around. 
• Robby was the first one to leave today to pick up doughnuts for the birthday boy. When he made it back home, we just stood in the kitchen eating the doughnuts ourselves since none of the kids were awake. 
• Eventually there were some people that started to wake up, but not Whitman. Finally he did wake up and had a birthday doughnut before starting his day. I think that he has had a pretty perfect day-laying around in his pajamas doing nothing at all. 
• He played a few of his new games with Keaton, Campbell and Whitman. He also searched for rocks in his new rock finding kit. I think that might have been one of his favorite gifts. 
• Robby and I headed out this morning with Anderson to get him a hair cut and to do some speed shopping through Sams. We bought a buggy load of things there-lots happening here: Robby and I are packing for a trip while packing for a trip in the camper later in the week. 
• When Keaton came home from her sleepover today, she looked around the mudroom and asked if we were going on a trip. Indeed it looked as if we were moving today I had so many things out.
• Once we were home with Anderson, we were only home for a bit-long enough to unload and mark a few more things off of the list, before we left again with Campbell, Keaton and Graham. 
• Graham also needed a hair cut. I like it when they get a really good hair cut-there hair just grows so quickly that I often feel like I am throwing money away. I really wish that I could figure out how to cut their hair-it's probably too late for me to learn a new skill, but that would really be handy.
• That trip was Dollar General, the hair cut, Kroger and Costco. When we did get home, I remembered that we needed to go to the library so Robby headed that way.
• I then spent a few minutes with Reagan and then Anderson helping them write a paper. It wasn't hard, but getting them to start on it was difficult-it wasn't about any real thing-just their thoughts. Thankfully, that is finished and is one less thing for them to do this week.
• Once Robby made it home, we started on supper. While supper was heating up, I did some speed cleaning to the shower. The cleaning didn't stop before supper-after supper, we all worked on the kitchen floor-a good steam mop is what it received.
• Currently, there are a few of us watching basketball, but the next plan is for me to go and take care of my chickens. Then Robby and I have to do some treat making followed by a round of birthday ice cream.

April 1, 2022-Happy 9th Birthday (party) Whitman!

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• Sometimes I think that we work hard and do a week of school in 4 days so we can have Fridays off because we like to have a slow day, but really, we do all of that so I can catch up and get things done that I haven't really finished throughout the week. 
• Today, the first order of business was letting out the neighbors chickens. Then it was dishes and laundry followed by some cleaning. I really did dust, but by the time that I was finished, I think that dust settled back on some of the places that I dusted.
• Anderson and Reagan had some school work today that we had to work on. They both have more to do tomorrow. Reagan headed off to work at 1 today-she enjoyed it more today and felt a bit more confident about what she was doing.
• This afternoon when I was laying in the boys' bedroom floor chatting with them, I realized that I was a pretty good staller. I had cleaned most of the bathrooms but somehow ended in their room. I eventually finished our conversation and went to work.
• Let's talk about my kiddos-Campbell and Keaton worked super hard today getting things ready for the party. They helped gather things for games, write things out, make brownies, hang decorations. They worked so hard. 
• And tonight during Whitman's party, all my kiddos helped. Anderson and Graham helped with games and helped corral the kids at the end. Of course, Campbell was invaluable. Reagan was even super helpful chatting up the kids.
• Keaton wasn't at the party because she was spending the night at a friend's house for her birthday party. I took her around 5 and picked up one of Whitman's sweet little friends. Then there wasn't too much time before his party started.
• Whitman had 4 friends here-Owen, Ryan, Michael and Eli. They jumped on the trampoline and played gaga ball while we waited on Robby to return for pizza. All the grandparents and Jason arrived as well. 
• Then the games started-pin the MandM logo on the candy picture, guess the number of candy in the jar and bingo all before we ate pizza. Then there were more games  afterwards-opening candy while wearing gloves, candy jenga. 
• Then it was finally time for cupcakes-we had to work hard to find those cupcakes since Sams didn't have vanilla batter, and Sams is my cupcake go to. After the candles, there was throw the candy in the bucket and shoot the cup. We ended outside with the flour game, and then I just let the kids run wild since by that time their dads had all arrived to pick them up. 
• The clean up was minimal for sure tonight so things are mostly back to normal in the house-well, there is about 50 pounds of jenga blocks that I still have to put back up, but I'll need something to do tomorrow.