Laurel Falls

Tuesday was our first full day in Gatlinburg. We decided that we would start off our trip with some hiking. We chose an Easy/moderate trail to see laurel Falls. It was 1.3 miles each way and ended in a beautiful waterfall. It was a difficult hike, but well worth it to see the falls at the end. Mom did a great job walking up the mountain and didn't fall too far behind. At the falls everyone but mom hiked a little further to the bottom of the falls and had lunch there. Then it was the long, hard hike back to the car. It was an exhausting morning, but a fun time as well. After the hike we drove into pigeon fordge and had a snack at "no way Jose's" mexican resteraunt.

This house is full of dead animals....

The people who own this house REALLY REALLY like taxidermy animals. They are EVERYWHERE. Living room, bedrooms, bathrooms, sunrooms... seriously they are everywhere, and kind of creepy too. Wesley doesn't like the "bad cat" and doesn't like to pass it to go upstairs.

Mayfield Dairy

Monday we left HSV behind and headed to the Tenn Mountains.  To break up the trip we stopped in Athans TN to tour the Mayfield Dairy.  The tour was not much, but it was neat to see them make the milk bottles and fill them up.  The best part of the visit was getting ice cream at the end.  Everyone really enjoyed their treat and a break from driving.

Karate Tournament!

Today Ella participated in her very first Karate tournament.  She has been diligently practicing for WEEKS to do this.  She signed up to do open hand forms and Weapons, but they ended up combining the two so she had to pick one.  She decided to do "Creative Kama" her weapons form.  She was the only girl in her category and was chosen to go first.  She was SUPER nervous waiting for it all to begin, but once she got on the floor, her practicing came through for her and she did an amazing job!  She got a big trophy for her form that says "1st place" she is tickled!  (All the kids in the "little dragon" category got 1st place trophies).  I am so very very proud of her.  She conquered her fear and got over her nervousness and was able to do her very best, which is all I could ask of her.

After she was done, we went to pick up Wes and show Nana and Grandpa her trophy then we took her out to CiCi's pizza for lunch.  Ella and I went back to the tournament after dropping the boys off so she could watch a bit of the older kids stuff, since we had never been before.
















Ella got a picture with her friend Sammi


and with her assistant teacher Mr. Josh

Olympics at Karate!

Last friday they had an Olympic themed class at Karate.  They played volleyball (on their knees) Crab-walk soccar and Hurtles.  Ella had a lot of fun, she did fall on the hurtles and hurt herself, but the class was a blast!

Poor Little Wesley!

Remember this scene from July of 2010?


Well, after almost a year of daily breathing treatments he was off the meds for almost 18 months when he had another major attack of "asthma like symptoms"   I was really hoping to never have to use the nebulizer again!  On Sunday Wes was feeling poorly, but nothing major.  He was coughing a bit and his chest sounded congested so I had Jon give him a treatment just in case.  On Monday he was way worse.  By the time we got to the DR at 9:10am, his blood oxygen levels were at 87 (i am told that this is bad) so they gave him a treatment with the nebulizer and measured him again, he was up to 92, but not high enough for the Dr so we had ANOTHER treatment and got his levels up to 97.  Then we were sent home with  4 different meds, two oral and two inhalents.  Over the next 24 hours we gave Wes 8 nebulizer treatments and 8 doses of oral medicine.  Late Tuesday he finally seemed to be breathing easy.  Thank goodness!  He seems fine today but he has to have a treatment twice a day until his cough is completely gone.    He is NOT HAPPY about the "machine" but he is dealing with it.