Gatlinburg 2010

So our family vacation has come and gone. We left a day early on Wednesday night with plans on stopping in Chattanooga for the night and spending Thursday morning seeing the sights around the city. However, THIS was our first stop of the trip.....Yes, it wouldn't be a Chilton Family vacation without a little drama/trauma. The trip was off to a great start. We left at 5:45 on Wednesday evening, then returned home at 6:00 because I had forgotten something. When we were finally on the road, we drove to Chatanooga, checked in a hotel and slept for the night. We were up bright and early with plans to stop by Lookout Mountain, Rock City, and Ruby Falls, then drive on to Gatlinburg. With everyone in great spirits, we ate breakfast and were about to go to the car when IT happened. Chris was walking out a door and Luke was walking in the same door...do you see where I'm going with this?? COLLISION...metal door to Luke's big toe...ripping half of his toe nail off. OUCH!!! So, instead of taking a detour to Lookout Mountain, Ruby Falls, and Rock City, we took a little detour by T.C. Thompson Children's ER with a screaming Luke who was certain they were going to amputate his toe, begging us to "just put a band-aid on it."
Here he is in the ER. Luckily Chatanooga has more than one pediatric hospital, and we were just about the only one's there. We were in and out of there in about an hour minus 1/2 big toe nail and plus one bulky bandage(which he promptly removed about an hour down the road). Luke was very relieved to leave with all of his toes.

We finally made it to Gatlinburg. I haven't been there in about 10 years, literally. Kaylyn was a fetus the last time we went to Gatlinburg. Anyway, I had forgotten about the traffic going into and out of Sevierville and Pigeon Forge. After the trip to the ER and creeping along for nearly two hours in traffic, finding the office to pick up the key to our chalet, we FINALLY made it there around 4:00 Thursday afternoon. Kaylyn was so excited to be in the mountains, since she's never been north of the Alabama state line. I know, I know, she's a deprived child. What can I say, we're normally beach people in the summer. Anyway, we decided we would drive up to the highest point of the Smokey's and let her check out the view. She loved it.

Here is the view from the top of the mountain.

The North Carolina - Tennessee State Line: Elevation 5046. It was about 20 degrees cooler up there making it a cool 80 degrees. We've grown so accustomed to this sweltering hot weather, I thought we may need to break out the winter coats with the 20 degree drop in temperature. Ha Ha!

Of course we had to stop and play in the river. Yes, with Luke's newly injured toe, which was missing half of it's toenail. He was very careful to guard it and would scream if anyone or anything even thought of coming near it.

Luke was amazed by the big rocks in the river and that the river was so small. He talked about it the ENTIRE trip. Yes, he is easily amused.

Stay tuned, more to come...

SO Not Fair!!!

It's just not fair that my offspring got to take a trip to the beach a couple of weeks ago...while I stayed home to work! They went with Nana and Pop and Paul, Candace, and Chloe. So, yes, my ENTIRE family was at the beach having fun....while I stayed home to work! They had a blast and got to play on the beach for two of their three days. On the third day a storm came and blew all the tar balls on the beach. Here are a few pics Candace sent me.
Enjoying some time in the ocean, pre-tar balls

Chloe's getting to be such a big girl! They said she really had a fun time playing on the beach.

And then there's this picture...Oh, what do I say about this one??? I died laughing when I saw this one. It is quiet hilarious! You have Chloe looking like Aunt Jemima in...I'm not exactly sure what kind of hat that is, Luke who's built like a string bean, and Miss Thang who looks like she's got a future as the cover girl for the Sport's Illustrated Swim Suit Edition! What a crew!

Back on Track

So... it's been a while. This time I actually have a legitimate excuse! June 8, 2010 will now be known as the day The Big Crash of 2010 occurred. Look for it in history books of the future. Yes, my computer crashed and burned. The devastating crash of 2010 may or may not be related to the number of pictures stored on the computer/victim of The Big Crash of 2010.

In any event, we're up and running again AND they were able to recover ALL the pictures and important documents which may or may not have contributed to The Big Crash of 2010.

Tee Ball Party

A couple of weeks ago we had Luke's Tee Ball party. The party was a skating party and all the kids had a fun time. Personally, I am not a fan of skating parties....placing 5 and 6 year old kids in shoes with wheels and telling them to go around in circles on cement flooring is just not a good idea to me. Add to the fact that most said kids have never worn a pair of skates and there are many kids who are much older flying around the skating rink, trying to show off for whomever may be watching...it's a nerve-racking experience! But that's just the ER nurse/mama bear in me talking. The kids had a great time and everyone made out with all their teeth and extremities in tact!

A little concerned about these rolling accessories
Required a little help from Daddy

A little more confident

Kaylyn and BFF Shalyn.

Just one of many encounters with the cement flooring
Taking a break from skating to take in a little air hockey
After skating/colliding with cement, it was time for pizza, cake, and ice cream. The team also received their trophies. Luke promptly dropped his and it ended up in about 3 pieces. Another one has been ordered and will be here by the end of the week.

Another Year Of Dance Is In The Books...

This past weekend we had Kaylyn's dance recital, ending her 6th year of dance. It's hard to believe it's been 6 years since I sent my 3 year old little pig-tailed girl bouncing in to her first dance class. She's come a long way from the days of "I'm A Little Teapot" and "Three Little Fishies!"Backstage, ready to dance!

Showing off the trophies from this year's competition season

Kaylyn and Chaney striking a pose. These two have been together since the begining.

Now for the videos. This is what they've been working so hard on all year.


The quality of these videos is not great. I had to put the video shot with my digital camera on here because my video camera does not save the video in a format I can upload (or maybe I just haven't figured out how to change the format of the video). I think it may be time to upgrade our technology around the Chilton house. HINT, HINT!

"You Know You Want Me..." This song had all four competition teams dancing together and won second overall at the Alabama Theater competition. They move so much in this dance making it hard to point out which dancer is Kaylyn. Here's a hint: She's the smallest one!


"Freakazoid" This is the girls' hip-hop dance.

"Proud Mary" This one is Kaylyn's favorite dance.

Kindergarten End-of-Year Bash

On Monday we had Luke's end-of-year party. They went bowling and saw the new Shrek movie. (BTW, LOVE all the Shrek movies, and this one was the BEST!) All the kids had a great time bowling, which was a first for many of them, including Luke.
Luke and his buddies, Boone, Payton, and Casey. Can you say T-R-O-U-B-L-E

After bowling, it was time to load the kids on the bus and head to the movies.

Luke and his, Ahem, girlfriend Shayna.
(But don't talk to him about it, he turns about 5 shades of red!)

A Decision Made

We have finally come to a decision about our Summer vacation. Originally we had decided to go to the beach for a few days, but just after I found and reserved a condo for the days we wanted to go to the beach, the big oil spill in the gulf occurred. When days and weeks went by with thousands of barrels of oil pumping into the gulf everyday, we decided it might be wise to look into other options for our vacation. We decided on a white water rafting trip if it looked like we would be unable to go to the beach in July.


Although it is still very likely our beaches will be spared any major damage from the oil spill, the threat is still there and I need some concrete plans in place. Beach or rafting...that is the question. The answer came the other night over some Chinese food, of all things! We were eating dinner, discussing which trip we would take....should we take our chances with the beach, or should we go rafting??? In the middle of this conversation, Kaylyn opened her fortune cookie and it read "Boats and water are in your future. Have fun." No lie!!! White water rafting it is!

Dance Pictures!!

It's time for the dance pics again, which also means this year's dance season is winding down....Hallelujah!! The dance recital is next weekend and then we're through with dance for at least a month or so!

This one is my fav, but Holy Moly, Where oh where has my baby girl gone???

Slacker!

Hello. My name is Nicole and I'm a blog neglector. Yes, I've been a slacker when it comes to my blog. I have no excuses other than our usual busy Spring/End of school lives.


Luke finished his Tee ball season today in the post season tournaments. They played 3 ball games and won one with a forfeit from the other team. They won their game on Thursday night in slaughter-like fashion. Friday night was the forfeit win and today finished with two losses. They played great, but just couldn't pull it off. They had fun though and at this age, they really don't care if they win or lose.


Kaylyn is finishing up third grade and ready for summer break. Her dance recital will be coming up in a couple of weeks and we are all ready for it to get here...we need a break! I don't know what I'm going to do with myself for the next 2 months with no ballgames or dance functions to attend! I'm sure I will find something to occupy my time and August will be here before we know it!


Tuesday we celebrated the 5th Anniversary of Chris' 29th birthday. I keep telling him it doesn't work that way, no matter how he says it....he's STILL 34 years old!


We have a beach trip planned for July, but with the oil spill happening in the Gulf, who knows if we'll get to go. If not, we'll be going somewhere in July.

Anyway, that pretty much catches everyone up on the happenings of the Chilton household....a birthday, an uncertain beach trip, ball and dance...and in a few weeks...NOTHING!

May Day!

This past week, the kids had May Day at school. It's a fun day for the kids with rides, jump houses, slides, face painting, hair painting, and games. I was able to go and help out with Luke's class by being a parent escort. Luckily there were lots of parents helping so I was only responsible for keeping up with Luke and his buddy Payton. I say "luckily" because there were hundreds of kids who had gone WILD! Seriously, the doors opened and it was a stampede of screaming kids who were ready for a fun day at school. Chloe also got to tag along with us for part of the day. Because I was being drug from place to place by Luke and Payton, while either holding Chloe on my hip or dragging her by the hand behind them, I didn't get to see Kaylyn too often. She was busy with her friends and too cool to hang out with Mom and those baby Kindergartners! I did manage to get a few quick pictures of her though, but then she was off to the next adventure!

Sweet picture of Chloe and her buddy waiting to go outside to all the fun

She decided she needed to hold both of his hands
Luke waiting to ride the airplanes

Kaylyn and buddy Kimberly...one of the 3 times I saw her all day...

Luke and his friend Shayna in the planes

Chloe and buddy Payton (Not Luke's buddy Payton) in the planes. She LOVED this ride. We had to ride it several times!

Of course we just had to do the hair painting. He kind of resembles Ronald McDonald. Yes, he still has pink hair!

Chloe was not to be outdone. She had to have her hair painted as well.

Taking a break from the heat

The next time I saw Kaylyn she had purple hair!

Luke's favorite ride was this Velcro thing. He loved jumping against the wall and sticking, then he decided to climb!

Then the guy threw him way up and held him on the wall. Luke loved it!

Here's the third time I saw Darling Daughter.

Luke and Payton going down the giant inflatable slide.

Another big hit of the day was this pumping, spinning thing. The faster they pumped the bars, the faster they spun around. They had it flying before it was over. I don't know how they didn't get sick!

The End!