Beautiful GREER!!!!

GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, that's how I feel about it. Each year for the past 4 years my family has spent one week in the beautiful mountains of Greer. We've tried different cabins almost each time, and I think we finally found the cabins that suit us best (except for some serious plumbing issues that we hope will be resolved for next year).

This year my sis-in-laws and I formed a "planning committee" to come up with activities for all the kids (and adults in some cases) so that our trip would be even that much more enjoyable, and I can honestly say that I think it was a success! Some of our activities were:

Track and Field Day

which included: sack races, 3 legged races, and a fun water balloon toss (and fight!)

Yes, that's my big butt jumping in one of the gunny sacks--Jody, Lana, and I even got in on the action! :)

We had this kids decorate bug jars (because there are a plethora of bugs up there for them to capture, collect, and torture)

We had them make fruit loop (or bead) necklackes, and played a game called "Hay is for Horses" where we got a bale of hay and hid hundreds of little prizes in it for them to search through and collect. That was fun!

We had a FABULOUS talent show (and when I can get the video uploaded I will show Brooklyn's ABC song -- it was adorable! She is only 2, but she was so enthralled with the performers, she sat on the front row totally quiet and still the whole time, and when it was her turn she got right up, turned around to us and sang the ABCs with NO help or prompting, and then sat back down! It was the cutest!) The Jones boys also sang a HILARIOUS song from some Mormon movie that was great, and my boys each did their own "thang". Cooper and Conner performed a Weird Al song (complete with backup dancers Tatum, Maya, and Livy), and Carter was a stand up comic! I was proud of them for each figuring out their talents and working on it on their own. They were a lot of fun to watch.

Some other hilights of the night were: Cooper, Carter, and Tatum playing piano solos (they're all taught by their Aunt Dana), Maya and Owen doing gymnastics "tricks", Maggie showing us how she can stand (that was the cutest!), Livy, Tatum, Maya, and Owen's song "Peanut Butter and Jelly" (SO CUTE), and Dixie and Shane's AMAZINGLY funny song!

Here's a shot of Mags showing us how great she is at standing:

Some of our other activities included a fantastic family kickball game (that unfortunately only lasted 20 minutes or so before Porter kicked it so hard it was impaled on a tree. Game over). This was great, though, because EVERYONE participated (down to some really little ones), and it was just fun. It wasn't the best place to play because it was very uneven ground and we were all afraid we'd twist an ankle, but it was still one of the highlights. Here's a shot of me looking oh-so-graceful kicking the ball :)

Finally, my very favorite activity (and the very most work of all) was "The Amazing Race" We created 4 teams. The first task was a nature scavenger hunt where they had to not only collect things in bug jars and bags, but take pictures of things they couldn't collect. They all got stumped on the dreaded squirrel/chipmunk. Believe me, they're everywhere--until you want to photograph them, then POOF! Gonzo! As soon as that was completed they had to make their way to the playground for an "obstacle course". It was a roadblock that only two on the team could complete. Then they had a Detour, where they chose to either do a crossword/word search, or learn a dance. When they completed that they had to put together a puzzle and solve the riddle on the puzzle to get to the end where Jere (otherwise known as the "host") greeted them and they got their prizes. Overall it was quite a success, and lots of fun! Even though the scavenger hunt was fairly hard, that was my favorite part.

And here are a couple shots of our family at our annual "family picture" at the end of Greer. Overall, probably the best year yet!