My Mom is an amazing Mom. She loves us, takes care of us, and even manages to find the energy to cook up, not only one surprise, but two! (Here is the first surprise)

On Dad’s birthday, we all woke up at about 8:30. Mom called Ms. Gretchen and she picked up donuts for us (we had been too busy to make breakfast birthday cake).  We had a meeting at 7:00 that night, so we got our work done and left at about 3:00 to go and play before the meeting.

First we went to Pizza Hut – yummmm!!!  Then we headed to our possible new property.  We explored some, marked the dogwoods and red-buds (Dad’s favorites), and planned where things would go. When we were done, it was almost 6:00. So we all put on our white “Goat Milk Stuff” t-shirts and headed to our meeting.

After the meeting, we all got in the car and got buckled while Mom and Dad talked to Lincoln (our Realtor). Hewitt went to the back of the Hulk to get, and eat, the leftover donuts.

As we were driving home, I heard Mom tell Dad to drive past our exit. He said OK. I was keeping an eye out, and as soon as we passed our exit I asked Mom, “Hey Mom, where are we going?” She said, “south”.

I tried several more times, but I could not get anything out of her.

We got down to Clarksville, and Colter looked up from whatever he was doing, and said, “Dad, did you know you passed the exit?”

Mom said yes.

He asked where we were going. Mom said, “South”.

Then all of the other boys tried.

Emery:  “Mom, where are we going?”

Mom: “South.”

Fletcher: “Mom, where are we going?”

Mom: “South.”

That happened several times. Then we started asking questions. She replied, “Not telling.” (or other things like that.) It was driving the boys nuts.

(OK, it was driving me nuts. )

We were almost into Louisville when she said, “Now I will answer some questions”.

She was shot with a volley of questions, the most frequent one being “Where are we going??”

She answered a few questions, and then said that she would answer more later.

By now it was dark. Mom answered some more questions, including “How long till we get there?” The answer was about 2 hours.

Then Emery asked if he was going to have to milk the goats. I can see why he was worried! It was 9:00, and Mom said two more hours… Then getting back… We had already been driving a half an hour… Yeah, I can definitely see why he was worried!

Mom said no, Bekah was milking. Emery heaved a HUGE sigh.

Then he asked when we were going back home.

Mom: “Not answering that yet”.

After about a half an hour Mom said she would answer more questions. We all asked, “Where are we going!?!?!”. I think we wanted to know. 😀

Mom (finally!) told us that she had rented a cabin in KY for Dad’s birthday.

Then we all asked how long we were going to be there.

Mom: “A week.”

“Ummmm… Mom?!? We have no clothes, toys… We don’t have what we need, Mom!!!”

OK, none of us said it, but we were all thinking it! LOL

So I said, “Hey Mom? We did not pack.”

Mom: “Ms. Gretchen and Mrs. Hedges packed for you.”

Me: “Where is it all?”

Mom: “In the back.”

Me: “It was not there when we left for Scottsburg.”

Mom: “Ms. Gretchen drove up and put it in the back while we were in the meeting. “

Me: “Oh! That is why you would not let me go get my book!”

Mom: “Yep!”

A little later…

Mom: “You did not see it when you got the donuts?”

Me: “I did not get the donuts, Hewitt did.”

Me (in my mind): “Which is why none of us heard about it… “


We ended up getting to the “Cedar Palace” a little after 11. We would have gotten there sooner, but Mom and I had to go to Kroger to get groceries. It was 5 minutes to 11, and they close at 11.

When we got there, the doors were already locked. Mom caught the attention of a cashier, and asked him if she could get milk. He let her in, and said hurry!

Mom had me running around the store fetching things.  Go get this, and go get that. Back and forth. This way and that way. We heaped a shopping cart in 4 and a 1/2 minutes! It was pretty cool. We got to the checkout, and I could not stop panting. I was just trying to catch my breath. And find my legs. See, after two and a half hours in the car, and then running just about as fast as you can for 4 and a 1/2 minutes… It makes your legs feel like rubber.

So we got to “the cabin” (Jade asked that we call it “the cabin” after we kept making her think that we were going home home when we said we were going home) and started running around laying claim to the bedrooms. I was pretty lucky. I got a king bed. Of course, I had to share it with the girls, but still! I quickly unpacked all of our stuff, (with all of the shows we do I have gotten pretty fast at that!) and crawled into bed.

Jade woke me up like 7 times that night. How?

With her feet, head, and arms. Oh, and the back of her hand. You know, if the back of her hand was a fly swatter, and there was a fly on my nose, she would have killed 3 or 4 flies that night!

Next morning I woke up and ate. After everyone was awake and had eaten, we all got ready to go hiking. We were going to do Natural Bridge. It was AWESOME!  Pictures coming soon…

It was a great Birthday Surprise!!