Where have the days gone?

It is now Thursday evening and we haven't posted anything about our week. We've had a full week.


Monday, July 19

On Monday, we met up with the Hanlons. Upon arriving at their cabin, we were greeted with a water balloon. It was a wet afternoon! After the water balloon fight, we took a hike.

Anthony and Noah on a hike

The hike seemed too easy for Nicholas and John

 who were waiting for us on the bench.

Matthew and Nicole on the hike

After our hike, we took in some Go-Karting and an arcade before heading over to the first day of the conference put on by Answers in Genesis. We listened to a couple of speakers who were very insightful. Our first speaker was Ken Ham. We've heard him before and it wasn't any easier this time to keep up with him. He has an Australian accent, speaks quickly and is so knowledgeable. The second speaker was Dr. Andrew Snelling. Both speakers spoke on a literal 6-day creation.

Tuesday, July 20

Our second day of the conference was full of some incredible speakers. Our favorites were Dr. Jason Lisle and Dr. Voddie Baucham. The boys also really liked a session they went to with John Swomley. He taught them some magic tricks. During our 5 1/2 hour break, we had a wonderful cookout with the Hanlons at their resort (Thanks, Hanlons!!) where Noah, Nichole, Anthony and Matthew put on a very entertaining magic show for us.

Anthony working his magic with John

Nicole had to call in a new assistant after her

first was uncooperative

Noah somehow made a dollar off

of this trick

After the magic show, we packed up our smiles and headed to the blaster boats in Pigeon Forge where Matthew, Nicole, Noah & Joshua got soaked. They were successful in getting us spectators wet as well (all while avoiding the cameras!).

Then we headed over to Gatlinburg for some Hillbilly Golf. We had a lot of fun but didn't get many pictures there. We were out of time after that and headed back to the conference.

Wednesday, July 21

On the third day of the conference, we heard more speakers in the morning. The boys were thrilled to attend the teen tracks scheduled for that day. During our lunch break, we again headed over to the Hanlons and enjoyed lunch and fellowship with the Hanlons and the Engles (all of us from home who attended the conference). We also needed to take care of some laundry. Sorry, we failed to get photos of that exciting adventure! In fact, we didn't take any photos that day.

Thursday, July 22

Thursday was the final day of the conference with some pretty powerful messages. We took away a lot of good information and ended up purchasing a few items too. Upon arriving back at our cabin, however, we made the decision to leave early. We packed, cleaned and took off on the road.  We stopped at the arcade to use up the rest of our coins and stopped one more time at Anthony's new favorite store -- Bass Pro Shop.

We ended up with a wonderful hotel room in Corbin, Kentucky. Paul decided to spoil us all with a hot tub in the room. Tomorrow, we will go to the Creation Museum. We are going to take advantage of the free family pass we received because of our attendance at the conference (and we're doing everything we can to avoid going home and ending our vacation).