Birthdays,Family, Fun and A Whole Lotta Love NC 2012

The Prince and I are so very lucky that we were able to fly to Cherokee, NC for my grandmother's 90th birthday in January of 2012. She shares a birthday with my niece, Miranda, so it was nice to take my niece to the casino on her birthday too! Too bad we didn't win big!!!

This is a posting of a million pictures and various comments. I love my family so much, dysfunction included.

Let's go...As you can see my travel partner, Prince AidenMan, is a pro at this traveling thing.

We stayed in this 4/2 bath cabin on the river with my mom, step dad, brother, his girlfriend, nephew and niece! Fun Times....Most of it, at least....HA !

Our backyard and fantastic fishin' hole!

When Nana is around, there are tons of junk snacks....AidenMan was in junk heaven!

AidenMan's fantastic Uncle Ronnie brought him a US floor puzzle. Jenny help construct it...In her world, Ohio may have attached to Hawaii...LMAO!

First visitor, my mom's brother, Uncle Jake!

LOVE

My brother, Uncle Ronnie; Uncle Jake, Jenny (brother's GF) and the Prince.

Love birds...tweet tweet

UNCLE UNCLE!!! Pap, I said UNCLE!! and Pap would say "you had enuff' boy??!" ...and then the laughing continued

The Prince loves his Uncle Ronnie more than words and he loves fishing almost as much!

Prince and his Mom

Prince and his Nana

Prince and his Great Grandma

What?!!! Well, of course Pooh Bear (me) is my favorite!!!

Grandma probably telling Jenny something important, like that I have always been her favorite.

 

I wish I could have captured the laughing that took place while taking this picture...we had to try at least 4 times!!!

Walking and talking with Uncle Jake

Walking and planning with Uncle Ronnie

Executing the plan

The Prince and I snuck off for some mining!

"How much do you think this is worth, Mom?"

Then we moved on to educating ourselves about our people/ancestry. We are of the Wolf Clan. The Prince wanted to know if we knew anyone from another clan. I explained to him that you take the clan of your mother so I called our cousin, Freida, and asked her which clan she belongs to. She is from the Sweet Potato Clan. The Prince then asked "Does she know our clan can eat her clan?" HA!

Wooden Sequoyah and his not-so-wooden descendant. Not sure why the Prince appears to be screaming for his life....maybe he was reacting the plight of his people....wait until you see how unhappy he is inside the museum. He does not take the history of his people lightly. I'm not sure what's going to happen when we study the plight of his daddy's lineage......

Throughout Cherokee NC there are bears that represent various aspects of the Cherokee. This one represents Sequoyah..the creator on the Cherokee written language and also the wooden depiction above.

The Prince is aware of the plight of the Cherokee people and he is very proud and very pissed at the same time...He is so much his mother's child.

Aiden references Sequoyah at least once monthly in our day-to-day lives.

Back at the cabin for a little rest and relaxation with his cousin, Logan.

Aiden sharing Sonic racing on the Ipad with Logan.

Love these three.

The cuddle bunny and his Uncle Jake.

HUSH GMA! I'm not squeezing you too tight...geesh!

Pap, if I were you I would listen...she's got a cane in her hand!

Good LAWD! We have big heads!

Aiden loves Jenny, but he does not like it when Uncle Ronnie lets Jenny catch the big fish!

Can you imagine the life story behind those eyes??

*HEART SMILE

Logan, hurry up and take a picture with grandma!! We gotta party to get to!!

Aiden loves cousins!!!

I'll get you!!

Or maybe they will get me!

Quick break...while the cousin with the busted nose gets cleaned up.

We are sweet.

We are scary.

Can I tell you that I have never been around my Great Aunt Annie without laughing? I love this lady!!!!! And her crazy daughter, you'll see below.

UMMMM???

Family Love

The Prince, his Great-Great Aunt Annie and his Uncle Happy...yep, my eldest brother is called Uncle Happy...that is 100% the fault of my niece, Kimberly....

Here she is...the crazy one I mentioned above..NITA! with my brother smashed in between.

My Great Aunt Lizzie and my momma. Just to let you know, my Aunt Lizzie makes some of the best bean bread...EVER!!!!!!! (but you may not have any clue what that is)

GEESH! Aunt Lizzie..you looked happy hugging Mom. I thought you liked me too?

The birthday girl gearing up for her thank you speech. HAPPY 90TH Grandma!!

My cousin, Lisa, hugging Grandma and laughing at me for just being scalded by her.

Uncle Happy or some random cowboy...one can never be sure.

There's my silly and sweet Great Auntie again!!

The Prince had to sit with his Pap for lunch.

The Prince and his Nana's sister, Aunt Abbie.

The cousin train.

After lunch, the Prince had something very important to explain to his Uncle Ronnie.

The apparent light bulb moment for the Uncle.

Awww, look at my nephew, Logan!!

Do you have a person in your family that the only words that could describe her are SUPER SWEET?! In this photo, in between the Prince and Gma, is Ms. Darlene. She is my Aunt Deb's mother and is a member of our family, not by blood but by love. We recently lost Ms. Darlene in flesh, but memories are ours forever.

I think she wished to win at Bingo that evening.

My Aunt Deb....Does everyone have a favorite Auntie?

Miranda, read the question right above! The answer better be Yes! and I better be it :)

Cousin Brenda

Cousin Brenda's Momma, Aunt Abbie.

SO check this out...If my Aunt can have a cool name like Alice Pocahontas and my cousin Freida can have the same fantastic middle name as my grandma, Nokomis,...then how do I get stuck with the middle name Faye??? Okay...so what that my momma is Bonnie Faye and my cousin (pictured above) is also named Lisa Faye and my other cousin ( not pictured above) is name Melinda Faye...I want a cooler middle name!!!! WAAAA! ...moving on..

Relaxing...

The day after the party and our final day, we stopped by and hung out with my grandmother. The highlight of that visit was her singing Amazing Grace in Cherokee to us...love her!

We had a fabulous time in NC and  of course when we are that close to FL we need to hang out with Nana " a touch bit" (The Prince's saying) more...so we headed South to Florida for a few days.

This is Presha Sue Ellen, a.k.a Suetee, she has been my little sister for approxiamtely 14 years. She is really sick with a heart condition, so I wanted to share this picture. We love her so much! My mom loves her even more.