Trip to the Smokies

Now that the kids are older, we are enjoying doing some more traveling.  It is so crazy that the Great Smoky National Park is 3 hours away and we never had really been there.  Thanks to the kids' schedule, we had a free Friday and decided to take advantage.  I booked a cabin outside of Gatlinburg and we packed up and got out of town.  This was taken on the drive in:

We couldn't get Andy out of the car.  Foreshadowing to the teenage years, I think.  

As far as trips goes, this was another one that was pretty cheap.  We booked the cabin, and I don't think we spent money on anything else while we were there.  Gas, of course, but we ate all of our meals in the cabin, and the National Park was free to go to.  We drove through, but did not stop in the craziness that was Gatlinburg.  Maybe next time.

All this is fine for me, when I go on vacation, I really like to relax.

Great view! 

Since we did spend a lot of time in the cabin, we played a lot of games.  Mostly, Apples to apples, Uno, and Trouble.

Are there scholarships for Trouble playing?  Andy was amazing at it.  He is the Green in this picture.

We also did do some hiking.  Our first hike was one of the longest we have ever done as a family:  3 miles round trip.  James usually doesn't like hiking, but he was a champ for this one! 

Andy is usually our mountain goat, but fell in the parking lot and really the rest of the day was ruined.  When we got to the waterfall he just clutched me and wouldn't let go.  

Another outing we did was to Clineman's Dome (??)  The drive up there was beautiful and the weather was completely different from the lower elevations.  The hike was shorter, but a pretty steep walk up a paved path.  

Even with the clouds, the view was still pretty good.

And of course, I wore a Clemson shirt and of course I got comments.  And of course we met other Clemson graduates AND former band members.  

And of course brothers will be brothers.

After that, we drove back down the mountain and had another little hike and a picnic lunch.  After lunch we climbed rocks in the river.  This was probably my favorite thing we did.  I think I am plotting my next move in this picture.

 We backed up to leave on Father's Day and really I felt like I could have used one more day, but the traffic was so crazy in Gatlinburg and in the park, that I think we really couldn't have done anything else.  

It was a good trip and we can't wait to go back!

Fire pit

Last year for Father's Day, we got Mark a fire pit.  I know these things are kind of trendy, but we actually enjoyed using it in the evenings.  Now, we originally just had the fire pit on our little back patio, but once we filled in the pool, in opened up some extra space to put stuff.  Not to mention we had to do something with the big mud pit.  So I had a vision:

But nicer, you know?  And less flammable.

Much better.  It took almost a whole Saturday, from after Body Pump to about 3, and 3 trips to Lowe's, but I am pretty happy with the finished product.  Once it was done, we had to try it out!

Ahhhh!  And then the grand finale.  They keep trying to not have the marshmallows catch on fire, but I think they secretly like it.

I like the sm'ores, and so does James!

Andy is a mess, as always!

I really would like to cook a whole dinner out there, but we haven't done it yet!