The formations were beautiful!
We had such a great time!
We stopped at the Moonshine Ridge store on the way home to look around.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Day 6 - Thursday
Thursday was another rainy day, so we decided to head to the FORBIDDEN CAVERN!
The formations were beautiful!
The formations were beautiful!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Day 5 - Wednesday
Shelby's 4th Birthday
We woke up and started off any birthday the way you should - opening presents.
It was so funny to see Shelby all day playing up that she was now 4 and was entitled to the many (in her opinion) new privileges that such an accomplishment should entail. She reminded us of the fact that now that she was 4 she could _________________. It's so funny because Hailey never did that. To her the numbers of her birthday were meaningless. With Shelby, well, let's just say the sun and moon rotate around her and all the world should join in the celebration!
The Presents -
From Hailey - a set of ball gloves for playing. I thought it would be a good present for our vacation but upon arriving to our cabin we realized it would not be. If we were so far up the mountain we were worried about our children rolling down the mountainsides then we SURELY would lose a ball down the side. Hopefully we'll be able to try them out soon.
Mommy - a new children's piano
Daddy - a new Tinkerbell doll. Obviously a hit!
For Shelby's birthday since it was raining again we went to Ripley's Aquarium. It was so cool! (BTW - we have discovered that unless you like experiencing obscenely annoying traffic you should not venture into Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, or Gatlinburg, Tennessee in July or August.)
While walking along I spotted this shirt and HAD to get a picture. This is the town my dad is from in Pennsylvania. I introduced myself, asked to take a picture, and found out they know my little brother. Crazy!
This was the coolest part of the aquarium! A walk through tunnel aquarium with all kinds of fish and sea creatures in it.
More tunnel pics - it was so cool!
This beast swam right over our head! Yikes!
The touch center for horseshoe crabs!
Walking along the sidewalks in Gatlinburg was a colorful experience! Flowers were everywhere. I loved it.
The perfect way to finish the day - Chocolate Explosion Cake. It was so cute. I had to buy the cake at a grocery store and I bought the tube of icing to put Shelby's name on. She reminded me all week that I was going to need to put her name on her cake so she could blow her candles out. She is so stinking cute!
We woke up and started off any birthday the way you should - opening presents.
It was so funny to see Shelby all day playing up that she was now 4 and was entitled to the many (in her opinion) new privileges that such an accomplishment should entail. She reminded us of the fact that now that she was 4 she could _________________. It's so funny because Hailey never did that. To her the numbers of her birthday were meaningless. With Shelby, well, let's just say the sun and moon rotate around her and all the world should join in the celebration!
The Presents -
From Hailey - a set of ball gloves for playing. I thought it would be a good present for our vacation but upon arriving to our cabin we realized it would not be. If we were so far up the mountain we were worried about our children rolling down the mountainsides then we SURELY would lose a ball down the side. Hopefully we'll be able to try them out soon.
Mommy - a new children's piano
Daddy - a new Tinkerbell doll. Obviously a hit!
For Shelby's birthday since it was raining again we went to Ripley's Aquarium. It was so cool! (BTW - we have discovered that unless you like experiencing obscenely annoying traffic you should not venture into Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, or Gatlinburg, Tennessee in July or August.)
While walking along I spotted this shirt and HAD to get a picture. This is the town my dad is from in Pennsylvania. I introduced myself, asked to take a picture, and found out they know my little brother. Crazy!
This was the coolest part of the aquarium! A walk through tunnel aquarium with all kinds of fish and sea creatures in it.
More tunnel pics - it was so cool!
This beast swam right over our head! Yikes!
The touch center for horseshoe crabs!
Walking along the sidewalks in Gatlinburg was a colorful experience! Flowers were everywhere. I loved it.
The perfect way to finish the day - Chocolate Explosion Cake. It was so cute. I had to buy the cake at a grocery store and I bought the tube of icing to put Shelby's name on. She reminded me all week that I was going to need to put her name on her cake so she could blow her candles out. She is so stinking cute!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Day 4 - Tuesday
There were a lot of really cool things about our cabin, but this one was one of my faves! REAL silver silverware from the cabin owner's antique shop probably. I NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER eat off of paper plates or with plastic silverware (just ask Brian it drives him crazy) and NEVER (times a million) do I eat off foam plates.
I feel like eating should be an event - with real plates (preferably antique plates with gold trim) and with real silverware and with real glass glasses.
I felt like I was close to heaven eating off of real SILVER silverware.
I did embrace my potential hillbilly side and tried Boiled Peanuts. You have to say them "Bowled Peanuts" if you want to have the real experience. They were different, salty and different, but very good. A little drippy wet but good.
I feel like eating should be an event - with real plates (preferably antique plates with gold trim) and with real silverware and with real glass glasses.
I felt like I was close to heaven eating off of real SILVER silverware.
I did embrace my potential hillbilly side and tried Boiled Peanuts. You have to say them "Bowled Peanuts" if you want to have the real experience. They were different, salty and different, but very good. A little drippy wet but good.
Our cool jacuzzi! Loved it!
A little family fun in the hot tub.
A mysterious night. It rained almost every day. I felt like we lived in a jungle, because it was so moist. However, it never really got humid except one day and best of all there were NO bugs other than gnats. We discovered that if you stuck a Bounce dryer sheet in your hat you didn't even have gnats bothering you, b/c apparently they do not appreciate smelling laundry fresh.
A little family fun in the hot tub.
A mysterious night. It rained almost every day. I felt like we lived in a jungle, because it was so moist. However, it never really got humid except one day and best of all there were NO bugs other than gnats. We discovered that if you stuck a Bounce dryer sheet in your hat you didn't even have gnats bothering you, b/c apparently they do not appreciate smelling laundry fresh.
Day 3 - Monday
We woke up to the sound of our cabin's owner's group of wild turkeys. We ran over to investigate and this is what we found.
We thought it was super special to have found them and worried we'd not see them again. It turns out they're quite regular and we got to see them a lot of times.
Shelby collecting intriguing special things from our yard.
A turkey feather from our flock of friends.
Hiking up to Laurel Falls.
Yes! That is a mother bear and her 2 bear cubs. We were SOOOO thrilled we got to see them! The one cub was up the tree when we first walked up to see it.
Laurel Falls. We were so refreshed by the cool water after that long UPHILL climb. We didn't know we were hiking to the TOP of the waterfalls. But it was cool!
We thought it was super special to have found them and worried we'd not see them again. It turns out they're quite regular and we got to see them a lot of times.
Shelby collecting intriguing special things from our yard.
A turkey feather from our flock of friends.
Hiking up to Laurel Falls.
Yes! That is a mother bear and her 2 bear cubs. We were SOOOO thrilled we got to see them! The one cub was up the tree when we first walked up to see it.
Laurel Falls. We were so refreshed by the cool water after that long UPHILL climb. We didn't know we were hiking to the TOP of the waterfalls. But it was cool!
Exploring the Little Pigeon River after our hike. We had so much fun trying to catch crawfish and finding cool treasures.
Day 2 - Sunday
The front porch swing. There was three of them on each level front and back. We loved them.
Our first hike down the logging road. It was so fun to watch the kids splashing around and looking for salamanders and crawfish.
Our cabin
Our first hike down the logging road. It was so fun to watch the kids splashing around and looking for salamanders and crawfish.
Our cabin
Monday, August 3, 2009
Smoky Mountains - Some faves
More will be posted later, but here are some of my faves for now.
Little Greenbrier School. It was amazing, just like the schoolhouse on Little House on the Prairie. It looked like it may have been a church as well. There was a little cemetery adjacent.
The little cemetery was so sad. There were several gravestones just like this that were memorials for infants. They didn't even live long enough to get names. There was one particularly sad row in the cemetery with stone after stone for the same family. Can you imagine? Baby after baby that died in less than six months, sometimes only days. How much sadness the pioneers must have endured!
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