Happy Birthday to Maggie!

  While in the Smokies, we celebrated Maggie's 11th birthday. She chose her breakfast and supper meals, and Mama obliged even on the road. For breakfast we had apricot cream cheese stuffed French toast, then later for supper, Ryan grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, and I baked our family favorite chocolate chip pound cake. We went on our longest hike that afternoon, and the kids did amazingly well, but then coming back down the mountain, we got stuck in traffic. Thankfully, we got back in time to make the cake and have our celebration.

A favorite: the hammock swings

Another favorite: having Babe along

Poor Babe: we found out once we got her to the Smokies that dogs were not allowed on the hikes

Maggie's first change of earrings, a pair of mine from high school

Our only bears to see were the ones decorating the fence of our cabin

Can't see the sign, but I think it said, "Welcome to the Smokies"

Meredith and I surprised Maggie with decorations

Meredith's gift that she planned and paid for: a small box of Werther's

Will wrapped his gift in toilet paper : )

A candy bar!

Saying goodbye!

Smoky Mountain Hikes

     One of my favorite things we were able to do with our kids in the Smokies was hiking. We went on 3 trails -- one very easy, short trek to a tiny trickle of a waterfall where the kids were able to wade in a stream; another fairly easy, albeit long, hike on a paved pathway that led to a nice size waterfall, Laurel Falls, where fifty+ other people were also enjoying the view; and a final 3.6 mile round-trip hike to Andrew's Bald  off of Clingman's Dome, the tallest mountain in the Smokies. The last hike was, by far, the most taxing since the journey back was mostly an uphill climb on a pretty rocky pathway. Meredith did great on the way down, but the return was not quite so joyful! We did make it though, and when we got back to the parking lot, Will still had enough energy to climb some interesting rocks before we headed back to the cabin. The 20-mile trip back to Pigeon Forge took over 2 hours! We had thought about playing putt-putt before going back to celebrate Maggie's birthday, but even the kids opted out after seeing how bad the traffic was. We have already promised them a game in Florida, Lord willing, next summer.

Cool resting place

And of course, Will has to get UP on the tree

Our first waterfall

Climbing carefully into her first wading stream

Our kids loved running along the first trail which was pretty flat

Just a sampling of some of the fall foliage we were able to see

Will was the photographer on this one

Meredith was my hiking companion, so we got to see some amazing views together going towards Laurel Falls

Will climbed on every possible rock he could get on!

Maggie climbed a bit too -- though she didn't ask to have her picture taken nearly as often as Will!

Notice where Meredith is

Finally, Laurel Falls! No one actually wanted to smile on this one -- just to be honest.

Clingman's Dome -- Maggie's birthday

Meredith's photography

Andrew's Bald with the Appalachians in the background

We made it, and everyone's smiling!

Meredith took this picture -- notice Ryan -- sadly he had cell service!

The way back -- no one was smiling!

Goofing off during our break

Will is at the top center

King of the Mountain

One final climb for everyone except Mama