Day 97 - Parks, Waterfalls & Bears! Oh my!

Consider this a warning...its a pic heavy post today. :) That's because its been a non-stop day of action on our first day here in "Gatlinberry" as O called it yesterday. After a what seems like very quick and restless night, we hit the ground running today. Hubs didn't have to go to his conference until noon so we went to a park up the road this morning. O played on the slides, etc then we went to the other side of the park where this creek/river/whatever it is flows through all the rocks. People were down in the water playing, etc. Hubs took O down and we took his shoes off and he threw rocks and had a blast just being a boy playing in a creek.



After playing at the park we took a drive around to check out some trails that Hubs told me he wants to take O on later. For those of you that don't know me very well...I'm not much of an outdoorsy trail hiking kinda gal. I'd much prefer to shop or something. So I wasn't too keen on the fact of going on a trail hike. Anyway, it was time now to take Chris back for his conference and O had fallen asleep in the car. At this time I thought maybe I could put him in the stroller and stroll down to the strip in Gatlinburg. You know, browse around at some shops, etc. while he got in a good little nap. WRONG. He woke up as I was putting sunscreen on his face before I ever even got him out of the carseat. Ugh. Well I thought I would give it a shot anyway. We basically made it down to the strip, to the most chaotic McDonald's I've ever seen in my life that almost gave me an anxiety attack, got lunch, ate outside and walked back up the big hill to our hotel. By the time we got back I was sweating and exhausted. And just knew he would take a decent nap. WRONG AGAIN. Ugh. After an hour and 1/2 of trying to get him to lay down I finally put him in the car. Where we drove around for another hour and 1/2 and he slept. Then we picked up hubs since his stuff was now over for the day. In class he learned of a different trail. A paved one that leads back to a waterfall called Laurel Falls. Okay. I'll give this a shot since he really wants to I guess. We get on this trail and I am not kidding...its 1.3 miles UP A MOUNTAIN! Ahh! Finally we made it to Laurel Falls. It was nice and all but I think I'd survive this lifetime if I never went back to Luarel Falls again. ;) Here I was thinking we would mosey down this easy walking trail. NO. We were HIKING UP A MOUNTAIN! With a 2-year old in tow. Oh well. It did make for some lovely pictures.


Perhaps the highlight of the day was after we left Laurel Falls and were driving back. We had noticed all of these cars on the sides of the road on the way up there and people out looking at something in the woods. A park ranger was even out there waving people through. On the way back there were even more people so I rolled down the window and asked the ranger what they were looking at. YES. You guessed it..."a bear." What?!? I told Chris we HAD TO STOP! So I put on my telephoto, which still didn't get me close enough but its close enough. :) There was a momma bear and her cub. There. In the wilderness down in a ravine. Holy cow! Holy Bears! How cool! I had just asked Chris on the way up there if there were really bears out here. Now I've seen the proof!

We then went to dinner, came back to the hotel, switched rooms to a nicer one, and now I'm just pooped. And this is long enough. Hope you in enjoyed my 1st days post from Gatlinberry. ;)

Day 96 - The Cup & The Saucer

We left for Gatlinburg last night around 6pm. Around an hour in we stopped off in a little town called Monterrey, TN for some dinner. Normally we would have probably just stopped at the Hardee's or Dairy Queen at this exit, but thanks to my trusty iPhone we happened upon a little local diner called The Cup & The Saucer. Have I ever mentioned how much I love my iPhone? I'm not sure how I got along before it. ;) Anyhow, we drove to it and hubs got out to make sure they were still open and they were! We had the whole little place to ourselves. This turned out to be a great thing since O ran like a wild man. It was pretty cool and a great start to our roadtrip. We rolled into Gatlinburg around 10:30 our time last night and O woke up as soon as I tried to get him out of the car. He was so excited once we got into the room that he was awake until after midnight. In fact I'm not sure when he actually fell asleep cause I gave up and rolled over and crashed. I remember staying in hotels when I was younger and loving it and feeling so exciting. Its fun to relive those moments through his eyes.

Day 95 - Helicopter

I had my photography class tonight and tonight is the night we went out for our nighttime shoot. I got a few really cool pics, but I thought this one was super cool. The colored swoop you see in the top above this building is actually a helicopter that was circling around out there! I've only resized and sharpened for web. The class is sadly coming to an end. Next week is socialize and show whatever work we want for critique, its the last class. The teacher has been so awesome that I wish he was teaching photo 2!
Owen got stung on the bottom of his foot this afternoon. Poor guy. :( I don't know if it was a bee or wasp but he cried for a good while. We have wasps so bad here! Tomorrow will be a busy day. After hubby gets home we are heading out to Gatlinburg for 3 nights. He has a conference and O and I are going to tag along. I'm glad O has school tomorrow so I can get everything packed up and ready to go! I'm worn out & heading to bed now!

Day 94 - Happy Easter

He is risen! Thank you, Jesus.
The day was just beautiful. We went to early service then had family and friends over for a brunch that has just now at 10pm left me hungry.
Great Church, great family and friends, great food, great memories. I hope you had the same on this Easter Sunday, 2010.

Day 93 - METRO!

Ugh. That dog. I want to kick his butt sometimes! We got home from dinner last night and as the sitter was leaving she said, "Oh, Metro got into the eggs and ate some of them. I think I may have salvaged some." These are the eggs that remain from the dozen the boys dyed yesterday. Ugh. All broken and beat up. He makes me so mad. I had a suspicion he would try to get into them so I put them up on this dresser we have on our deck. High. Sure enough he got up there. There were cracked egg shells all on the deck. Its like he peeled them or something. I hope he had gas all night long. He deserves it. I guess we may dye some more eggs today. My boy's gotta have some real eggs to hunt tomorrow!

Day 92 - Easter Eggs

Yesterday was my birthday. It was an awesome day. My hubby was off work for Good Friday and he let me sleep in until 10am!!! Then I went and had some coffee with my friend on her porch while the boys were out shopping. :) They came back with flowers and a little pink bag from my favorite local jewelry shop, Ramona & Co. Turns out there was a new charm for my Pandora bracelet in that little pink bag. :) A cupcake. I love it. Yesterday afternoon after naps we had our buddy Drewbie over to dye Easter Eggs. They boys really enjoyed it. I remember dying them last year and they were so little that we basically did it for them. Not this year. As I asked them to gently place the eggs in the cups, they would slam them in. ;) We managed to not break any though. Great job guys...my next post will tell you how the eggs ended up. Last night hubs and I had our favorite sitter, Brittney, watch O and we went to dinner with some friends at a place we've never been called Chuy's. Its tex-mex and gotta say it was ultra yummy! We were all so stuffed when we got home that I called it an early night at 10:30 and went to bed to read a little bit. Overall, it was a great birthday! I guess 32 isn't so bad afterall. ;)

Day 91 - Who's that?

I was just editing this photo and he climbed up in my lap and said, "Who's that?" He didn't even recognize himself. He's getting used to ignoring the camera in his face...or giving an ultra cheesy grin...or now I guess giving a funny look. I took this the ohter night on the patio after we had dinner out there. The weather has been AMAZING.