Sunday, October 14, 2007

Did I ever....

Show you pictures of our Gatlinburg trip?? Well here's some. We went over Labor Day weekend with my parents, sister in law and nephew Riley. My brother had to work. We rented a cabin in the mountains. The cabin was awesome. It had three floors each with it's own bedroom suite with full bathroom and on the lowest level, there's was a second family room that had a set of bunk beds in it. We took the whole bottom floor for our family, my parents were on the main floor where the kitchen and dining room was and Tiffany and Riley were upstairs where the pool table was in a loft part of the third floor. We also had two balconies one on the main floor and one on the bottom floor each looking straight into the mountains and trees. It was just so awesome. We also had our own hottub on the upper deck. The little cabin community had a pool, stocked pond with free fishing and free mini golf. We did all of that!! Plus we spent time in Gatlinburg the town, in the Smoky Mountains national park doing several driving tours and we walked the .5 mile ( I know that doesn't seem long but when it's almost straight up, it feels like a marathon) to Clingman's Dome which is the highest point in Tennessee. That was really hard. I mean we walk that much all the time in our neighborhood, but this a very steep incline and it was really rough!! But we all made it, I felt so good at the top, like I had accomplished something. It really was a great trip and we are now making it a yearly event to get together for a trip. It was just so much fun!



My parents with Riley in the park




An old home in the park. The people who lived there had 9 children. It was two rooms with an exterior hall between them. One room was for cooking and the other for sleeping. They lived there only a hundred or so years ago. Think about in Cincinnati there are houses that old, but in the mountains the people lived a lot differently. It was very humbling to think of how hard it must've been to have such a large family in such a small place and with no heat or a/c. We really do have it good now!!




When I visited the Smoky Mountains as a child with my best friend, her parents took our picture in front of the sign and I wanted to do that with my kids too, so here they are!!




Our awesome cabin with the mountains right behind it.




Abby at one of the pulloffs along the road in the park. The views were just breathtaking!




Abby and Noah at the lookout on top of Clingman's Dome after our very rigorous trek!! It was chilly up there!! Some of the trees are dying because a certain bug had accidentlaly been released there (I think it's native of Europe) and it eats the trees up there. It's kind of sad to see so many of them dying, I wish they could stop the bug!




The kids in the bunkbeds!!




Another beautiful scene in the park. There are lots of creeks to play in and see the many salamanders. It's just a beautiful place.

6 comments:

SamandSawyersMom said...

the bottom one looks like a postcard

sounds fun

Riley looks cute too

SamandSawyersMom said...

that is the famous sign

Crystal said...

I love staying in the mountains in Tennessee! Shawn and I have stayed in a cabin a couple of times there and it was sooo beautiful and sooo peaceful! I love the pictures.......it makes me want to plan another trip. Hopefully Shawn will get a job soon so we can!!! That would be great!

Carrie said...

I LOVE Gatlinburg. We go typically every year too, but this year it doesn't look like we'll be making the trip. Maybe in the spring we will.

We used to go with our friends Brooke and Jason (a yearly thing) but they moved to Florida earlier this year.
I love the cabins and chalets...its so fun!

SamandSawyersMom said...

I remember walking that horrible hike when I was younger and thinking I would die. My dad was a slave driver!

Char said...

Neat pictures!
We went there a few years ago for Todd's brothers wedding. I have a picture of the boys in front of a sign like that too.
We went thru Cades Cove and saw bears and tons of deer! I do like it there.
You house looks so neat. I can't wait until we can do that some day.
Thanks for sharing.