Friday, August 5, 2011

Flashback Friday - Gatlinburg/White Water Rafting

Last summer right before Jon started his new job we needed a little family vacation together. We were so very excited and decided to take a vacation to mark something off our bucket list.

We decided to go to Gatlinburg, TN, and then head to white water rafting in NC.

First stop, though. . . The Varsity. . . This was actually a chain and not the original. The chili dogs and onion rings were just as good though.







In Pigeon Forge we decided to see a show one night. The Jon Dee hypnotist show had great reviews. . . . and since we all love to laugh. . . we decided to give it a go. . .




Jon Dee. . . He hypnotized people and made them do all sorts of silly things.












Isn't that hilarious?

We walked around downtown Gatlinburg and took in some of the sites. The boys, of course, loved this cool car.




And, if you are apart of our family, vacation always resolves around eating good food!!!














The girls loved the candy store. . .




My pictures all out of order. . . This is at the Jon Dee hypnotist show.




Don't worry, none of us volunteered to get hypnotized.




One of the funniest things about our mini-vacation was our hotel. We use priceline a good bit and really find some nice hotels really cheap. However, we knew we were in trouble when we drove up to our hotel. . . The Vacation Lodge, I think is what it was called. You know it is bad when the remote control is held together by duct tape :) Alec had to sleep on a pallet on the floor. We took the sleeping bag. However, it was full of Jon's stink and sweat from when he was working on a house. Poor Alec. I woke up in the middle of the night and saw this. . .





He is our germaphobe in the family. Every inch of his body was covered in clothing.









Check out his sleeping mask!!! I was laughing so hard I was afraid I would wake everyone else up.




We decided to go and do a little hiking. Faith was so sweet to lend me her hiking bible. We are all about some accessories, so we all got a hiking stick. Alec had some leftover birthday money and go him a camelback.





This little house was at Cades Cove.















Up the stairs of the little house





The room where the children slept. Reminded me of Little House on the Prairie.




Here we are inside the little church at Cades Cove.




Beautiful Smokey Mountains




We decided to hike Abrams Falls.






































































Poor Ash was so upset. Her camera fell in the river. Thankfully it still worked.





Alec was hilarious. He had his new camelback, but drank all of the water at the beginning of the hike. Not only did have have to go and use nature's restroom, but he also didn't have anymore water left. This was July and it was HOT! We loved hiking and are so thankful our friends Faith and Steve recommended it.


As you can tell, Ash had a blister on her foot and hiked the last part of the trail with her shoe off.


As we were leaving Cades Cove, we did get to see a bear. Hanna was scared and so I stayed in the car with her. Jon and Alec and Ash went to get a view, but not too close a view. They snapped this picture. However, there was this lady who started trying to get reallly close to the bear. Jon said he and the kids decided to leave. They didn't want anything to happen based on her stupidity.


That night. . . we ate somewhere. . .don't remember where now, but I do remember it being good.


Jon wanted to get his feet wet in the river. This was outside the restaurant.


Ash followed her Daddy's lead.


This is a cute picture. . . I can't remember why they were posing this way, but Alec's face is A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!!!






The next morning we were up and at 'em to head home and on the way go white water rafting. I've been wanting to do this for so long. Our old church used to go every year, but I was either pregnant or nursing, so we never went. It was actually very chilly the morning we left.





Beautiful Smoky Mountains.


Unfortunately, I dont' have any pictures of us white water rafting. The things I remember though:


The water was freezing cold.


We had a BLAST!!!


I want to go again!


We laughed like crazy!

On the way home from rafting we did not want to get stuck in traffic so we decided to take the kids to the park where we ran Sweet H2O (50K) that same year.

This was actually a mill used during the Civil War.





Alec is so funny posing!








We all had such a great time and made lots of wonderful memories!




























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































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