Hiking in the Smokies

Monday was a gorgeous day with lots of sunshine so we decided to do a little hiking in the Smokies. One of the great things about the Smoky Mountain National Park is that the entrance is free!!! For our first hike we chose a trail that ran right next to a river the whole way. It was beautiful!

Here is what the trail looked like the whole way. The river is just to the left of the path.

There were several waterfalls along the path. Here is one of them:

Stopping for a drink:

Stopping for lunch:

While we were stopped for lunch a nice couple riding horses came by. The kids jumped up to watch them and the woman wisely surmised that they might like to pet the horses. Not only did she let them pet them, she let them ride them!! The kids were so excited!

The next couple of pics Dan snapped while I was trying to get a pebble out of my shoe. I had stopped, taken off my shoe and was trying to put it back on allthewhile maintaining my balance and not getting my sock dirty. Well, what made it more difficult was that Natalie decided she'd try to "help" by lifting up my non-shoed foot. Ummmmm. Not really helpful. But it got us all laughing. Very hard. Now imagine trying to maintain your balance and put your shoe back on while you are laughing uncontrollably. :-)

Our trip to Tennessee

We finally made it down here to Pigeon Forge on Saturday. We had planned to leave Rochester by 3:30 on Friday afternoon since we had a hotel reservation in Indianapolis, IN; however, Dan wasn't able to leave work as early as he planned since he was finishing some project. So we took the time while waiting for him to try to find Ellie some hiking shoes. She has grown like a weed and so, of course, none of her shoes fit anymore. We bought her some tennis shoes a couple weeks ago but they haven't even been worn yet and she didn't want to get them dirty. So first we went to Saver's and struck out, then on to the Salvation Army--again nothing there for her. Finally we went down to Goodwill and she found a pair of New Balance tennis shoes for cheap--and they even look decent. But they are a size 9!!!!! And they fit her! I wear a size 9. Of course, she does need bigger feet to support her incredibly long legs.

Anyway, back to the trip. We finally left Rochester a little before 5pm. I packed supper since I didn't want to eat out and I knew it would just add to the time we were on the road. We finally arrived at the hotel at 2am (1am our time). I walked in and told the front desk guy that I wanted to check in, but he said our reservation wasn't in the system. So I had to go back out to the van to get the confirmation--thank goodness I actually printed it out!!!

We crawled into bed and slept for a few hours, then got back up again and hit the road. We had planned to go to the house of some of our friends that moved away last year to Lexington. We had a wonderful time (and delicious food) with them and then we were on our way again.

Here are some pics of our time with our friends:

We left their house and headed down to Tennessee. Now in this neck of the woods it has been raining A LOT!!!! Pretty much nonstop for the last week and a half. Saturday was no exception. It poured all the way from Lexington to Pigeon Forge. So it took us a little longer to get here. The roads were covered with water and we even saw several rollovers. Thankfully we arrived safely. We unpacked in the rain, ate a quick bite for supper, and went straight to bed.

Sunday we just chilled out and did a little swimming. Well, let me qualify that. The kids swam. It was too cold outside for Dan and I. They do have an indoor pool but the outdoor pool has a much better view.