Our Trip -- Grotto Falls

One of the things I most looked forward to about our trip to Gatlinburg was revisiting places John and I went on our honeymoon. We did quite a bit of hiking and took the Roaring Forks Motor Trail stopping off at places to hike. One hike we took was to Grotto Falls and so I was thrilled to go back! Last time we were there we saw two bear cubs and I kind of was hoping I'd maybe see a bear from a distance again. There are signs posted everywhere about what to do if you see a bear and I don't think my Mom was too happy to see those. But I was on the lookout. We did see signs of one, or at least we thought they were signs, like some scat that I did take a picture of but I'll spare you. We saw some fresh tree bark and also a track in the mud.

I did not take pictures of the view but hiking in the Smokies is a bit different than hiking here at home. Same foliage and smells but much more of an incline and when you stop and look out from the side of the mountain and see more mountains it just takes your breath away! I love all of the reminders of God's beautiful creation. If only I could sit and do that all day long. Ahh!

This is near the beginning of our 2.6 mile trek. I can tell it is the beginning because my dear husband is in the picture. That man cannot walk slow to save his life! I used to be able to keep up with him but after having children, well, I stay behind with the little legs and he takes off with whoever can keep up, which lately, is most of them! And if you look closely you can see he is carrying Zippy on his back.

And...we lost him. Some of the kids would run back and forth between us to see how far behind we were. The energy they have -- wow! My parents were a bit out of their element when it comes to hiking but they gave it their best. Dad continued the whole way but Mom found a spot to rest and wait for us.

Here might be one reason the trail was a little rough. Patches of roots sticking up. I thought it a beautiful design but a bit tough to walk on.

John did stop from time to time for us all to walk together. There's our little guy. He enjoyed the trek too. It didn't hurt John's back but it certainly was a sweaty ride.

I don't know about your children but mine LOVE the water and climbing. They were often off the path and climbing rocks instead. Tank still has his shoes at this point but on the way back down he and Missy went barefoot since that is what they normally do.



A quick rest or maybe just a nice pose. And Missy got in a picture! She kept up with the boys as always.



We made it! Lower portion of Grotto Falls



You can see the top portion of Grotto Falls in the background. You can also see that the kids did not take the path around to get to the falls but had to go the hard way climbing over boulders and through water to get there. (Pictured are George and Pete) Crazy kids! I did find I am not quite as sure-footed as I used to be. Wish I could do that!

Here is Grotto Falls. Not quite as majestic as I thought it had been but amazing none-the-less. The thrill of this one is you can walk behind it. You can barely see John (in blue) with Zippy to the left of the falls. And through the leaves are the kids making their way. I didn't get a better picture because my lens chose this moment in time to stop focusing. Manual didn't seem to work either. So... this was before I got close.

And this was taken with John's phone. We tried hard to recreate the picture we had taken on our honeymoon. This time with a baby on back and one in my belly. I am kicking myself for never organizing our pictures. I dug through boxes and bins and did not find that picture. I did find a lot of other memories though. :)

By the time we got back down to where Mom was resting and playing games on my phone (a very handy thing to have when hiking!) we heard about a bear sighting. Evidently a group who passed Mom said they had seen a bear and made loud noises and threw things and it ran. It was a busy trail though and enough people came past so she wasn't totally alone but I know she was itching to get back down. I had my eyes peeled the whole way back for any more signs of that bear. Just one glimpse? :)

You can see more of Grotto Falls at Hiking In the Smokies.

Next Stop -- Our Mountain Cabin

After spending a bit more time at the Creation Museum the next morning we headed for our main destination -- Seiverville, TN. (Pronounced Se-VEER-ville) to our cabin in the mountains. It was about a 4-hour drive and by the time we got to the town it seemed to drag on and on forever and then turns into Pigeon Forge which is where our turn was. John and I rented a cabin in the mountains of Tennessee for our honeymoon 16 years ago so we kept searching to find anything that looked familiar. But alas, a lot has changed and it is a lot more commercialized. I'd compare it to Branson or Wisconsin Dells.

We stayed in a gated community of cabins called Brothers Cove but the cabin I found was rented by the owner on Homeaway and was a much better deal that way. We wanted the "community" simply because that gave us the option of a swimming pool that an individual cabin would not. Although, being mid-May it opened the last day we were there and was a bit cool yet.

Driving our 15 passenger van and towing John's car behind (for my parents to go off on their own if they desired) John maneuvered his way up steep inclines and around a precarious turn to get up to our cabin. My Mom wondered why I picked a cabin up so high. Of course for the view! I had no idea it would be quite that difficult to get up. And it would have been fine if we weren't towing something. On the way down my Dad drove the car down.

You probably can't tell quite how steep this is on our way up.

This is on our way down. This turn made me a bit nervous at times. I was always glad it wasn't me driving. For some reason I kept having visions of the van driving off the side and rolling down the mountain to our death. Lovely thoughts I know. The apple doesn't fall far as one of my boys was having similar thoughts.

Going down from our cabin. You can see how close other cabins are.

The cabin next door and those down from us kind of into the valley. There were just a few that went up from where we were. Ours looked like this also with three porches.

The AMAZING view from our second floor porch off the bedroom. This, this is why I wanted to be up so high. What is the point of being in the mountains if you don't have the view? I could have sat there all day.

Unfortunately, I didn't take very many pictures of the inside of the cabin. It was so beautiful though and made John and I kind of regret not keeping our house a log home when we added on. All the wood and simplicity of it was so relaxing. If you want to see more inside pictures check out the owner's website. The kids on the spiral staircase leading up to the third floor bedroom.

Mr. Zippy happily playing with his new truck.



George and Re-Pete playing pool on the second floor loft area. There was also a game table and a sofa sleeper in this area. We put Zippy's pack-n-play here for him to sleep. And just for my reference since I didn't take pictures -- Pete and Re-Pete slept on the third floor. George and Seppy had an air mattress in the same room. Tank and Missy shared the living room sofa sleeper.



The first floor bedroom and our second floor room had whirlpool tubs. Some of the kids enjoyed that one evening. George even got in after Seppy was done since he saw how much fun it was.

And having fun in the outdoor hot tub too.

Look at that view! A swimming pool in the mountains. Loved it! No one was too sure about that cold water though. But they all jumped in anyway, even John and my Dad.



Seppy soaking up some sun.

We did have some excitement on our last night. John and woke up a few times to various creature noises. At one time some type of animal fight. But then we heard a racket. It sounded like someone was throwing their ball over the railing again and again to the wooden floor below. John went out on our porch and looked down to the garbage cans and saw a bear! He was telling it to "get out of the garbage". I assumed it to be racoons and asked him but he said it was a bear. I asked why he didn't call me to take pictures. I wanted to see it too! But it had already taken off and I could only see movement scurrying up the rocky cliff. We did find evidence the next morning as the lids on the cans were broken open. Not too big of a mess.

Well, that was our stay at Smokey Mountain Memories in a nutshell. John and I had a hard time leaving it behind but we did make great memories.

First Stop -- Creation Museum

On our trip down to Tennessee we didn't want to drive the whole way to Gatlinburg so decided to break up the trip and stopped at the Creation Museum outside of Cincinnati first. Mind you, that was a long trip regardless especially with all of the crazy bathroom stops we ended up making. It was our first trip without our motorhome and let me tell you, driving in a 15 passenger van wouldn't be considered in my top choices for modes of travel. We had a couple of sick kids, some from being carsick and some from coughing so hard they gagged stuff up. I had gotten seabands for Pete so he gave one to Tank and we also traded seats so that I sat in back with Missy and Seppy instead since I felt fine.  What a comfy ride! Ha! We left home dark and early at 5:30 a.m. and made it to the Creation Museum by early afternoon. What a relief!

This is in the main lobby and Zippy didn't want to cooperate but the rest did!

We took a walk through history beginning at creation. We especially liked seeing the penguin mixed in with all of the animals surrounding Adam in the perfect world. (Didn't get a decent picture of that).

Here is Noah instructing his crew on building the ark.

The kids really were hoping to see a life-size ark but that is in the works with Ark Encounter. What an amazing theme park that will be! You could see what areas of  the ark might have looked like and how it was built and there were models to give a better idea.

And the inside.

After seeing many displays on God's creation and about dinosaurs and learning how sin and corruption changed the world we headed outside to the beautiful botanical gardens and petting zoo.

Here is a Zorse and Zonkey. Their father was a zebra but one had a horse mother and the other a donkey mother. It was showing how all of these animals were in the same kind or family and the variations they could have.

The botanical gardens were lovely, although we came just as the spring flowers were at their end. Everyone had fun walking the paths and especially on the bridges trying to make them sway for me and Grandma.

Another bridge

With all of his siblings walking Zippy does not want to ride in a stroller. But he keeps up with us when he doesn't decide to wander off and doesn't ever seem to tire out (not always a good thing!). He enjoyed splashing in puddles and running around outside.

New things such as a Dragon exhibit and new shows to the planetarium are being added to the Creation Museum in addition to a large zipline course and are set to open soon. Lots of fun and leaning all about God's creation.

Teach Them Diligently Convention

Did you miss me? I know I don't have many readers anymore. I could work at that and post more often I suppose and I often intend to. But guess what? Life continues to move on and some things have to give a bit. But anyway, for those of you who did notice we took a nice long vacation and I didn't get on the computer. I had my previous post all ready to go but never did get it posted until we returned.

We had a great time in Tennessee first in the mountains and then over to Nashville for the Teach Them Diligently Convention which was amazing! I have never been to a convention this encouraging before. The theme from most all of the speakers I heard was the reminder that we are raising arrows (Psalm 127:4). As Heidi St. John said, "Education is discipleship". Academics is not the goal of homeschooling. The goal is reaching the heart of our children, training them to walk with the Lord, and raising them to go out into the world and make a difference. So refreshing!

Of course they all gave practical and fresh ideas to try as well and the vendor halls were full of wonderful products. There were so many options for speakers that John and I ended up splitting up most of the time to make the most of it. My parents came along and entertained the children at the time share we rented whenever we weren't around. (We didn't attend intensely seeing as we were on vacation too).

At the Convention which was held at the Gaylord Opryland! Quite an amazing place!

I highly encourage you to look into attending next years convention! They will be offering 4 locations in 2014, unfortunately again nothing close to us. But John already asked which one I want to go to. :)

More pictures to come documenting our days... well, I didn't take as many pictures as I had planned. I was too busy enjoying myself. :)

Brief Vacation

We were able to take a last minute trip to Door County this week. You may recall our trip there last year at this time. And what a difference a year makes as far as weather!

Well, my Grandparents own a timeshare but life is changing and they decided to sell it to my parents. So, we went up for the week with them. My Mom couldn't stay the whole time and John ended up having to fly to Ohio for a meeting but the kids and I stayed with my Dad. They had a great time swimming twice a day and I had a technology break. Well, for the most part. Of course I still have my iPhone that isn't ever far from me so I guess it wasn't entirely a break. But today is my first day back on the computer! Ahh, what a feeling. I need to do that much more often.

I'll share pictures soon but I wanted to touch base. Of course I have an upcoming review so that might come first.

Summer Re-Cap -- Up North

Now that we are well into September I wonder where our summer has gone. And since this is supposed to be a journal of sorts I am going to try and document our summer fun even if only for my sake. Thankfully even though I see hints of red on the leaves out my window it still feels like a warm summer day.

I am going to go back to our first excursion this summer which was right after the fourth of July. We took a long weekend and went up north and stayed with John's parents.

We spent much of the time hanging out on the beach bringing back great memories of exploring the lake and going out in the pontoon when George was little with him towing his toy boat behind on a fishing line. Such a relaxing place.

Being the first weekend after the fourth we took in the festivities at an area bible college for their Freedom Celebration. They have a carnival for kids and bluegrass bands playing and it is a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the night was cut short and we missed the guest speaker and fireworks as major storms came through. The sky looked quite ominous causing our boy who is afraid of storms to throw up continually on our walk to shelter despite our best efforts to calm him. We made a run for it and left right as the rain began and watched as they lit the fireworks in a heavy downpour.

But we did enjoy one of the best fireworks shows we have ever seen the following evening and were pleasantly surprised that this small town could have such an amazing display!

We also had a fun time taking a ride on a steam train. Wow, I actually made it into the photo!



The kids enjoyed taking turns sitting up on the top seats of the caboose, a coveted seat for sure.

 



The train rode out to an old lumber camp and we visited the museum, petting zoo and enjoyed ice cream cones.



On our way home we stopped at a fun amusement park where rides are only .25! Such a deal, especially for our family. My favorite ride is always the Tilt-A-Whirl.



New this year is an old roller coaster that was a favorite of Elvis. It was the boys first time riding one and let me say that they were not prepared for that at all!


I had my zoom lens on the camera and took a picture as they went up smiling...



but on the first drop when I zoomed in on the photo I felt so bad as their faces were all pure terror. (I don't think they want me to share that picture!) They had no idea what to expect. John said riding an old wooden coaster first was not the best idea. They did ride it again however and got used it quickly.

Ah, fun family time. Pure joy!

Much Needed Time Away

I am hoping that one of these days I'll actually do a post when the event really happened. But today is not one of them. We were so happy to take a little vacation last month. My cousin and his wife own a timeshare in Door County and were unable to use it this year. John had a few crazy busy months at work and decided that this sounded like the perfect opportunity for a brief get-a-way and indeed it was. The kids were so excited and of course were counting down days from the moment they found out there was an indoor swimming pool. I think John and I were also.

We arrived at the Rushes on a Friday evening and stayed through the next Wednesday. I had been there quite a few times before over the years being that my Aunt and Uncle owned a timeshare and I would go with them when I was in middle school. My Grandparents own one as well and I spent time with them when I was in high school. And when John and I were dating we both went along for a visit and so it was a bit nostalgic for me to be back especially as I walked through the door to the scent of "the Rushes". Do you associate certain smells with memories or places? Even the hand soap in the dispensers was the same scent and brought back memories.

The condos here are next to a nature preserve and are also on a lake. The surroundings were much like home but our condo was not. Upon entry the first thing Seppy said was "It's SO clean!" And I wholeheartedly agreed and was very thankful to be away from our clutter for a time. It also helped that we didn't bring toys along and had only the bare necessities for clothing.

Our days were spent visiting little towns, here where the kids dipped their own candles...

Here our one meal out -- a yummy breakfast at Village Cafe... and look I made it in the picture!

Looking for lighthouses...

and joining in the activities that the Rushes offered for that week including, geocaching, letterboxing...

 ...orienteering (using a compass), and nature hikes.

John said he felt like we were in a retirement community which was fine with us. They all seemed to enjoy our children at the various gatherings such as playing bingo where everyone won a prize. Seppy ended up being the "ultimate loser" which brought him to the verge of tears until he found that it was an honor as he won the most candybars with that title! The older ladies were cheering him on as he now proudly went to collect his winnings. :)

The rest of our time was spent swimming, swimming, and swimming some more. The kids had a blast and John and I were so relaxed. It was wonderful enjoying each others company.

We had a very hard time saying "goodbye" and hope to have that type of vacation again!