The new van

We purchased a new 2010 Honda Odyssey in the middle of March and it has already been properly ‘initiated’ into the family with a Johnson family road trip.  It passed all tests with flying colors.  We love it!  Our old van, a red Chevy Venture, was purchased when Emily was three days old.  Seven and a half years it served us well and traveled ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.  We’ve been everywhere in it and were sad to say goodbye.  But alas, it would not have met the strict German vehicle requirements and we were NOT going to put money into it to have it tuned up.    So instead we are putting buckets of money into our new van payment every month.  Ouch… especially since our other van had been paid off for two years.  But at least we won’t break down in the middle of Switzerland, right?  and at least WE LOVE IT!!  Get used to the miles, ‘ocean blue metallic’ van, it’s what we do. We managed to keep the inside relatively clean (due to the no food rule we recently adopted) but the outside was filthy with a film of grey mountain dirt and tons of yellow pollen.  When we drove home on Wednesday we immediately emptied everything into the garage and then from there but every stitch of clothing and supplies back where they live so that our house would again be spotless.  Then the kids got into their bathing suits to wash both vehicles.  They were so excited, had so much fun and were great little helpers… and then they played with the hose and went into the backyard for more sprinkler fun.

    

 

 

 

In love with the driver

Can I just say how much I love traveling with this guy… scruffy face and all.    We have the BEST talks as we travel and get into great conversations about the kids, Chris’ work, our goals, our families, our insights, our frustrations, and our future plans.  We almost always bring a calendar so that we can plan out our year and dream up future vacations.  Then as we get close to home we talk about our week and month and what we need to do to get back into normal life.  It’s just what we do, and I love it.  And I love him.

Megan’s 5th Birthday!

Megan has been counting down to this birthday for months!!!  By the time we got home from a full day of hiking and sight seeing it was nearly 8 o’clock.  We hurried and got out the presents, put up the purple balloons and streamers, and decorated everyone with lei’s… Megan’s choice of birthday themes.  Megan was thrilled with all of her many birthday presents.  What fun to have her birthday on vacation at the cabin!  (Fun for Megan – hectic for me.)   Happy Birthday big girl!

Matthew interrupted our birthday party celebrations by deciding to stand up by himself for the first time. We all cheered and he clapped for himself.  So cute!   Then he’d lose his balance, fall down and then stand up again.  He’s getting so big!!  … almost 11 months old)

Laurel Falls, Newfound Gap, and Gatlinburg

 

Tuesday morning we ate breakfast at the cabin and headed out for another day outdoors.  We drove back into Smokey Mountains National Park for our hike to Laurel Falls.  Who knew everyone else was going to be there as well?  The parking lot was crowded with mini-vans and the trails were filled with Spring Break hikers.  It looks like we’re all alone by these falls but we had to elbow our way in for a picture.  Gorgeous falls.  This time the trail was narrow with a steep cliff off one side so getting Luke to ‘hold hands at all times’ was the tricky part.  By the time we got back to the van we were in desperate need for some water.

 

We found a picnic place and took our time making sandwiches and eating lunch.

This is Emily just minutes before Dad pulled out her super wiggly bottom side tooth.  (We kept her tooth safe in my camera bag until we got home and then lost it in the carpet of my room.  Luckily the tooth fairy is very understanding of this sort of thing.)

After lunch we headed up Newfound Gap Road… another road with windy turns and gorgeous scenery.  We stopped at Newfound Gap to take pictures of the North Carolina views.

 

 

We debated on the 1 mile hike or the 1972 mile hike but just thinking about it made us tired so in the end decided on no hike.  The Appalachian Trail is approximately 2,178 miles long and extends from Georgia to Maine going through North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire as well.   We saw plenty of real AT hikers with their big backpacks resting their feet before continuing on.  We also saw bikers who had just biked up from Gatlinburg…   UP and up and up from Gatlinburg.  I don’t know how they did it… Crazy people.

Again we were thirsty for drinks. We drove down the main touristy street of Gatlinburg and decided to eat an early dinner at Calhouns. Great food.  They even brought Megan a special bowl of ice cream and we sang to her for her birthday!  After eating we walked down the street, went into some shops, played by the fountain and picked out our favorite souvenir t-shirts… NOT to buy, just to look out.  Another fun day in Tennessee!

 

 

 

 

 

We’re adopting ‘There is No Someday’ as another Johnson family motto!