Middle Prong Little River

 

After horseback riding we got in our cars and headed down another windy road to the Middle Prong Little River.  It was a great hike...  a wide trail and right beside the river the whole way up. The weather was beautiful.  Warm but not hot.   After about a mile we stopped to climb on some rocks.

 

Luke walked the whole way and loved every minute.  He was always picking up leaves, rocks and sticks to show us or throw in the water.  What a perfect adventure for a two year old little boy.

 

While we were playing around on the rocks, Del took Matthew out of his backpack and sat near the waterfall to play with him.  Matthew wanted Grandpa’s hat and since Grandpa is a softy he gave it to him.  Matthew put it on, took it off, played peek-a-boo, put it on again and smiled the whole time.  …and then he dropped it into the river!!  I put down my camera and tried to grab it out of the river but not in time… it swooshed (is that a verb?) away with the river’s current and went over the waterfall.  We looked and looked but it was gone.  Naughty Matthew!

 

 

Megan and Emily both got turns  being dunked in the river.  Actually, Luke did too but he wasn’t quite so happy about it.

 

All the kids took turns on a ‘branch’ swing we found along the path… and Katie’s twisty snake stick.

 

So tired!!  By the time we got back to the van everyone was tired and starving.  We drove into the nearest little town, Townsend, to find something to eat.  After driving through the town’s one road ‘downtown’ we stopped to ask someone for a good recommendation.  ‘Miss Lily’s Cafe!’ they said.    We’re so glad we followed their recommendation.  Miss Lily’s was fabulous… the perfect quaint home town restaurant for a family full of weary hikers.  Chris and I had the best pulled pork sandwiches we’d ever tasted.   Definitely a highlight of our trip.  As we left we loaded up with deserts too… fresh raspberry cheesecake, double fudge brownies, sugar cookies, oatmeal cookies, lemon bars.  We picked one of everything to try later that night.

Easter at the cabin

Easter on vacation on Conference Weekend makes things a little busy but ‘oh, so fun!’  The kids knew they weren’t allowed downstairs where the game tables were until Grandma and Grandpa woke up.  On Easter morning they waited in the family room but ‘accidently’ took peeks down the curly stairs and were surprised by Easter baskets waiting for them on the pool table.  No hiding this year!  We gathered in the family room and listened to Chris tell about priesthood session before heading down to check out the baskets.  The Easter bunny was especially extravagant this year and got all the kids ‘travel toys’ for all the upcoming flights we have.

 

Ryan and Katie got a personal DVD player to watch movies as they travel.

Emily got a Diji – an educational game system with a Tinkerbell game.  Megan got a Leapster2 – an education game system with a Princess game. They were both thrilled!

Luke got Toy Story, lots of candy and a bubble gun which he thoroughly enjoyed out on the deck.  Now we know Luke’s favorite candy is Reese’ Peanut Butter cups.  I’m surprised he didn’t get sick.

Matthew got Toy Story 2 and a basket full of candy which he really wasn’t supposed to eat.  Keeping the candy AND the wrappers away from his little fingers was quite the task. There were Easter eggs hidden all over the bottom floor as well, only this year instead of jelly beans or coins they had puzzle pieces.  The kids found as many as they could and began working on the puzzle to see if they’d found all the pieces.  They had to really search around for the last few and most of the kids decided they’d rather eat chocolate than finish the puzzle anyway.  After eating a breakfast’s worth of candy we went upstairs to eat potatoes, sausage, eggs and cheese out on the deck.  We love that our first session of Conference doesn’t start until noon!

Up to the Cabin

One of the vacation places still on our list while living in Georgia was the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee.  With a big countdown on the weekends left until we move, we decided we would spend Spring Break at a Cabin near Gatlinburg and were happy to have Grandpa and Grandma Johnson join us for the fun.  We rented a cozy three floor cabin up on the hillside. Here is our little family room…

One of the things I loved about it was the curly stairs!  It just isn’t a cabin unless it has curly stairs… but I’m totally bias since I grew up vacationing at a cabin with curly stairs – thank you Great Grandma and Grandpa Walton!  The kids loved the curly stairs too!

This is the top floor… an open bedroom loft.  Chris and I and the little boys slept up here.  I loved the high ceilings and railings that overlooked the family room below.  I also loved the wall of windows facing the bed.  Several mornings I woke up as the sun came up to see the most beautiful pink and purple hazy sunrises… and the then quickly dozed back to sleep.  It was just perfect.

We arrived at the cabin late Friday night.  Saturday and Sunday we hung out at the cabin and…

- ate breakfast out on the deck…

- played pre-conference general authority matching games…

- watched 4 sessions, took notes, worked on our packets, colored our bingo boards…

- and listened intently… (well, most of us did.)

Conference was fantastic.  In between sessions we

- played pool…

- played competitive games of air hockey…

- watched Matthew perform tricks…   (patti-cake)  (and I just LOVE his little tongue!  So Matthew!)

- and did some of our own… (so big!)

- took pictures of the kids…

 

- and enjoyed the hot tub.

  

In fact the only time we left the cabin for the first 56 hours was to go eat dinner Saturday night at McAllister's and get ice cream to go from Marble Slab Creamery. Oh, and by the way, that ice cream on Emily’s head totally fell off and splattered all over the cement.

Field Day

Friday was Katie, Emily and Megan’s school field day.  Each wore their class color T-shirt for the day’s events.  They walked across the street to use the high school’s big field for all their relays.  Chris, and the boys and I met them there to be part of the fun… along with Grandma and Grandpa Johnson who had just flown in for our Spring Break vacation.  Last year’s Field Day was a few short days before Matthew’s delivery and since I was not up for waddling around in the heat I missed out on all the fun -- so this year I was excited to go, and the girls were SOOOO excited to see us. First stop was Megan’s light blue Pre-K class doing the parachute…naturally her favorite station.

Lucky for us we finally got to meet Jaggar.  Yes, Jaggar is his name.  Her little pre-K ‘friend that is a boy’ that she’s constantly talking about.   Word is that Jaggar adores Megan and I could sure tell as I took their picture!  Later we said, “Megan, I didn’t know Jaggar had long hair.”  She giggled and said, “He doesn’t have long hair, he has short hair like me!”

Next stop… Emily’s turqoise 1st grade class doing the crazy noodle relay.  She even has a turquoise face from all the torquoise shirt reflection.   Just look at all those freckles!  I love this picture.  She was positive that braids were the perfect field day hair-do.

Below, Emily telling her teacher that her little brother probably wishes he could be in her class.  Thank goodness for such sweet first grade teachers who listen to everything first graders want to say.

Last stop… Katie’s yellow fifth grade class doing the wet sponge relay.  

After the relays were done we headed up to the stands to watch the races.  Katie had already won 3rd place in her class sprints so she was chosen as one of the kids to represent the class in the ‘4 person baton’ race.  She did really well.  She and Ryan are constantly racing each other… and they are both quick little things.  Good job Katie!

These days I have to let Luke have some ‘funny face’ pictures before he’ll give me some good cheesy smiles.  Mostly he just wants to see himself on my camera screen.  Yep, he thinks he’s pretty funny.