Home again, home again, jiggity jig

What a weekend! It flew by so quickly, but was loaded with so much fun, laughter, laughter, laughter and great memories!

Friday, after the air in my car started to go out, and I smashed my phone in the trunk (another story for another day), Ben and I got on the road about 6:30pm. Rather than driving the whole way that night, and trying to find our way up winding mountain roads in the dark, we decided to stop half way and spend the night at his grandparent's house. We got a semi early start on Saturday morning and headed towards the mountains.

We got to the cabin and the rest of the family was rarin' to go! My brothers had decided that we needed to go find a cold mountain stream to play in, so off we went. My dad wasn't sure where to go to find a stream in the mountains, or if they would just let us get out of the car and start playing so we went into Pigeon Forge to this stream someone had told him about. All of us kids were joking around that we probably weren't actually allowed to be there but my dad assured us that it was fine. Once we walked up to the river, there was a sign that said "WARNING: No Swimming, or Fishing in this river. It has been tested with high levels of fecal bacteria" - GROSS!!!!!! The little girls, A & K were FREAKING OUT! "Ewww gross! It smells like poo poo" (it didn't BTW). So we all climbed back in the cars and headed up the road to find a cleaner place to play. After playing in the cold, rocky creek for about an hour or two we headed back to the cabin. (I'll have pictures as soon as my mom sends them to me.) But about 200 yards up the road we started to smell something..... the sewer plant!! Trust me, I have never scrubbed my skin so hard as I did when we got back to the cabin. Ew. I'm still kinda grossed out by it.

Big brother and sis-in-law made dinner for everyone that night and then we retired to many hours of ROCKBAND.

Sunday morning we were up bright and early - at 6:00am to get ready to head out to Cade's Cove.

We rented bikes and biked the 11 miles around. It was beautiful, difficult, fun, humid, and so exhausting! Here is a picture of Ben and I along the way

and since they didn't offer baby seats, this is how big brother rode the whole way.


And here are all the boys (minus dad) resting after riding down "Biker's Hill"



After the bike ride we had a picnic, then sent mom back to the cabin with the baby so we could go tubing down a river - a clean river. That was just the relaxation we needed after using muscles I didn't know existed! Ben and I cooked dinner that night, then we all just laid around and hung out.


Monday morning we got to "sleep in" until 7:00am (My dad see's vacation a little differently than most ppl do.) then we headed up into the mountains to hike to Grotto Falls. It was absolutely beautiful!





And a picture of the whole family



The rest of the weekend was spent eating A LOT, spending some time in prayer as a family, and making new memories. It went by too quickly and I can't wait for our next vacation!