Truly A Mystery

A couple of weeks ago me and my two favorites drove through the night, in the pouring rain, to get to a beautiful cabin in the woods and our dear friends. The beautiful cabin was nestled on the side of a mountain right between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, TN, at the base of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I had never been to this part of the country before, but I have to say the whole experience was a mystery to me. The Great Smokies are truly one of God's greatest examples of beauty, but the amount of people and tack surrounding them takes away from the whole experience. It left me wondering what we've done to this natural beauty. Despite the fact that tourism threw up on the cities we still had a great time and saw through the neon lights to the beauty that is hidden behind them.

This first pic is us hiking up a trail with strollers...it's harder then it sounds

Oh these two...

And these two are probably the cutest kids I have ever seen

Here is our party, very good people I think

Sweet family that had a hand in my family becoming

Old friends, I'm particularly fond of the one on the right

Here we are on the Appalachian Trail, we debated on hiking to Maine but decided we should head back to the car and find her missing shoe first!

More old friends, I'm also particularly fond of the one not looking at the camera

What do you think is going on here? It looks suspicious

We've got ourselves a wild one.
I often look at Libby and see her father looking back at me, she looks so much like him. However, these next pictures are to show that she is mine. Although, those of you reading will most likely not recognize these pictures as a reflection of my life, there was a time when I preferred to be outside, just a little bit dirty, and always getting my feet wet. So seeing these pictures of her loving playing outside helps me remember just how much fun being a little girl was.

She was having so much fun

Running up and down, up and over the log,

I wish I knew what she was pointing at

She thought this was so funny!

She had no fear

If only I had stream and couple thousand rocks for her to play with

Look I washed my hands in the creek

She was filthy, from head to toe!

The Smokies are famous for black bear. Here is the only one we "saw." Black bear or stuffed animal in the tree placed by park rangers to attracted tourists? You be the judge. This lump of black in the tree was slightly anti-climactic for me.
Happy hunting.