Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Smoky Mountain Vacation 2009

Well, first of all, be ready for picture overload! If you follow me on facebook at all, then you know that I have taken TONS of pictures of our vacation to the Smoky Mountains. It was SO hard to pick the ones to put on the blog, but I tried to pick my favorites! This first is one of many that depict the absolute beauty of the mountains. It really takes my breath away to see the beauty of our earth...it's so easy to forget to look for the beauty that is all around us!




We went to visit Cade's Cove, which is one of our very favorite places and we had a picnic and then we just let the kids throw on their swimsuits and play in the streams...they truly had a BLAST!! Mom, Dad, Chuck and I just sat and watched while they played for almost two hours. It was a great day and when I look at the pictures, they remind me of a magical forest that you might see in a movie. These pictures were from one of my favorite spots we discovered that day.























One of the highlights of this trip was a surprise that we had planned for the kids. We arranged for them to go horseback riding, and since Chuck and I weren't crazy about going, my dad agreed to go with them. We didn't tell them what we were doing, we just let them figure it out as we were driving. They were so excited and they had a ball!!!
















































We rented a little villa this time instead of doing a cabin and I have to say that we really enjoyed it. It was so clean and spacious and it gave us all room to spread out so that we didn't get on each other's nerves (not that that would ever happen in our family...). It had a really nice pool that was hardly ever used and the kids really enjoyed that. These pictures are from the first night of the trip and the kids were unwinding from a full day in the car.


































































































The kids just being silly with Grandpa!


































Our whole vacation crew: Mom and Dad, my Uncle Dick and Aunt Cheryl, and our family. It was a fantastic trip with many wonderful memories. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or if it's the kids getting older, but this was one of the best trips ever...no one really argued and we just laughed so much!!! Smoky Mountain Vacation 09 was a success!




















2 comments:

Jerry, Chantal & The Girl Gang said...

How great! It truly looks like you ALL had a great time! I'm very happy for you guys...in this day and age it seems hard to find time (let alone energy and money) to do trips like that. How do you get your kids to look so happy in the pics...I take about 4 and then it is OK MOM that is enough! Ha HA! Welcome back to VW!

Anonymous said...

Looks like you had a great time!! Your pictures are great! If you think the Smokey Mts. are beautiful, head West...the Rocky Mt. Range, The Tetons(among others out there)will blow your breathe away! I promise...