Road Trip 2011 {Georgia}

Road Trip 2011 {Georgia}

This is the final post about our road trip in June.
Post One showed photos from our first day on the road.
Post Two was about Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
Post Three and Four showed the greatness of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

After we left the Smokies, we drove through North Carolina and into North Georgia.  We stayed with extended family.  They are relatives of Mark's grandmother, and they live in Dawsonville and Cumming.

One of the highlights of the trip was visiting Dahlonega, Georgia.  It's a neat town with a charming downtown square.

Mark and Jerry are having ice cream with their cousin Gina.

Gina's mom, Linda, was our tour guide.  Linda and Will showing off their ice cream cones.

We didn't leave Ben out.  He shared Mamaw Carol's ice cream.

Probably one of my favorite photos of the entire trip.  The boys were playing with slinkies in the General Store.  This photo wasn't posed or set up.  I just got lucky and captured the moment.  I bought the boys each a bag of marbles from the General Store.  They are in a neat little bag stamped with the name of the town and store.

This is our gracious hostess, Edna.  She's Jerry's cousin.  Will had so much fun getting sprayed with the water hose.

We visited Mark's cousin, Jaime, and her family.  She has two precious little girls, Morgan and Lauren.  She and her husband Jason have a gorgeous home in Cumming.  We went swimming at the pool in their neighborhood.  It was a really hot day and the kiddos took a break from swimming for a Capri Sun.

Will wanted to change out of his swimsuit so he could play on the playground.  Well, when the mushroom was turned on he ran right into with all of his clothes on and got completely soaked!  He had a blast splashing in the water and didn't want to leave.

We ate at the best little BBQ joint in Dawsonville.  We had lunch and breakfast there.

Sorry about the quality of the photo; it's from my phone.  The photo may not be very good but the food sure was!  I really liked the vinegar sauce.  That's not normal for Texas BBQ so I really enjoyed trying something new.  They also served pork and chicken, which is a little different than Texas.  We're used to beef brisket BBQ.

I'm a little jealous of the beautiful hydrangeas that grow so easily all throughout Georgia.  We can't ever get them to grow in Texas.  These were in Edna's yard.

When we left Dawsonville we went to Athens before we headed back to Texas.

I wrote about meeting up with my blog friend (and now real life friend) Katie from The Southland Life here.
Katie wrote the sweetest post about our visit.  You can read it here.

In front of the Arch on the University of Georgia campus.
We didn't walk under the arch.

Photo with Mark's parents

Katie and I

Mark in front of the stadium

We headed back to Texas by way of Alabama.  We stayed the night in Tuscaloosa.  Note to self, don't spend the night in a college town (University of Alabama) if there's freshmen orientation and a football camp  all scheduled at the same time.  We had no idea, and we had the hardest time finding a place to stay.  Luckily we found rooms that were in a nice, clean hotel. 

Here are the boys at the Alabama Welcome Center.

That concludes our Road Trip 2011.

I can't wait for Road Trip 2012.  We're planning to take on Yellowstone National Park and more!

What's Cookin' Good Lookin'?

I do believe I have the cutest kitchen helpers!

Anytime I start to prepare a meal the boys think that they need to be right in the center of the action.  They pull up a chair to the kitchen counter and stand on it so they don't miss a thing.

Misc. Monday

I didn't think I'd do a Misc. Monday post today, but the boys are watching cartoons and I think I'll be able to get one written before we start the day.

{ONE}

I let Will and Ben jump on the couch.

I do.

I wanted to get new furniture for the living room a couple of years ago and Mark talked me out of it.  I'm really glad he did because I don't care if they jump on the couch or spill something on it.  It's our living room and we definitely live in it.

{TWO}

This clock is in the kitchen and the batteries need to be replaced.  I never realized how much I look at this clock to check the time.  It stopped at 5:30.  I also never realized how much I glance at the clock and don't look at the hour hand just the minutes hand.  Well, that has almost made me late several times.  I decided to move it to high noon until I put in new batteries.  That way I'd remember that it wasn't working.

{THREE}

Hummus is good.  My in-laws took some on our vacation and I've been hooked ever since.  It's so funny to hear Ben say hummus.  I wish I could add his cute little voice to this blog post.

I think it goes perfectly with these crackers.

{FOUR}

Just because these are the cutest little shorts in the world.  I love Ben's Elmo pajamas.  Here he is drinking juice from his sippy cup this morning.

One more of my baby.

{FIVE}

Our air conditioner stopped working on Friday night about nine o'clock.  It was the hottest day of the year so far.  Not good timing.  At all.  We'd already put the boys to bed and we noticed it wouldn't get any cooler.  We could hear the AC working but no cool air was coming out of the vents.  By the way, we don't keep it extremely cool in our home.  We usually let it hover around 79 or 80 on really hot days and Mark kicks it down a little lower at night.  So, when he checked the thermostat and it was 84 when it was set to 80, he knew we had a problem.  He called his dad who came over and they went outside and did something.  The fan started working and we thought that the problem was solved....well, it wasn't.  That only worked for about 2 minutes and the problem was back.  There we were, at night, on the weekend, in the middle of July and no AC.  Not good.  It eventually got as warm as 87 degress in the house.

Now, here's the happy ending.  Mark called our local AC guys early on Saturday morning and left a message and guess what, they called us back on Saturday morning.  Woo Hoo!  They were at the house by 9:30a.m. and the problem was an easy fix with a part they keep in stock on their truck.  They fixed us up and we were good to go.  We even had time to take the boys to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie.

Let me say that I'm so thankful for air conditioning. 



{SIX}

The 100 most-read Bible verses at BibleGateway.com

I use BibleGateway a lot, and I found this the other day when I was doing an internet search for a certain verse.  Such a neat list.  I thought you might want to check it out.

So many of my favorites are on the list.

Proverbs 3: 5-6
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

As always, linking up to lowercase letters.

Sentimental Sound

I love this photo of my grandmother.  It was taken in 2001.  She's in her kitchen.  Boy, could she work some magic in that kitchen.  I miss her home cooked meals. 

Yesterday, I was preparing some food for the boys and I used one of the few things that I took from her kitchen.  I have a Saladmaster sauce pan, the steamer insert and double broiler that go with the sauce pan.  I use it all the time.  I was using the steamer to cook some squash.  While we were sitting at the kitchen table, I heard a familiar sound that I'd heard my entire life.  It was the jingling sound that the steam vent on the lid makes as the steam moves it up and down.  What a comforting sound.  I guess some people might find it annoying, but it's not to me.  It reminds me of home and my grandmother cooking in the kitchen.

Here's my grandmother's sauce pan, steamer and lid.

Here's the vent that makes the sound that reminds me of home. 

Funny how a simple thing can trigger such happy memories of my childhood.

Road Trip 2010 {Great Smoky Mountains continued...}

Road Trip 2010 {Great Smoky Mountains continued...}

I was having issues with blogger and I didn't get a chance to include all of the photos from our visit to the Smokies.

Here's our second day in the National Park.  We drove through the park on Highway 441 from Gatlinburg to Cherokee, NC.  We made stops at Newfound Gap and Clingmans Dome.  We were lucky to have a beautiful, clear day and the views were incredible.


This was a short stop we made to take a photo of Chimney Tops.  You can see it in the distance behind Mark and the boys.

Jerry and Carol with Chimney Tops in the background.

The following photos are from our stop at Newfound Gap.
Elevation 5046 feet
Tennessee and North Carolina state line

Beautiful views from Newfound Gap

Mamaw Carol, Will, Ben and Papaw Jerry

I love markers for the Appalachian Trail.  They are all over the park.  Notice the distance to Maine. 

Mark and Will going on a little hike or as Will would say "adventure".

Clingmans Dome
Elevation 6643 feet
Highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The boys posed for a quick photo as we hiked (the longest, steepest 1/2 mile of my life) to the top of Clingmans Dome.

Spectacular views from Clingmans Dome observation tower.

Do you ever do the picture-taking-trade-off on vacation?  You take a photo of a family or couple and then they take a photo of you and your family in return.  That's how Mark and I got this photo.  His parents had the boys and we took a photo of another couple and then they snapped this one of us.  I like it :)

Another scenic view on the way down

I carried Ben on the hike down from the observation tower and Will rode on Papaw Jerry's shoulders on the way down.  They were faster than us so they waited for us on a bench.  Here's Will chatting with a park ranger.

We finally made it.  Here's Ben sleeping.

All in all, we loved the Smokies and I hope when the boys are older we can go back and spend more time in the National Park.

I'll share photos from our visit to Georgia next week.

Road Trip 2011 {Great Smoky Mountains}

Road Trip 2011 {Great Smoky Mountains}

This is post three about our road trip in June.  See part one here and part two here.

I've been to many national parks and I don't recall my grandparents and I ever going to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  I guess we could have since we were in the area, but I don't remember it.  Their memories are just a little too cloudy to recall all of the places they've traveled so they couldn't tell me one way or the other.  When I have time to go through all of the childhood photos I have, maybe I'll solve the mystery.  Since I wasn't sure if I'd been or not, I definitely wanted to go.  Now I can check it off the list.

If you didn't know, Mark and I have a slight obsession with the National Parks.  We have a goal of going to as many as we possibly can.  As a child, my grandparents took me to many, but we'd like to make new memories with each other and our little family now.  To help the boys remember all of the National Parks they've visited, last year we bought them the "Passport To Your National Parks".  They get stamps for each national park, national monument and anything in the national parks system.  You can purchase a passport here.  Mark and I don't have a passport, but we recently purchased National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of the United States and we put the stamps on the inside the front cover of the book.

I took so many photos in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that I've had a hard time narrowing it town to just a few to share.  Sometimes I wish we were all friends on facebook because I find it much easier to do a mass upload of 150 photos instead of trying to narrow it down to 10 for a blog post.

We are at the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near the Sugarlands Visitors Center.

We stopped at a picnic area and decided to walk down to the river.

Ben and Papaw Jerry

Will's favorite adventure in the park was splashing in the river.  He LOVED it!  The water was cold and I wish I would have had better shoes.  I wore my TOMS so I took them off.  Will had on Keens and they were perfect for playing in the river. 

The next photos are at Cades Cove.

The boys getting their National Parks Passport stamped.

One of the neatest things about traveling is meeting people.  We met a really sweet family from New Orleans, LA.  They had the nicest kids who played tag with Will and Ben.  The boys were having so much fun they didn't want to leave.

Papaw Jerry, Ben, Will and Mamaw Carol

I think this photo is so sweet.

Gristmill that works

Ben and Will were fascinated by the water turning the wheel.

Will put dropped corn kernels into the area where they would be ground into corn meal.  That was really cool.

Jerry and Carol near an old building and wagon. 

Laurel Falls
We didn't hike very much since most of the trails aren't paved.  This is one of the few trails that is paved so we decided to try it.  Both of the boys were in strollers.  I'm terrified of heights so it made me feel a little better about their safety since they were strapped in their strollers.  There were warning signs all along the trail about keeping a close eye on your children because deaths have occurred from falls.  That was all I needed to read to make me even a more nervous wreck.  I made the hike, but not without a little freaking out, which you will see later.

We finally made it to the top!

The falls, but not the most spectacular view.

Laurel Falls.  It was well worth the hike.

Mark and the boys.  Both of the boys were exhausted and they fell asleep on the hike.  They both woke up after we started the hike back down, and they missed the waterfall.  Will woke up and asked "Where is it?" and we didn't have the heart to tell him that he slept through it.

Okay, here's my freak out moment.  Mark is NOT afraid of heights.  He went over the railings and took more photos.  Do you see the yellow DANGER sign?  Yep, he's right there by it!  I was not happy.  He never felt uncomfortable or nervous.  I, on the other hand, was about to pass out just looking over the edge.  I trust him, but I was still very nervous.  When he saw the photos, he commented that the guy in the green was closer to the edge than he was, and he couldn't figure out what was the big deal.  I reminded him that the guy in green is not my husband or the father of my children.  Not that I wanted him to fall over the edge, but I definitely didn't want my husband and Will and Ben's father to slip and have an accident.

Here's one of the photos he took from his phone . You can tell by the look on my face I was ready for him to come back to the bridge.

We made it!  That seemed a lot longer than 1.3 miles.

The only wildlife we saw.
 Butterflies, wild turkeys and a couple of deer.

Blogger is having issues so I'm going to share the remaining photos from our second day in the Smokies tomorrow.

To be continued...