We thank God for giving us a perfect, 12 day vacation this year. We got to spend time in the mountains and on the beach.

It's my mother-in-law's 75th birthday this year (everyone say Happy Birthday Dori!!) so we all went in together and rented a rather large cabin in Gatlinburg, TN....complete with gameroom, hot tub, and access to three pools. About 20 of us spent five days driving up and down the steep roads that led about two miles outside of town to our cabin. We had a great view of the Great Smoky Mountains and OberGatlinburg. If you've never been to the 4th of July Parade at 12:01am in Gatlinburg, you have to try it atleast once. They boast of it being "the first Independence Day Parade in the nation".  I've never seen so many patriotic floats in one place. And LONG......it was soooo looonnnnngggggg. LOL But it was fun. And now we can say we've been.

During our stay, I talked Honey and the kids into going on a hike in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We've been on the paved 2-miler to LaureL Falls. That was a piece of cake. This time I wanted to hit something a bit harder. So, we trekked up the 1,700 feet ascension to Chimney Tops. It was two miles up and two  miles back. And it was HARD!!!! Honey was about ready to kill me half way up.....I thought he was going to have a heart attack. It was very scenic and beautiful and steep and hot and humid. It had just rained the night before, so the bugs were out. I was thankful though...I think the rain cooled it off a little from the high 90's we'd seen the days before. When we got to the top, it was utterly amazing!!! A perfectly panoramic display of God's beauty and creation. The giant rock-top jutted out with straight drops down both sides. You literally had to crawl and climb out on your hands and feet. With the kids, Honey decided that we weren't going out that far, so he stopped the train after about 20 feet up the rock. The team staged a minor revolt, but to no avail. He wouldn't budge. So, we stayed there sitting where we stopped to take in the gorgeous view and discuss the many things that could happen if we fell off the side of the mountain.  You know how it is with two boys and a tomboy-wanna-be.

Would you believe that I forgot my camera???? I was so mad at myself!! Aunt Deb said that it must've just meant to be a great memory. She has a good point. There is a difference when you're sitting there in the middle of this miraculous scenery able to just sit, and breath it in, and think about how amazing our Great God really is, AND when your looking at it all through the lens of a camera. Yes, you get to keep the memories forever, BUT I'm sure God was thinking that Deborah likes to take pictures so much that she will surely miss the whole point of being there....PLUS she's bound to fall off from not paying attention to which rock she rested her foot on. Ha!!!

At any rate, it was a great bonding adventure for our family. It was hard going up, but worth it. It was also a good opportunity to talk about hard times and trials in life and how they compare to climbing a mountain. If we always stuck with the easy way out, we'd never see the blessings and benefits that promise to come with a little blood, sweat and tears. 

We ended up leaving on Sunday morning and continuing on to our own family vacation to Charleston, SC.

Next entry is on our time at the beach! Stay tuned....