Gatlinburg

Ok, so I know my last blog was about lack of commitment and how I was going to do better at posting, and guess what, I didn't. Sorry. Things are starting to slow down a bit, so I thought I would get back to blogging. For those of you that didn't know, these past few weeks have been extremely difficult and trying for our family. I miscarried our 3rd child on October 8, and my grandfather, Pop Neal, passed away on October 15. I never understood the emotions that go along with a miscarriage until now. I don't think anyone can understand until they go through it themselves, but luckily I have a couple of wonderful friends that have been through this and offered words of encouragement on a daily basis, and to that, I am ever so grateful! The death of my grandfather only fueled my emotions, so my wonderful husband planned a trip for our family along with my parents to Gatlinburg. He booked the cabin at 1:30 AM on the day we left. I love last minute trips--they are so exciting, but I ended up staying up til 4 in the morning packing.

This was our lovely cabin 'Afternoon Delight'. It was between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge so it was a wonderful location.

I don't know if you can see, but there is a hot tub in the background. Brother and I were so excited to have the hot tub, but the first night we were there, we heard something outside the window. To our surprise, there were two raccoons on our porch. Brother was so excited and started feeding them cheerios. I told him there was absolutely no way, I was getting in a hot tub with wild animals!

We rode the chair lift to the top of the mountaing and the kids loved the snack shop that awaited them.
Since my parents were there, Brother and I were actually able to get a picture together:)

Unfortunately, Brother dropped the camera while we were there and the lens broke, so here is our family picture taken with a broken camera--I so wish it was in focus, but oh well, it will have to do.
While in town, we ran into a man on a motorized wheelchair that looked just like Santa. After we started talking to him, we found out, he was "santa" and even gave us one of his business cards.

By the second night, my parents had arrived, and I was feeling a little braver about getting in the hot tub. The kids joined us and had an absolute blast!
We hiked to Laurel Falls since it was the only stroller friendly trail in the park. There was a beautiful water fall and bridge at the end of the trail. Rollins loved posing in front of the falls. While my mom was taking a picture of Grady and I, I said, "look, there's a bear!" She thought I was just saying that to get Grady to look at the camera, when infact, there was an actual bear. It walked up to one of the hikers and took his bag of food. I was amazed at how calm the bear and hiker were--I would have freaked out.

Here is a picture of the bear getting the bag of food. Notice how the man is just standing there!

We stopped all along the way to take pictures. I would love to have a creek like this going through my backyard.
Ok, so I am not done, but it is 1 in the morning and I have a 9 am doctors appt in huntsville, so I must get me sleep. I will finish the rest tomorrow.