More pics

Since I've been too lazy to properly update...have some pictures...

christmas photos

christmas photo shoot 120, originally uploaded by Fiorinda.

Trying to get christmas photos done early. Worked some on the twins, but mostly they made funny faces. They were really cute.

Also, Happy Thanksgiving!

The Boys

My favorite by far of this sequence., originally uploaded by splitcat.

splicat got this photo tonight. There are some more really cute ones at his photostream.

Kids

tonight the twins had a performance at school. it was preceded by a long boring meeting. They did a lovely job. I will upload some short video later, but for now here are some pics of the kids.

Six years ago

Two Sleeping, originally uploaded by splitcat.

Can you believe it's been that long ago? sigh. Happy Birthday, boys.

First day of school!

first day of school 2012, originally uploaded by Fiorinda.

School starts today! The twins are off to kindergarten and E is starting 4th. P catches the bus to middle school two hrs later than these guys. We have to be at the bus stop at 6:45. This is why the lighting is so bad in this picture. There are a few more pics on my flickr, mostly of poor quality because I didn't have time to mess with the camera settings and had to use the flash because it was too dark outside.

The twins were very excited about going to school. the looked a little nervous as they got on the bus, but since they have their big sister, they weren't really scared. And since her class is just a few doors down from theirs, she can walk them to class every day.

Also, the twins will celebrate their 6th birthday this Wednesday!

Sorry I didn't get more vacation photos up. I've been having trouble loading them to flickr. I will keep trying.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....
I was cleaning my room yesterday and decided to move the bed so I could vacuum really well under it and clean out whatever was living under there, and so decided that while I was back there I should tkae my headboard off so I could finally paint it. So, without further ado, my freshly painted headboard.

I need to do a few touch ups here and there, but for the most part I am very pleased with how it turned out.

Vacation!

vacation 2012 028, originally uploaded by Fiorinda.

We are currently on vacation! yay! splitcat decided last week we needed to get away, so here we are in the middle of nowhere north ga. Somewhere in the blue ridge mtns between Blue Ridge and Blairsville. We rented a small little house on a creek in a valley.

We got here last night and went into town to get some dinner(town being 1/2 an hour away) then came back and played in the creek and sat on the swings.

This morning we awoke to thunder and rain(no lightning). There was a brief lull so the kids and splitcat spent about an hour in the creek and I took some photos. I don;t know what splitcat had the camera set for, I just point and shoot. If you want to see more pics from this morning, just click on this pic and it should take you to my flickr acct. I am too lazy to post all of them here right now.

Obviously, we have wifi here(and cable!), so I am going to try to update when I can.

Bored

I'm bored, so I am going to torture you with some I-Tunes memes, mwuahahaha(all taken from tumblr)
Please bear in mind, I have only had my computer for about a month and still have a ton of cds to upload to my itunes. So I'm just going with what I've got, so there will be a lot of repetition.

Meme 1
How many total songs?  702
Sort by song title –
First: A-Cha-Super Junior
Last: “40”-U2

Sort by time – shortest and longest?

Shortest: Mr. Buechner Wakes Up-Daniel Amos-:40
Longest: And so it goes=Daniel Amos 18:57

Sort by Album – first and last?

First: Achtung Baby=U2
Last: Cooking, Cooking-Super Junior-H

Sort by Artist – first and last?

First: Alexandre Desplat
Last: 4 Non Blondes

 Top five played songs

 1. How Come-Kim Min Seok
 2. Jaywalking=Sung Joon
 3.Break-ups are so Like me-Kim Jang Hoon ft. Kim Heechul
 4. Clue+Note-SHINee
 5.Wake Up-Sung Joon

First five songs on shuffle?

 •Thru the eyes of Ruby-Smashing Pumpkins
 •Dreams-The Cranberries
 •Cosmic Love-Florence and the Machine
 •Look for Me as You Go By-innocence mission
 •As the World Turns-Daniel Amos

 Find the following words. How many songs show up?

Death: 1
Love: 23
You: 68
Home: 4
Boy: 8
Girl: 6

Meme 2

RULES:

1. Put Your itunes, windows media player etc on Shuffle

2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.

3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS

4. Put any comments in brackets after the song name

 How would you describe yourself?: You Don’t See Me-Keane

 What do you like in a guy/girl?: Walls of Doubt-daniel amos
 How do you feel today?: With the Benefit of Hindsight-We Were promised Jetpacks
 What is life’s purpose?: 너를 사랑하고 (I love you)-예성 (Yesung)             

What is your motto? Roslyn-Bon Iver and St. Vincent

 What do your friends think of you?: Better-Daniel Amos

What do you think about very often?:Alarma!-Daniel AMos

what is 2 + 2?: I didn’t Build it for Me=Daniel Amos

What do you think of your best friend?: Into Brooklyn, Early in the Morning-innocence mission

What do you think of the person you like?:A Murder of One-Counting Crows

What is your life story?: Grace-U2 (This is pretty accurate)

What do you want to be when you grow up?: Bright as Yellow-innocence mission(actually, yes)

What do you think of when you see the person you like?: Song About travelling-innocence mission

 What will you dance to at your wedding?:Elevation-U2 (ha ha, we didn’t have dancing at our wedding)

What will they play at your funeral?:Going Away-innocence mission (lol)

What is your hobby/interest?: Bedshaped-Keane(lol)

What is your biggest fear?:Paper Dolls-innocence mission

What is your biggest secret?: One-U2

 What do you think of your friends?:Hong Kong Cemetary-Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit

What will you post this as?:Sparks-Coldplay

Meme 3

Go to your music library and type in each word into the search box and put in the first that comes up-(Some of these were album titles, so I just put the album instead of the first song)

Happy: 요리왕 (Cooking? Cooking!) 슈퍼주니어 Happy (Super Junior-Happy)  

Sad: Smashing Pumpkins-Mellon Chollie and the Infinite Sadness
 Love:  Some Day You Will Be Loved-Death Cab for Cutie
 Hate:미워 (Hate U, Love U)         슈퍼주니어(Super Junior)        
Light: Sufjan Stevens-All the Delighted People
Dark:  I Will Follow You Into the Dark-Death Cab for Cutie
 Good : 결투 (Feels Good)-슈퍼주니어                (Super Junior)
 Bad: A Bad Dream-Keane
Smile: Try Again, Smile again=CNBlue
Cry: Do Big Boys Cry-Daniel Amos
 Girl:  라라라라 (Be My Girl) –슈퍼주니어(Super Junior)           
Boy: 어쩌다 널 (How Come)      김민석 (Kim Min Seok) (Shut Up! Flower Boy Band) [Original Soundtrack]
God: In God’s Country-U2
Devil: none
Sex: none
Kiss:  Kiss With A Fist-Florence and the Machine
Red: none
Blue: Perfect Blue Buildings-Counting Crows
Green: Green Grass, Red Tree-innocence Mission
 White: Hurricane Drunk-Florence and the Machine
Black: Ghost Town-First Aid Kit
Yellow: Bright as Yellow-Innocence Mission
Mother : Mothers of the Disappeared-U2
Father:  Father Explains-Daniel Amos
Brother: Brothers on a Hotel Bed-Death cab for cutie
Sister: My sister’s Return from Ireland-innocence mission
Daughter: none
Son: Illuminate Me-Gregory Hoskins


Meme 4

All you’ve got to do is put your iTunes on shuffle and answer each question with the first line of the song. (Surprisingly, none of my k-pop showed up, which would have been awkward, since I don't speak Korean)

1. Your first words were?

 We will walk on a hill.

2. When you fell down from your bike, what did you say?

Give me one more chance and you’ll be satisfied

3. What do your friends think of you?

Now the day is over, night is drawing nigh

4. What do you think about your friends?

Time for the final bow

5. What was the first thing you said to your crush?

There’s something slipping down the stairs

6. What was the first thing your crush said to you?

Now your back is to the road

 7. How did you respond? 

 Next.

8. What did you say when your best friend and you were having a fight?

Oh, bless me, Am I going silent now?

9. What is the line that describes what you’re feeling?

We turn away to face the cold, enduring chill

10. What is your message to the world?

There are ten thousand graves in Hong Kong Protestant Cemetary

11. What was the first thing you said in your wedding vows?

Since I still tell you my every day, my darling.

12. What did your husband/wife say on their wedding vows?

All I hoped for I kept inside your car 

13. What are the first lyrics you will dance to on your wedding?

When the day is done, moving out of here

14. When you’re scared, what do you usually say?

I’m over the moon, taller than clouds

15. When you cry, what do you usually say?

 Tomorrow you’ll see it through 

16. When you’re angry, what do you usually say?

 When you wake up sun will shine

 17. You cry over what words?

 I was raised up believin’ I was somehow unique.

18. What did you say when you told your/or your partner friends that you were pregnant?

 If I was to listen, I’d turn back, give up on my reasons

 19. What did they say?

 Something has left my life and I don’t know where it went to

 20. What’s your biggest secret?

All of the astronauts, champagne in plastic cups

21. When you breakup with someone what do you say?

 There’s no work in walking in to fuel the talk

22. Your first thought when you wake up?

 Yes the sidewalk soon will launch you into brooklyn 

23. What are the last words you will say?

Load up on guns and bring your friends it’s fun to lose and to pretend

Well, thanks for playing along with my boredom. Doing this just reminds me I have so much more music to upload. sigh.

Hippo Birdies

It's my birthday! Happy Birthday to me!

I tell people that my kids basically have their own lego store, and they think I am kidding.  I'm not.

This is not all the Lego. It's at most half. Splitcat has lego stashed in boxes in the closet.

This is supposed to be P's bedroom, but it's in the basement and sometimes there are spiders/other creepers, and if it gets away, he won't sleep there for months, he goes to the twins room. So now it's pretty much the Lego room.  I don't go in there unless I'm looking for someone's shoes. Splitcat goes in and cleans and sorts the Lego periodically and vacuums.  

And now they've opened a Lego store right by splitcat's work. This scares me.

It's birthday time!

It's birthday time again. We have 4 June b'days in my family(+2 anniversaries). Yesterday was my older sister's.  She turned 40.  So today we went to a little tea place/cafe and did lunch with my mom, and 4 of our friends.  It was really fun.

 This is my food: Chicken Salad on a Croissant and pasta salad. Mint Iced Tea to drink.

end of the year

At last!  I have a computer. I got a laptop for mother's day.

School is out for the kids!  We ended the year fairly well. P got an award this year for his score on the science portion of the CRCT-he scored over 900 (last year he had a perfect score on the reading portion).  The twins graduated from preschool again.

 P will be going to middle school next year. I don't think either of us is quite ready for that, but is anyone ever? 

I have no idea what we are doing this summer. But I am sure it will pass all to quickly.

photo by my dad.

Howdy folks.  It's been a while.  Our computer got a nasty virus just before Christmas, and various other things have made it difficult to get here.  And, well, I haven't really had anything to say.  We got a new computer, but had to send it back. :(  Now I am back to using splitcats school laptop. :(

The girl recently turned 9.  We had several parties to celebrate the event.

Ummmm.  It's currently spring break.  We're just hanging out. Hope everyone has a good Easter on Sunday.

My Dad

My dad has joined the blogging world!  He just started a photography blog here.  Go check it out!

Randomness

I'm bored, so I thought I'd update.  The boy and I got to be on the news right before Christmas.  It was really embarrassing for me, but he did a great job.  The camera must add 50 or so pounds :)  Also, the boy is now 11.  :(  He's getting really tall.  But he's still so thin that I have to get slims with an adjustable waist and tighten them.  When I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday, I was surprised and pleased when he told me that he wanted a day out with just me.  So we are going to go out one day to either Tellus or Fernbank(probably Fernbank because we have a yearly pass).  

wow.  I think that's all there is to say.

Here's a cute story for you. 

One day, I was in the kitchen cleaning, and M suddenly noticed a picture of the last supper hanging on the wall(it's an antique my m-i-l gave me).  He stopped what he was doing and said, "Momma, is that a picture of Jesus?"  "Yes, it is," I said.  "Oh," he said.  "So that's what he looks like."

New Year's Eve

Well, it's here again.  New Year's eve.  The girl is with her cousins.  the boys are sleeping.  splitcat is with his family.  I am home watching random bits of korean t.v. on the internet.  Splitcat may or may not be home soon(It's 10:20pm)  I have to work in the nursery at church tomorrow so I didn;t want to stay up too late.  I'm kind of hoping everyone sleeps in.  The nursery has been a little crazy lately with lots and lots of little babies.  and lots of pregnant people in the church means lots more babies to come.

I never finished my 37 before 37 list, but I've got six months left.  I've always thought it was cool that my birthday is exactly 6 months from Christmas.  So I am officially 36.5.  There are alot of things to look forward to this year.  2 weddings.  The boy will start middle school in August.  the twins will start kindergarten.

Speaking of the boy, his birthday is coming up very quickly.  He will be 11.  He's a handsome lad.

So, thinking back this past year, it's been a pretty quiet one. I am thankful for that. I'm not sure I've learned anything new this year, skill wise.  I haven't been crafting for a while. I've gotten interested in new music much more this year.  I think I've bought more cd's this year than in my whole life.  What am I listening to?  My favs have been We Were Promised Jetpacks(I just ordered their newest cd with my christmas money), Villagers, Radiohead(King of Limbs).  I am waiting with bated breath for a new Mumford and sons album.  Thankfully there's lots of them performing on youtube.

Of course, I shouldn't leave out my addiction to Korean t.v.  I'm not sure why everyone makes fun of me.  I've actually learned alot.  but yeah, one of my new year's resolutions is to be a little less addicted. Maybe get some laundry done.

I should also mention that I think I've made more friends in the past year than in the 10 previous ones(combined).  It was at times a little overwhelming to find myself wanted after so many years of having no one.

So anyway.  Happy New Year.  I shall leave you with a new artist I've been watching on youtube. 

Fangirl Friday

Okay, so I'm a total fangirl now.  I love my kdramas.  So I am going to share some of my faves with you.

First, Best ending ever........You're Beautiful.  (I believe it is still showing on Hulu)

The first time I watched, for some reason they did not subtitle the songs(which were a major part of the plot), so I looked it up the final song on youtube later, and I will not lie.  I cried buckets. This drama is definitely in my top 3 favorites.  It's silly, wacky, and a tear jerker all at once.  So, here is Jang Geun Suk as Hwang Tae Kyung singing what "What would I do."  (As a side note, he is squinting throughout the song because he is trying to find someone in the audience).  One thing I have really come to like about many shows is that the actors actually sing the songs, it's not them lip synching to someone else's voice. All three male leads in this show have great voices--Two of them have their own bands in real life.




Here's a fanvid of one of the songs from the show's fictional band A.N. Jell with scenes from the show.  I will sadly admit it took me well into the 2nd or 3rd episode to figure out why all their fans wore angel wings. 

Last night when Splitcat came in from work, I heard him say, "Why do you have underwear on your head?"  I went up to see who it was, and W had a pajama top(it looked like undies from afar) on the top of his head.  As I was chatting with splitcat, I happened to glance up and see W in the kitchen doorway and heard him say very quietly, "My hair was in my eyes."  Puzzled, I looked a little closer, and well, his hair was no longer in his eyes.  I started laughing and he ran off.  I almost couldn't stop laughing, but I managed to tell splitcat what he had done.  We had to go looking for him.  He was hiding under his bed.  We got him to come out. 

He had cut a good two inches off the front of his hair.  He did really need a haircut, it was in my plans for this week, but he beat me to it.  Thankfully it wasn;t too short.  So I stuck him in the bathroom and finished cutting it.  It looks pretty bad because my hair scissors broke and I needed to buy new ones, so I had to use just regular scissors.  Thankfully his hair is so wavy you don;t notice the hack marks too much. 

As all this was happening, I remembered about an hour before when I went into splitcats office to use the computer, W was there and he dropped a pair of safety scissors and ran out. I wondered what he had been up to.  If I had looked in the garbage, I would have seen.  At least he knew to put the hair he cut in the trash. :)

Never a Dull Moment

The thing about having 4 kids is this....someone is always up to som,ething.  M has decided he doesn't want to go to school.  So as it neared time to leave yesterday,  I was busy chasing down W to change his clothes when I heard M say "I'm  going to hide your keys."  I had a momentary thought to chase him  down, but I just gotten W in my grasp, and I wasn't sure if  he'd really do it.

He did.

He hid my keys. 

I could not find them..

Yes, I was not happy.

About 11:30  I said, since it's too late for school, can I have my keys back.  He went and got them  and gave them  back.

When I told my book club girls, their reaction was "did you beat the crap out of him?"  No, I did not.  He will be suffering over the long haul as his privileges have been removed for some time.

Seriously, I am  glad my kids are smart, but really, I could live without these sorts of ideas.  And to think he's only 5.  What's he going to be like at 15?

I need a nap.

Time to Play

Fall has fallen!  Well, sort of.  It did get up to the low 90's the other day, but the past two days have been gloriously fallish.  So of course we took the kids out to the park to play.  It ended up being an exciting outing.  After many years of trying, P finally figured out how to swing.  He and I have both been frustrated by his inability to swing.  We would try every time we went to the park.  I don't know what magic finally happened, but he did it.   He was so excited.  So was I.  I have no idea what was so difficult for him .  Perhaps it was a certain timidity or fear.  He does not like when he doesn't feel in control of himself, and swinging requires a bit of letting go.  Perhaps the fact that school is going well for him  has given him  a little more courage.  I'm  so happy to have my smiling boy back.  We've only had one big incidence of bullying this year, and the kid got caught.  P was more excited by the fact that everyone was talking about him  than worried about someone being mean to him..  I'm  sure there have probably been more times that people have not been nice, but he will rarely tell me or his teachers.   I'm  glad that we will be able to leave elementary school on a positive note(at least I hope it will keep going this well).

Ten Things I have learned

from watching Korean T.V. Dramas

1. Sweet and happy girls are not too bright and tend to be clumsy(and her parents are usually embarrassing)
2. If you are eavesdropping, stay until the end of the conversation
3. Smart girls are evil and/or manipulative
4. You never get over your first love(I guess it's good I married mine, then)
5. say what you mean and mean what you say
6. Don't interrupt people when they are trying to declare their love because you think they don't like you
7. Guys who are jerks have hearts of gold hidden beneath their handsome exteriors
8. The nice guy almost always loses
9. Product placement is key
10. True Love conquers all

Seriously, I think have learned a few things from my recent obsession/addiction. It has made me think about the nature of misunderstandings and the roles we play in them. In fact, I just cleared up a small misunderstanding about an email splitcat sent me(he had no idea what he had written could be read in several different ways). It's so much easier to simply ask the meaning of something instead of spending hours or days dithering over what you think it means. Of course, sometimes this is easier said than done. I have a tendency to dither rather than ask. But I am learning.

It's Friday

And we've made it through the first two weeks of school. P is doing amazingly well. He loves his teacher. He comes home fairly happy. Does his homework without complaint. I feel like I have entered the twilight zone or something. But, of course, I have learned with him to take it one day at a time and to rejoice in the good, and move past the bad. But two weeks of good is pretty much a miracle.

Also, you may have noticed a new link on my sidebar that says Follow me on Pinterest. This is a sort of on-line wish -list, idea board, collection of things I love. It's fairly addictive and fun. I have a few invites left if someone wants in. This has proven a great tool for my Craftster swapping. I used to use Wist, but it kept locking me out of my account, so I gave up.

splitcat is waiting for the computer, so I must away. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

Pandas at Atlanta Zoo

Pandas at Atlanta Zoo, originally uploaded by Fiorinda.

Took the kids to the zoo today for a last day before school fun day. The pandas were very cute. IT was very hot outside. More pics over at Flickr. I must go bake cupcakes for twins birthday party tomorrow!

Summertime

Summer time is nearly over. As summers go, it has been a good one. Not too much fighting, not too much heat, way too much humidity. But that means it has been raining, which is a good thing. The trees are actually still green instead of parched brown.

Things I've done this summer:
Vacation to the Smoky Mountains
Painted my bedroom furniture
slept in (thank you splitcat)
turned 36
cleaned stuff out and taken it away
opened an Etsy store
cleaned out our storage unit(our wallet thanked us)
plus all the everyday life that goes on.

The children start school in two weeks. Well, two of them do. The twins are doing another round of pre-k, so they will be starting the day after labor day. We decided it was best to hold them back. I need to try and get them both into speech therapy as soon as school starts. I may work with them at home on reading skills, and depending on their emotional status at the end of the year, start them in first grade. We'll have to wait and see.

This year has gone by really fast. Every year seems to go by more quickly. I still time my years by the school calendar, rather than the actual calendar, so I feel like it is time to take stock and examine where I want this year to go. I feel far more sane now than I have in a long time. It's kind of nice. I hope it lasts.

Weight loss is always high on my to-do list. But not because I want to be skinny, but because I need to be healthy. I am getting back to my homemade beauty routines, which always makes me feel better to know what I am washing myself with. I have even forayed into homemade deodorant(so far it works quite well). Knowing how insanely sensitive I am to chemicals really makes me think about what I am putting into and onto my body. Now I just need to make better food and beverage choices.

This year I also hope to do better keeping up with everyone's school work. In some ways I am glad the twins won't be in kindergarten because our school gives them tons of homework which is mostly parents doing something. Mulitply that by 2 and add a fifth grader and a third grader. P did not have a good year last year, and I really want to help him have a better one this year. But that means I have to stay right on top of him and his work. And if you haven't noticed, I have a hard time staying focused sometimes.

Perhaps I need to set some tangible goals for the year. Like a 30 before 30 list, except it would be a 37 before 37 list.

I guess I have some thinking to do!

(yes, this is double posted on my blogs so I remember to make a list)

Happy Birthday!!!!!

Wow, two posts in one day.

Anyway,

Tomorrow is my 36th Birthday. We took the kids out to the movies and then for ice cream today. We saw Rio at the $1.oo movies. It was pretty good. I think everyone liked it. I think splitcat and I are going out tomorrow. We haven't decided what we are doing yet. He surprised me on our last date and took me to Amicalola Falls( I thought we were going to the movies). He has a bunch of gift cards from the end of the school year, so we will probably use some of them up.

Also, I would like to send belated birthday wishes to my sister, to her new youngest daughter, and her oldest son(whose birthday is actually today).

Speaking of my sister's new daughter. I had meant to announce this some time ago, but forgot. My sister and her husband recently adopted a beautiful little girl. She just turned 2 and they have had her since she was 6 months old. They have been doing foster care for quite some time, but we all knew she belonged with them right from the beginning. She looks just like my sister except for her eye color. We are all so happy to have her as part of the family. So we now have 9 children between the two of us between the ages of 2 and 16. It makes going out together quite an andventure.

I guess that is all. Oh, I meant to add on my last post that there are a few more pics of our trip on Flickr. You can click on the pics to take you there. The last pic is from splitcat's acct, so it will take you to his pictures.

So,

Happy Birthday!!!!!

At long last! We went on vacation! This year is splitcat's parents fiftieth anniversary, so they took the whole family(there were 18 of us in all) to the Smoky Mountains. We stayed about 15 minutes outside of Gatlinburg, TN. The girl rode with her grandparents, so it was just us and the boys on the trip up.



We stopped at Chickamauga on our way.





We did the driving tour. A huge storm blew up and followed us all the way to our cabin. At one point it was raining so hard you could barely see the road. Splitcat's cousin, who went the scenic route through North Carolina and the National Park was delayed by several hours due to downed trees. It was apparently quite a storm.

The girl went to the Dixie Stampede that night with her cousin and Aunt. We hung out at the cabin with John's nephew and his girlfriend.

The next morning my father-in-law, niece, my nephew's g-friend, E, and I all went horseback riding. If I had a bucket list, horseback riding would have been in the top ten things I've always wanted to do. It was fun, but not something I think I will pick up as a hobby.

Here is my horse, he is the spotted one on the left. He was extremely obstinate. He really wanted to stop and chew the flowers the whole way.





The trail we rode on was very pretty as it skirted a large valley and went partway into the forest. We went first thing in the morning so the weather was really beautiful. My horse did not want to follow in line. We were always about 2 feet to the right while the other horses followed nicely in line.



Taking pictures on the back of a horse is not easy.


That was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me.

While I was riding horses, splitcat and his nephew were fishing in the Little Pigeon River. Only the nephew caught anything. But later that day me and the boys went back to the spot they fished from to enjoy nature.


Well, most of us enjoyed nature. He saw the beware of bears signs and kind of got a little nervous. There were reports of a mama and two cubs about a half mile up the trail, so we stuck by the riverbank and the road.

On Friday the grandparents took the kids to the WonderWorks Museum, and splitcat and I took the morning to explore the Roaring Forks Motor Trail. We had hoped to hike to the Grotto Falls, but the parking lot was full, so we explored the empty spots along the way. Splitcat helped me learn how to take waterfall pictures with his camera.



While we were discussing camera settings, a car stopped and started pointing frantically to something behind us. Thankfully it wasn't a bear.



It was a beautiful drive with lots of fun little spots to explore. I really wanted to go back later with the kids, but the weather never cooperated.



We stopped in Gatlinburg on the way home and had lunch at Bubba Gump's. It was pretty tasty.

And that's pretty much all I did. Saturday the brave people went white water rafting. I am glad I didn't go, plus someone had to stay and watch my kids, everyone had already been really nice about keeping an eye on them while we went out . A nasty storm blew up right after they got on the river. I watched it from the safety of our cabin. Our cabin was right on the edge of the National Park, so we had a lovely view of just mountains. Watching the clouds was a favorite activity in the cabin. This is the beginning of the storm from our perspective





After the storm:


We didn't do much else because of the weather. Sunday morning we had family portraits done. I don't have a copy yet. It went better than I expected. But M refused to smile.

Monday we stopped at Clingman's Dome on our way out of the park. The twins ran the whole way up. We got there a little too early so the view wasn't too good. It was also very very sad. The Hemlocks and Fir trees have been attacked by insects and are being wiped out across the park.



So, that was our trip to the Great Smoky Mountains. I would love to go back and do much more hiking. I am hoping we can get our kids out hiking this summer and fall in the North Georgia Mountains.