Amy Goes to Camp and We Survive

This week was the first week Amy spent away from us! I have to admit, we really missed her around here! She went to Girls Camp for church and had a blast.

I drove up a group of the girls and they were full of excitement, chattering the entire way and making all kinds of silly jokes.

Amy and her good friend Kate. These two became fast friends when we moved a year ago. They actually balance each other out really well. They are funny together.

And they were off. I have to admit, it was a little difficult to just leave her! I knew she was in good hands though.

The campground is about 2 hours away from here. Kind of nearby is a state park named Fall Creek Falls. Fall Creek Falls gets a lot of hype around here. It's pretty, but given all the hikes I've done, I feel it's a bit overrated and there are much prettier waterfalls. But all the crowds can stay here, we'll go to the "good" places. ;)  

It was a gorgeous day and since I was by myself I decided to take a side trip and hike to the bottom of the falls. We haven't had a lot of rain so the water fall was barely a trickle.  

The trail to the bottom is only .4 of a mile but it's complete rocks. Just coming off the Fiery Gizzard (see previous post) I swear my legs took one look at that trail and said "Nope. Too soon." I pressed on anyway but I had to laugh at myself. 

They don't call Tennessee "Rocky Top" for nothing! 

The bottom of the falls were really pretty though. It was cool to be down there, virtually alone. (There were two other girls scrambling around the other side.) 

It was a fun little side jaunt. Like I said, you couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. I'm glad I took advantage of it! 

With Amy missing, we took the boys to Nachos one night. (Amy doesn't like it) They were more than willing to go! 

On Saturday I ran a 5k with my friend Michell. We are both getting back into running so it was fun to do this race together. It was held in Bell Buckle (your favorite place, Karen!) and it's a part of the RC Cola and Moon Pie Festival.

Until that day I had never even had an RC Cola. I thought I'd try it in honor of the race. It's tastes like a coke to me. (Lee said it's a cheap coke, but I wouldn't know the difference.)

These pics are from the straw bale garden. We've gotten a bunch of greens beans and cucumbers so far. 

The front garden is doing well. I'm anxiously waiting for my sunflowers to bloom. My zinnia got attacked by japanese beetles, but I have some bait traps set up now so hopefully they won't destroy too much. The pumpkin and watermelon are growing well too. It's all a fun waiting game! 

Amy came back exhausted from camp on Saturday. Apparently her part in a skit was a hit because 4 different people have sent me photos of her in a pink wig. 

She had a blast (which everyone does at Girls Camp) and we all survived her being gone. We *may* let her go again next year ;) 

And last but not least, this Tyler's new and preferred method of taking a bath! 

That's about it for this week. The temperatures won't be as nice but I guess we'll survive. 

Summer Pool days and Another Hike

The kids piano lessons were moved to an earlier time for the summer. Along with that she changed several of the dates because she was travelling. Well, I got one of the dates wrong and we showed up a day early. Will went barging into the house and they were sitting there looking stunned. We laughed and I felt terrible. We had already planned on going swimming afterwards, so we headed to the pool and had to wait for it to open. 

The funny thing about this photo is Will is under Amy. 

Tyler bounces a little too much around the pool and the bottom of it scrapes his toes a little. He always walks out like his legs are broken. Will offered to help him this time. It was a cute brotherly moment. Until Tyler pushed him off saying he could do it by himself. It takes a LONG time to get to the car with Tyler walking so slow.

We got tired of moving at a snails pace, so we had Tyler get on the rolling cooler and Amy wheeled him the rest of the way there.  Genius. And it didn't break the cooler, which I was afraid of.

(You can see Will carrying Tyler's bag for him, which was really nice. This year I've made them all carry all their own stuff. It's been fabulous!)

A small harvest from the garden. The last kohlrabi and some green beans. The kids pick the beans off at random and eat them right away so it's hard to tell how many we've actually gotten.

One day they were doing this on the front porch. Reminds me of when my siblings and I used to do it.

National Donut Day! We headed to our newly opened Krispy Kreme for our free donut. The line was out the wazoo, but we made it :)

And the hike. I went on another hike with my group on Saturday. This time we re-tackled the Fiery Gizzard. We did this hike back in November but we took the upper loop. This time we wanted to try the lower loop. It was 13 miles of well, lets just say the "strenuous, treacherous and hard" description was completely accurate.

Pretty quickly we got rained on. Well, monsooned on was more like it. The canopy of the trees made it seem more like a hard rain. We had all brought ponchos, but soon it was too hot in them and we were soaked anyway so we abandoned them and just got wet.

Can't see the trail? It's the rocks. Anywhere we went, the rocks were the trail.

(I'm the one with the yellow pack) 

The rock shelves are always pretty.

The trail took us behind this water fall.

 

Again, a rock trail.

And yet again. A good portion of the trail was rocks. One reviewer called the trail a "moderate hike made difficult by the satanic amount of rocks." I burst out laughing because it was so true. The rocks weren't steady rocks either. They wobbled and were slick from the rain. You had to cross them very slowly and about half way through we were over it. But this is a one way trail, so unless you wanted to sleep on them, you had to keep going.

This bridge was a nice relief from the rocks.

I love seeing how trees grow out of the craziest places.

Ten hours later (yes TEN) we were done. The last time (the upper loop) took us 12 hours but we had a gal who was in a lot of pain that trip. I think we can do that a lot faster. We were making great time with the lower loop until we hit the miles and miles of rocks. We have all decided we will never do the lower loop again. It just isn't worth it. It's beautiful, but because its so treacherous, you have to focus on your feet and can't really enjoy the beauty around you.

Looking back, I'm actually glad it rained the entire time. Yes, we were soaked for 9 of the 10 hours and walking in soggy shoes isn't ideal. But in retrospect it kept the bugs, ticks and creatures (aka snakes) away, it's wasn't hot, and was a nice relief from what could have been a lot of misery. This trail was hard, but I was never miserable. I was glad to be done though, that's for sure! This is our ending photo and in some ways we look the same as the start photo. I don't know how that's possible because we were wringing out our tshirts and swishing as we walked. We were sore and hurting. Some had blisters (I did not) and others had bruises and scrapes. I took a bad sliding fall off a rock but luckily didn't injure anything. In fact, as much as people were falling, no one was injured more than a few bruises. We were sweaty and dirty. But we were all smiles. I guess that's the important part! We did have fun and woke up this morning with a true sense of accomplishment! I love these friends of mine who make me do hard things. (I got in 33,000 steps, I guess that's quite an accomplishment!)

Link to the youtbue video is: https://youtu.be/VyXZbX5uJFQ

The Pool and a 50th Birthday

School is out and we have been in full 'relax' mode. We don't have any big travel plans this summer (aside from a trip to FL.) Every year we take off traveling, which I really like, but it's been nice knowing we don't have to go anywhere or do anything.

Amy made this sign that now hangs above the toilet. Poor girl, having to share a bathroom with boys.

We go to the MTSU pool several times a week. I still say this place is the best hidden secret of the city!

Will is our little Scuba man. He's been obsessed with an oceanographer on YouTube so he dons his scuba gear and walks around the pool. We think he's hysterical. I love that he doesn't care at all what other people think. He's all about having a good time.

 

Will's teacher gave me this bag as a thank you at the end of the year. I love it.

One of my best friends, Marsha, turned 50 over the weekend. I went down to spend the weekend with her and Matt. We had the BEST time. 

Since I'm rarely by myself, or without a deadline, on the way to GA I took the opportunity to stop off near Chattanooga where the hang gliders jump off. The drive up the mountain was stunning. 

The top of the mountain was gorgeous as well. I just couldn't stop staring. This earth is so beautiful. Sometimes it's hard to believe we get to live in it. I didn't see any hang gliders but it was pretty windy. I'm not sure what their requirements are for that.

Mom and Dad were in Texas visiting Adam's family so I stayed the weekend with Matt and Marsha. I brought them a cake and Matt was immediately happy. He and I speak the same language with sweets.

Matt has turned 50 a few days before, so it was a celebration for both of them. I brought them these balloons which i was lucky to get because apparently there is a helium shortage. 

The next day we ran the Atlanta Braves Country 5k. Marsha and Matt have gotten really into running these past few years. Marsha was in it to win it!

Sunrise above my heat section. Marsha and Matt were up in section B. 

The race was fun, but wowsers it was hilly. It was like a rollercoaster. If you weren't going up a hill, you were coming down off one and then getting ready to go back up another. Marsha's pace was incredible. I still don't know how she managed to run so fast. Well, it was fast on regular ground, but incredibly fast with all those hills!

She WON FIRST PLACE in her age bracket. That is amazing!!! When they called her name we were all screaming and hollering. We were so proud of her!! First place on her 50th birthday. It was SO exciting!!!

The end of the 5k took you onto the field. That was pretty cool. Your race ticket got you a ticket for the game that afternoon as well. So after we went home and showered, we came back for the game. We also got to walk in a small parade (all the race attendees did.) For the parade, you got to walk around the field again. So twice in one day I got to walk around the Braves field. While I'm not a huge sports fan, I have to admit, that was cool. This time the workers were painting the field and getting it all ready for the game. It was kind of neat standing behind home plate.

Our seats were in the shade which was really great. It was a hot day!

The Braves hit several home runs and then won the game!! The new stadium offers a big area around it with lots of restaurants. We ate at a Tex Mex place and it was really, really delicious. They even brought Marsha a piece of cake and then gave her a card signed by all the workers. I thought that was a nice touch.

Sadly my weekend had to come to an end. But it was a lot of fun. It may have to become a tradition.

Lee and I have been walking a hiking trail nearby a few times a week. Today we saw this cute turtle. It's been a lot of fun getting away with him by myself. :)

That's it for this week!