Camping at The Cove

One of my favorite places is Cades Cove. Only an hour from home, it's an easy weekend or week-day getaway!







These are some ugly animals .. but boy, they taste good!!


Ok so I've been to Cades Cove a million times and have never seen a bear! But this weekend was a first! We were in the 4Runner a ways back and saw the Rangers stopped up ahead. We knew there had to be some bear activity.

I was so excited. I was hanging out the back of the 4Runner trying to get the camera set up.



And then it started running towards the car, while I'm yelling 'Holy Crap' over and over (or so I am told). I couldn't get the camera to snap the pictures fast enough. I got just past the car - you can see it over the bicycle seat here ...

This deer was in the campsite across from ours.

Our campfire - even if it's the middle of the summer and 90 degrees outside, you still have to have a fire!!


Greg cooking Brats for our appetizer.

Greg and Joy tending to the seasoned deer meat on the grill. It was yummy.

Nancy, Luke and Joy

A pileated woodpecker at our campsite!

Proof that Joe biked the entire 11-mile loop with me.

We saw a bear on our bike ride.


Two more pileated woodpeckers on a post, while we were biking.

There was so much venison left over that we had venison sandwiches the next day!!

Mr. Hot Stuff in the back of the 4Runner

My little monkey climing a fence.

More deer!


I talked Joy into hiking Abrams Falls with me. Roundtrip is 5 miles and it's really not all that strenuous. It also says 3-4 hours, but we did it in 1 hour 50 minutes!

Abrams Falls

Luke and Grampa Joe playing catch.

A grasshopper.

That was a fun trip!!

Happy 4th Birthday, Luke!!

Well, it's official - I have a 4-year old now! My baby quickly turned into a toddler, who then turned into a preschooler. I can't believe he will be going to Kindergarten in one year! So sad :(

I asked him what kind of birthday he wanted to have. The answer was undoubtedly Star Wars! He chose the theme and also the guest list. Seven of his closest friends came over for a water party at the house. With the temps in the 90's, a backyard water park was definitely the way to go!! We set up a Slip N' Slide, a kiddie pool and cool 12-foot long wiggly sprinkler. The kids had a blast. The only issue was that we didn't get a chance to mow the grass til the morning of, so the kids had grass all over them, but they certainly didn't care!!!

This was the nice clean house before the party ...


The cake. Once again, we choose a theme to which a cake does not exist. (This happened 2 years ago with the Backyardigans theme). So, I asked them to make it black and gray with stars, and I would add my own decorations. I think it turned out rather nicely. Luke especially liked the Darth Vader candle holder!


He woke up from nap right before the party to find a new Star Wars shirt outside his room.

All his friends eating cake!

And opening presents...

Oh boy! A light saber. Or as Luke says, a light "saver". Don't try to correct him, though, he's sure he's right.

Then we headed outside for some water fun!!

That was Saturday.

On Sunday, we had a family cookout for his birthday.

Cousin Gregg and Mimi

Grampa Brian and Aunt Martha

Awww... sweet!

That's a little creepy!

Cousin Gregg and Darth Vader ... hee hee!

Time for an Update!!

Wow! It's been 3 months since I posted on the Blog. My apologies. I guess all my "extra" time has been going towards Facebook lately. So I'm going to try to catch you up on the last couple of months. And this weekend I will post pictures of Luke's 4th birthday party! He's going to turn 4 on Monday, the 22nd. My, how times flies!!!

In April, Luke got a new bed!! I wanted to wait til his birthday, but we found it on Craigslist 2 months ago and couldn't wait. Greg painted it white and blue with a red door! And Luke loves it. I thought it was pretty cool til I had to change the sheets out - that's not fun.

This is what I found when I went in to wake him up for school. How sweet is that?!?!

Sometimes you just have to let a kid be a kid ....

He just wanted to play in the rain!

But if he wanted to splash in the puddles, he had to roll his pants up....



So fun!

A couple of weeks ago, I wanted to go hiking so we drove to Panther Creek State Park in Morristown. This was Luke's farthest hike to date - 1.4miles total. Downhill and back up. He did awesome!! He was obsessed, though, with finding spiders and bugs.

This at the trailhead after we hiked down 0.7 and then back up 0.7! He did awesome!! Didn't complain at all!!! We're going to have to start working our way up to longer hikes!

Also at the trailhead, a heart-shaped grassy area.

A nice view of the lake ...

That's when you wish you had a boat:

The best part for Luke, the Park had a playground!

One of our favorite summer evening activities is chalking up the driveway! I always ask Luke what he wants me to draw ... usually he says 'a shark'. But lately he says "Draw whatever you want to draw, Mommy." So it's something different every night. One night, I drew the whole solar system ... it was quite elaborate, but the rain washed it away before I thought of photographing it. I believe it will need to be recreated soon!!

What's better than an ice cream cone on a hot summer day???

That is, until it starts melting ...

Time for a bath!!