Sweet Summer Week Five

The Smoky Girls headed to the mountains.
Well, kinda.
We made a stop at Sierra Nevada Brewery on the way up to Tennessee.

Where to start...
Each day was full and rewarding.
(butterfly puddling)

Elkmont Campground
B13 and B14

with Screeching Owls as our neighbors
(up in tree, above our heads)

a day at Cades Cove
(the clouds were lurking but only some sprinkles)

routine happy hour and evening bathtime in the freezing creek

Little Greenbrier Schoolhouse- where kids learned how to spell before reading

Our fabulous Little Greenbrier "teacher"

hike to the "Sisters Cabin"

one with nature

floating the river

making fairy homes at the campsite
(fairy campground, including a visitor center and zipline)

mama bear and two cubs

"If you can't be in awe of Mother Nature there's something wrong with you."
Alex Trebek

Enjoy the ordinary moments

"I’ll make big plans for us, but I’ll also enjoy the slow and simple moments too. The kind of summer days where we stay in our pajama’s until noon, make pancakes for lunch, and don’t do much at all. I’ll know that the messes you make won’t be for long, the scrapes and the bruises won’t always be mine to heal, and the tangles in your hair won’t always need to be combed.

For soon you’ll be gone. You’ll set off on your own, and we’ll have used up all eighteen of our summers. We’ll have nothing left but the memories. Memories of how we made the best of those eighteen summers together."

eighteen-summers

MAMMOTH  sunflowers
(and lots of weeds)

purple tips

evening swims

daughter created jewelry

Sweet Summer Week Four

Measure two five times, cut once.

Cooling off in the creek and collecting critters

The excitement of a crawfish and a possible Water Penny

Not exciting were the biting ants.

"The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time,  then the last 10% takes the other 90% of the time." 

our firework show, with a mountain view

July 4th 2019