Back in the Saddle

Goodbye Sweet Summer

Hello to 3rd Grade and an AWESOME new school year.
We are R-E-A-D-Y.

Sweet Summer Week 8

Granise and Grandpa Camp
"What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance.  They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life.  And, most importantly, ice cream."

Sweet Summer Week Seven

Alaska

Tongass National Forest

Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Site

Tracy Arm Fjord

Dawes Glacier

Skagway
Gateway to the Klondike

Haines
Lutak Inlet

Juneau
Mendenhall Glacier

Andy and LDC trying to figure out how to smuggle Delilah back with us

Family Lumberback Show in Ketchikan

Lumberjack Andy

Sweet Summer Week 6

Canada

Vancouver

Whistler Mountain

Queen Elizabeth Park

locks of love

Stanley Park

LDC touching the Pacific

Giant Rhubarb

Cheakamus Trail

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