Tuesday, April 13, 2010

A TRIP TO GATLINBURG

This past weekend, Nana came to stay with our girls while Richard and I took a road trip to Gatlinburg, TN. We went to surprise a good friend of ours for her 40th birthday. Her husband orchestrated this surprise for her - he arranged for her best friends from the past three states they have lived in to all surprise her at a cabin in the mountains!! We had a great time with all of their friends and it was sooo much fun to surprise her - I'll never forget the look on her face! This was the cabin we all stayed in.
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We had a great time hanging out in Gatlinburg and seeing everything - this is a brand new museum that just opened up, the Titanic Museum. We didn't go there, but I snapped these pictures as we drove by for Punkin who is the biggest fan of anything and everything Titanic. The museum is an exact replica of the ship.

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We enjoyed some Mexican food - which is apparently not only a tradition that we do with Trey and Wendy - but is a tradition for everyone else too!Photobucket
Saturday morning we hiked a couple of miles up a mountain to Laurel Falls - a beautiful waterfall in the national park. The weather was absolutely perfect!
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The guys....
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and the girls...
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The waterfall was so pretty!!
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I had fun experimenting with shutter speeds to freeze the motion of the water, and then with a slower shutter speed I could make the water look like its flowing...
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me and my man
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Wendy and myself
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We rode the big tram sky line at Ober Gatlinburg up the mountain and then from there took a chair lift to ride down this alipine slide - this was a BLAST!! It's kind of like a bobsled.
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The view from our cabin
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There was quite an array of dead critters mounted on the walls of our cabin.....
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Happy Birthday Wendy!!
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We had a serious game of Dutch Blitz going on Saturday evening - it was so competitive that everyone was standing during the whole game instead of sitting!! We love that game.
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We had a GREAT time and we miss our friends so much!! But it was certainly good to see them, and it makes you stop and realize that the most important things in life are our friends and family.

4 comments:

Karen said...

Looks like a fun time! Love those alpine slides, BUT do not like the "scary trams" (that's what I call them:). Beautiful pics of the mountains and falls.

Heather O'Steen Photography said...

Thats so funny! I absolutely LOVE the scary trams!!

Wendy said...

I do NOT like the scary trams OR the scary ski lift thingys! BUT, I had THE best weekend--thanks so much for the surprise!! It was awesome spending the weekend with you and Richard. I told Trey that it's really cool that although we don't see one another often we can still pick up where we left off when we do get to spend time together. Lots of great memories--thanks for helping me celebrate my 40th :o). Check out my blog later tonight--hopefully I'll have the pix on there by then! Your waterfall pix are GREAT!!!

Nana said...

Love the pictures and love the time I got to spend while you were gone. I would love the scary tram and the bobsled. Wendy, glad you had a happy birthday. The sign of a real friend...when you can pick up where you left off like you have never been away. Special friends can do that.