So our family and some close friends of ours loaded up our trailer and packed into the Expedition and ventured off on a Great Smoky Mountain Road Trip. Yes, 7 of us traveled in the same vehicle for 11 hours and two took up a lot of space with their car seats, but we survived with lots of fun stories to tell. We played some pretty intense games, hiked to a waterfall, went white water rafting, read some books, relaxed in a great mountain house, and laughed a lot. A good time was had by all and I think now we all dream of having our own mountain house one day.
The most memorable activity was this crazy hike we went on. This was the craziest of adventures I have ever been on and to top it the babies were strapped on and joining in. We packed lunches and left the house to arrive at a trail in the middle of the mountains that we thought would be an easy hike that would maybe take 2-3 hours tops. We headed into the wild and got out about 7 1/2 hours later. Our first stop was at a small waterfall a little below the trail. There was a huge log in the middle of the river/waterfall that was easy to get to and a good place to take a break. I decided I better nurse the babies while others were exploring. So here I am in the middle of the forest, sitting on a log over a waterfall, nursing my son (I think) and it begins to down pour on us. Rain from out of nowhere and I am nursing my baby in the middle of a waterfall...Can I get a world record for this??? Maybe some ladies do that all the time....first for me! When the rain stopped we were all soaking wet and hiked back up to the trail to find a place to stop for lunch. We found a nice place to stop for lunch and hang our some of our clothes to dry. Here I continued in my goal to get the babies fed on another log in the middle of the forest. On our lunch break we ran into a snake...not my favorite part of lunch. After that we loaded up hoping our destination would just be around the corner...WRONG! I think we had to have hiked another hour or longer. I had Zaya in a carrier and my friend and Chase in a carrier. The babies really did love being outside and held all day. They fell asleep when they wanted and snuggled up close to keep warm. They were happy and of course Mommy was worried...What have I put my babies through today??? On this hike we must have crossed between 10-15 log bridges over streams or rivers. Zaya had fallen asleep in the carrier on the front of me and was enjoying the ride when we were crossing a bridge I grabbed the branch hand rail and all of a sudden the branch broke and I was going down with my sleeping beauty on the front of me. I panicked! All I could think was fall on your back, fall on your back so I turned and went down. I don't even know how I landed or anything, it happened so fast. I turned around in sheer panic screaming "my baby, my baby!!!" They finally yelled at me to get my attention and tell me Zaya was just fine. Then she poked up her head and looked around like, "what's going on guys?" I don’t think I have ever been more terrified in my life. Needless to say Mommy was shaking the rest of the hike, but we made it. And all I was thankful for at the end was I had 2 happy, healthy, intact babies! We made it back to our car, hungry and tired and think we all decided to have a day of relaxing the next day!
Today I'm grateful for a fun 1st family of 4 vacation!
Crazy Bear
Our Mountain Retreat
Rain!!!
Such great pics from both vacations!! Love the one of you in the rain, ha! And the babies on the bridge!! amazing!! and them in the swing at my parent's, so cute!! and the one where you can see zaya's chubby belly, love it!! i feel like Gram looks so old in those pictures, he really is a little man!! =)
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