Easter, Family Fun, Nashville, Kentucky

We celebrated Easter a couple of days early since we were all together (and Day 4 was rainy and we were pretty worn out from the first 3 days).

Grandma made her famous Easter bunny cake.

Grandma and Grandpa hid eggs full of treats and toys all over the cabin.

We had our Jerusalem Dinner, which is my favorite Easter tradition our family does every year.

Being around cousins for 3 weeks was awesome,

and beating Grandpa at foosball was super great.

But our Tennessee vacation finally came to an end and we all went our separate ways.

Our family stopped at Buc-cee’s which is sort of a classy Walmart version (meaning you can buy just about anything there) of a truck stop because we had seen them around and I wanted to see what all the hype was about. I was shocked by the cleanliness and organization of this store. The bathrooms were fantastic. The food, however, was not. It looked and smelled good but tasted awful. Sorry, Buc-cee’s, if you can’t get a breakfast sandwich right we’ll just be stopping to use the bathrooms from here on out.

We stopped at the Nashville Public Library for a break and were impressed by how great it was. I also got to meet up with a friend of mine there that I hadn’t seen in 9 years for a quick visit. Here is Elsie working this weird puppet head made out of cardboard.

The little girls made some art while we were there. It’s always good to be around real books. My kids miss them a lot. We brought a few on this trip but mostly use ebooks.

I’d really like to spend more time in Nashville someday.

After Nashville we passed through Kentucky on our way to St. Louis. Another state scratched off the map!

Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Day 3 (Cades Cove, a Picnic and a Schoolhouse )

We slowed down a little on Day 3 and just drove around Cades Cove and had a picnic. We expected rain but the weather turned out to be really nice like the previous two days.

The whole crew

Taking the panorama you see above.

Our picnic spot

Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Day 2 (Mountain Farm Museum, Waterfalls & Bears!)

Our second day in the park we drove all the way up and over and through the entire park to the southern side where they have another visitor center and the Mountain Farm Museum.

Sweet sisters

Handsome boy

They do demonstrations on the farm to show what life may have been like there 100 years ago. Here they are making soap by boiling down lard.

This shot was just too good.

Townes couldn’t resist the outhouse either.

We found a real oxen yoke!

The Oconaluftee River was gorgeous. 

Mabel tried out her new soap.

We decided to hike a loop that includes 3 waterfalls: Juney Whank, Indian Creek, and Tom Branch Falls.

June at Juney Whank Falls (I don’t know who came up with that name!)

Playing at Indian Creek Falls

This little purple butterfly landed on Mabel’s toe and then climbed onto Townes’ hand and sat there happily while he hiked a long ways. 

The butterfly even let me and Wren to have turns carrying it.

Tom Branch Falls was by far the most impressive.

Mabel, Juniper and Dave braved the freezing water and climbed up onto the falls to cliff jump back into the river. Townes really wanted to join them but the water was way too deep for him to cross on his own and it was too swift for Dave to carry him.

Tired, grouchy babes.

Made you smile!

Wilderness Babes

Back at the cabin we were enjoying our s’mores around the fire when Mabel suddenly stood up and announced that an animal was in the road in front of the house. It turned out to be a mama bear and her 3 cubs. They waltzed into the neighbor’s yard and then into ours, checked out the fire pit, and then proceeded to lounge around the yard for half an hour while we marveled from the deck. The cubs were adorable and the mama seemed super relaxed. They were clearly very used to being around humans. Two of the cubs wrestled most of the time while the other slid down the little hill on its belly. It was a really fun experience. (We called to report that 4 bears were in the yard and we were directed to just leave them alone. I think they get a lot of phone calls from out-of-towners. Ha.)