Weekend in Gatlinburg

As an end of the school year gift, one of my student's gave me a weekend in a cabin in Gatlinburg. What an awesome gift!!! We took advantage of it this weekend and took some friends with us. Matt invited a group of people from the fire department, but only 3 of them ended up being able to come. We didn't make it in to Gatlinburg until around 9:30 Friday night, so we just hung out at the cabin and had some really good laughs! Saturday morning we got up and headed out to eat some breakfast. If you have ever been to Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge, you know that there is not a shortage of "Pancake Houses" up there. We decided on Log Cabin Pancake House for breakfast and were not disappointed! We had made plans to go to an indoor waterpark during the day Saturday. So after breakfast, we headed back to the cabin to get our bathing suits. When we pulled up to the indoor waterpark, we realized that it was geared towards the "under 10" age group and that Reese (the baby) was about the only one of us that would have enjoyed it. We called another park, but their waterpark was only for guests at their resort, so we asked around and ended up at the outdoor waterpark at Dollywood! It cost us an arm and a leg to get in, but we had a great time! After the waterpark, we showered and headed out to a Japanese Hibachi Steakhouse for dinner. Newton and Crystal had spotted a "Firefigther" putt-putt course in Pigeon Forge on their way to the cabin on Friday night, so we headed there to play after our Japanese dinner. The course was a little childish, so we changed our plans and went to WonderWorks. It reminded me a lot of Sci-Trek that used to be in Atlanta. There were a lot of science related exhibits and many other things that you may "wonder" about. It was very cool, but again, cost a pretty penny to get in! We had a great trip and I will DEFINITELY be going back to Gatlinburg again!

At the Waterpark!

The Boys....Brian, Matt, Scott, and Drew

They are NEVER serious!

The boys decided to change Scotts nickname to "Photogenic Scottie" Like I said, NEVER SERIOUS! (and yes, they really do match!)



Me and Matt

Part of the girls...me and Crystal. Stacey was busy with Reese.

Poor Reese, with all of those stinky boys! What a cutie she is though!

The Edwards Family

The "Backseat Boys".....okay, I know that was lame, but it made me laugh!

This was outside of the Firehouse Putt-Putt course. Of course, they wanted to get their picture made in the firetruck!

Outside of WONDERWORKS

No, I did not have my camera upside down. The building is upside down. I am still trying to figure out why it is upside down, but it was pretty cool!

Matt and Bates (Drew) racing to the top of the rock wall.

STRIKE!

On the MOON!

Matt's first flight into outer space!

In one section of WONDERWORKS, there were all of these screens that transfer your image into different things on the screen. Here are Crystal and Brian getting down!

The weekend fun wiped the youngster out!!

Summer Camping Trip

We took our first (and only) camping trip of the summer this weekend! We tried out a campground on Lake Lanier that just reopened this summer, Van Pugh South. We have camped at just about every campground on Lake Lanier now. Old Federal is still our favorite, but Van Pugh was nice. We had an awesome campsite with a great view of the lake action and even had a nice breeze blowing the entire weekend! We cheated on this trip though and went to McDonald's for breakfast and even came home on Saturday afternoon to shower! That is the nice part about camping so close to home!

Matt's favorite part of camping....building the campfire!

We had a nice rubber mallet that we usually use, but the rubber head flew off of the handle into the lake. Maybe it wasn't so nice after all!! Matt resorted to caveman days and used this big rock to do the job!

Watching the storm blow in. It rained on us most of Friday evening and night. We didn't complain though, because the temperature dropped almost 20 degrees from earlier in the afternoon!

Harley doing what he does best.....eating!

We were on such a drop off down to the lake that we couldn't sit the camera low enough to get a good picture of us! Oh well, this is as good as it gets!

This picture makes me laugh. Look at Harley in the background....eating again!

No wonder the poor guy has so much trouble breathing! His face is so squished in!

Matt's big catch!

He was trying to hold it up for a picture, but it slipped out of his hands.

Watching the sunset.

I took my camera out to the point and sat in the grass photographing the sun setting. Over the course of about 10 minutes, I snapped about 30 pictures of the sun sinking behind the mountain. It was such a beautiful night out on the lake!

We packed up early this morning to head home. We were actually rolling out of the campground around 9:00. As much as we love camping, we also love getting home to get everything unpacked and washed before too late. Harley did not come upstairs until about 6:30 this evening! He was so worn out from the weekend that he collapsed in the basement and did slept all day long!

Celebrate!!!

Okay, so I lied in my last post when I said that my next Blog Post would be about our weekend camping trip. We got some SUPER EXCITING news today that I just had to share though!! MATT PASSED HIS NATIONAL REGISTRY EMT WRITTEN EXAM TODAY!!!!!!!!!!

I never doubted his ability to pass, but this has been a long 6 months! Matt has been worrying about this test for several months now. He has spent numerous hours studying and hitting the books. Today was his day to SHINE and he did!!! Now that he passed, he is Nationally Certified as an EMT-Intermediate. I am so proud of all of his hard work and effort and the fact that he NEVER gave up!! Thanks for the continued prayers and support!

Starting tomorrow he will be heading to the Fire Academy. In the dead heat of summer, his physical abilities are going to be put to the test inside burning buildings! A while back we went to a "Community Fair" that DeKalb Fire and Police were holding. There was a firetruck there with a sticker on the truck that said "We are running in when even the roaches are running out!" I think that sums up the job pretty good!!! Please continue to pray for him and his class!!