Ahhh, I’m baaaack!

I spent a week in Gatlinburg, TN with my in-laws, then came home and left again for a beautiful wedding in Charleston, SC. And I did not have internet the entire time. Yep, no email, no facebook, no blogs, no internet at all. Just as we were walking out the door I decided not to take my computer, I figured I wouldn’t have a lot of time to get on it and I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on the computer anyway. I wanted to just relax and spend time with family. So that is what I did. We went swimming, we rode go-carts, we walked around downtown, we took a trolley ride, we explored and played in a creek, we played games, we grilled out, and I read books while my girls napped. It was great! (I finished Black Heels to Tractor Wheels and started Rebecca….loved Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, I think I laughed out loud through half of the book!)

Guess what else I didn’t have with me? …………………………………………… My CAMERA! Not by choice, I forgot it! Sigh… I could not believe it when I realized I had left it at home.  We decided that this was a good time to buy me a point and shoot, since I have been wanting/needing one for awhile now. Once we got there and got settled in we went to Walmart – the only place we could find to get one. And they really did not have a good selection. So I picked one, without being able to try it out before buying, and as soon as I took the first picture I knew it was not going to be a keeper. That thing was so slow I could have napped in between pictures. And by the time it actually took the picture whatever I was trying to capture had already moved on, stopped smiling, etc. But I hung in there and used it as much as I could, then returned it this morning! I’ll have to post a few pictures once I get time to go through them if any of them turned out.

Here are a few I snapped of Kennedy using my phone…. this first one cracks me up!

The BEST part of the trip was going to see fireflies. It is a phenomenon that happens once a year in Gatlinburg, and I heard that it only happens in one other area - in Australia, but that I do not know for sure…..   My sister-in-law saw an article on it in the June issue of Southern Living, and it just happened to be happening while we were there. So we made the trip. Not that it was really a ‘trip’ considering it was very close to where we were staying. But we had to go get our car parked a few hours ahead of time in order to assure we had a seat on the trolley, then we had to go back and stand in line, get on the trolley which took us up the mountain a ways, then walk down a dirt road, then sit and wait for total darkness to fall (about 9:30) then the fireflies started their show. And let me tell you, it was incredible! They were in sync with one another and they were a blue color – not the typical yellow/orange that you see. It was awesome. The woods would be be totally black then suddenly the fireflies would light up and twinkle throughout the woods. Then, all would be dark for a few seconds and it would start all over again. If you get the chance, I would highly suggest going    Here is one more camera phone shot I got of Kennedy – with her cousin Owen, this time waiting in line to get on the trolley.

Happy Monday!