Brittney's Bachelorette

On Friday March 25 Rachel and I went to Nashville to celebrate Brittney and Jacobs upcoming wedding. I didn't manage to get a picture of all three of us together. The top picture is Brittney with Callie, the 4th bridesmaid. Brittney's little sister Katie is maid of honor and Rachel and I make up the remainder of the wedding party. We had fun eating dinner at Margaritaville and dancing at Cadillac Ranch. However, Saturday was a very long day for me after driving from Nashville to Indy with only a brief stop in Louisville and then working 12.5 hours and driving back to Louisville! May 20th, the date of the wedding, will be here before we know it~

Doggie Sitting

Stuart and I will be spending the next two weeks dog sitting for Houdini and  Beatrice. My dear friend Anna and her husband Billy are on a final big vaca to Peru to visit his sister before the arrival of their little bundle of joy in September. I was a little nervous about hosting two dogs but so far (all 6 hours) have went surprisingly well. We are enjoying a final day of summer like weather (75 today!) and letting them spend tons of time on the porch before storms move through and the temperature drastically drops this evening. Seriously wishing the extended forecast wasn't so cold and rainy with our 4 legged visitors. I also wish my knees would fully recover from our hiking escapade last week.  For some reason it still hurts to walk (especially up and down hill) but my yoga doesn't seem to be affected.

Last day of hiking

It is a good thing our hiking escapade to the Great Smokey Mountains is drawing to a close because our bodies are really starting to retaliate against our abuse the last couple of days. We only managed to hike 9.5 miles today before heading back to the cabin to begin packing for our trip home and making dinner. The highlight of our hiking today was the top of Chimney Tops which sadly we didn't make it too. Apparently this hike ends with the hiker actually scaling a very tall rock formation to get to the 2nd peak. I made it about 2/3 of the way up the rock before heading back down. On a clear day we have been told you can see three states from the top, however today was very foggy and we could barely see 20 feet in front of us. Sadly you can see how foggy it was in the pictures of me on the rock that didn't turn out very well. Stu and I hope to return to chimney tops on a warm dry day when climbing the rocks isn't as wet and treacherous.


link to more pictures
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2286368&id=38301589&l=1e04b72296

Laurel, Rainbow, and Grotto Falls

We woke up this morning to very heavy rain. Our solution was to crawl back in bed for a couple extra hours of sleep. We started our day of hiking a couple of hours later at the trail head to Laurel Falls. The 1.3 miles to the falls is paved, very good for families with strollers or when it is raining. After the first hike we went back to the Mountain Lodge Restaurant (the breakfast/lunch place mentioned yesterday). We then spent the rest of the afternoon hiking up to two other water falls. Despite our late start we still managed to hike between 11 and 12 miles before returning to our chalet to cook dinner. Stuart is busy planning our hikes for tomorrow while I share photos. Pictured is me attempting standing bow near the waterfall. Doing the occasional yoga pose feels really good on my legs after hiking and I like that it is different from the usual stand and smile pose.

The link to our pictures from today:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2286266&id=38301589&l=66044d44e5

Ramsey's Cascade and Porter's Creek Photos

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2286123&id=38301589&l=5db31f53e5

Gatlinburg Day 1 and 2

Stuart and I are spending his spring break in Gatlinburg. We drove in Sunday and stopped for dinner at the AppleBarn Restaurant (upon recommendation of Jake). Luckily for us the traffic in through Pigeon Forge was better than we have ever seen it. (Maybe because we have came in during high seasons and on the weekend before). We are staying in a cabin up near the national park. We are very pleased with the amenities including internet access, a kitchen, and a hot tub. Today, day 2, we hiked 12 miles to the Ramsey Cascades and Porters Creek before having dinner at Calhoun's Restaurant. We are looking forward to some time in the hot tub to relax our tired and sore muscles. It was supposed to rain today but we made it through with only a few sprinkles, not sure if we will be that lucky tomorrow but we plan to venture out hiking again in the am. (Here's to hoping we aren't too sore to get out of bed!). We crossed 3 foot bridges over water (which I have to admit was more than a wee bit scary). Best of all we found a local breakfast place with amazing biscuits and gravy (my favorite) and it was cheap! I'm attempting to upload more pictures to facebook, if successful I will post a link later.

Celebrations

I was lucky enough to have Saturday night off from work. Stuart and I hosted some friends and family over to see the improvements on the house. We were especially delighted to have Reagan (Brian and Melinda Patterson), Nathan and Carter (Scott and Jenny Paris), and Beckham (Danny and Amy Spanyer) along with all of our adult guests. We forgot to take pictures while every one was visiting but did remember to snap a picture of the housewarming gifts we received (thanks to the Spanyers and McCombs) along with some leftover appetizers we took to a neighborhood St. Patricks Day party that evening. We were grandly surprised that one of our Irish neighbors actually has an Irish Pub room in their house. We watched the Cards in the Big East Championship game with our neighbors. I was amazed to still be standing on only 2 hours of sleep for about 36 hours but isn't that a joy of being young and working the night shift?!