Smoky Mountains National Park

 On Friday of Spring Break, the weather was going to be really bad where we were, so we packed up the family and drove another 2 and a half hours south to Gatlinburg and to the Smoky Mountain National Park.  It was the perfect day there!  It got up to right around 80 that day.  We had all of our food in the back of our van, so we were able to stop at a place in the park and have a yummy picnic lunch.  We were in no hurry, so we took our time making lunch and enjoying the nearby stream that was next to the picnic area.  Evan was finally starting to feel better on this day which was nice.  Barth and all the kids headed down to the creek and were busy looking for cool rocks in the water as I made the lunches up at the table.

 Evan headed back up to tell me something.  The shirt that he is wearing is one of his favorites!  He wears it whenever it is clean.  He says that it reminds him of Grandma!

 I wanted to snap a few pictures before I started to make the lunches since everyone looked so happy down there by the water playing!

 Here was our picnic spot!  I took a few pictures and this was the best one!  Oh my!  The national park was packed, but oddly, they didn't have the gates open to all the picnic areas.  They didn't mind if you parked across the street and carried your things over to the tables though.  By the time we left, all of the tables where we were at were full!

 Spring was just beginning to come on there.  I walked down after a bit with those who were done with lunch so I could take some pictures.  Weston went exploring.  I realized when I was uploading these that most of the pictures from the National park are of his back!!  It was quite pretty there.  This is looking up the creek one way.

 And this is looking the other direction.  The bigger boys had a lot of fun exploring all along the bank of the creek.

 Aaron showing me one of his cool rocks.

 Daddy sat up with the stragglers at the table.  Evan was taking a long time because he was just barely starting to eat more normal, and Amber is ALWAYS the last one done at any meal.  It is just because she likes to talk though!  :)

 Katelynn had an absolute blast throwing the rocks in the water.  Finally the bigger kids learned not to make a pile of their cool rocks, because she would just find them and throw them back into the water.  If they wanted to keep the rocks, they either had to put them in their pockets or set them up at the table!

 I bet we stayed there at least another hour or hour and a half after lunch was done.

 The water was freezing, but everyone loved to get their hands in that clear water!

 Barth and the boys exploring a little ways away from us.

 Sweet sisters enjoying the rocks.

 Aaron had been dying to go out on this cool little rock, but I was afraid that if I helped him, he would get all wet, or Katelynn would throw my camera in the water or something of that sort, so we waited for Daddy to help Aaron to the rock.

 

 Isn't she sweet?

 So happy about being on that rock!  He called it "Aaron Island!"  He had a great time out there playing.

 By the time we left this area, Brian was covered in moss stains and dirt!

 Evan decided that he wanted to try out Aaron Island too.

 And of course Amber wanted to give it a try too! 

 After a while, we decided to pack things up and head out for a drive and to find another place to play at.  We usually would have done a hike, but Evan wasn't really feeling up to it.  This picture is a little blurry, but it was the best one we got at our new stop!

 This spot had a big rocky, sandy beach area for the kids to play in.

 I enjoyed sitting on the big rocks and watching the children play by the water.

 Evan had so many rocks that I gave him a little backpack to put his rocks in.  He also got his feet so wet at the area we were at for lunch that he had to change into his flip flops.  Here is Evan walking along with Weston trying to find some cool rocks!  Weston is always such a good brother to Evan.

 Katelynn showing me her rock!

 Climbing, and playing and just having a great time out in the beautiful world that Heavenly Father created for us.

 Amber doing what she likes to do best when she sees the camera turned her way- posing for a picture!!  :)

 I loved how all of the tree roots were exposed at this part.  It was so pretty.

 Adding some more rocks to his bag.

 We got to the park around 10:30 or 11 that morning and by the time we left, it was at least 4:30 in the afternoon.  I was so glad that we had such a lovely day and wonderfully warm weather and that we could take a little short trip over and enjoy the smoky mountains.  It sure beat having to sit in a tent through really bad storms!

Playing at the beach

 After walking all around we headed down a set of stairs to the beach area.  We had gone to this area before on our last visit, but there was a new way down.  There were huge trees down everywhere.  Even more than were there before.  But the kids thought it was fun to weave between the trees to get to the river side.  After seeing how raging the river and falls got after the rain that they had, I can now appreciate and understand why there were so many trees all over!

 Amber stopped to pose on top of a big downed tree on her way out to the beach.

 The kids were so excited to get out by the water and sand.  The last time we came it was all just sand, but this time there was all of this black rock everywhere.  That is where we were able to get a closer look at it and see that it was coals from a fire and there was a LOT of it everywhere.  The "rocks" were super light and the kids could write with them.  When you broke them open, it looked just like firewood inside.  It was actually pretty cool!

 Evan was scoping out the area for the best rocks.  He was getting pretty tired by this point.  We had been out for over an hour and he had lost more than 6 pounds from being sick.  Combine that with the fact that he just gets tired anyway from the stuff with his head, and we had one tired little guy.  This was the perfect place for him though.  He had a good chance to relax and take a break and play in the sand.  :)

 Amber holding one of her awesome cool "rocks."  I wish you could see and feel them just to see how cool they were.  We loved playing with them.  The nice thing was that, even though it was coals from a tree, they had been washed and tumbled in the water so much that they didn't make you black from holding them.  But they would write- just like chalk rock!

 Katelynn was in heaven finding all sorts of rocks and playing in the sand.  You can see Weston and Barth in the background fishing a cool piece of driftwood out of the river!

 

All the boys loved being by the water and playing in it.  They didn't get too wet though.  It was kind of cold for that.  But it was fun to find things in the clear water and check out all of the rocks.  By this time it was getting much later in the morning and there started to be a few other families out there by us.  But really, there weren't that many and we had much of the beach to ourselves.  It was nice.

 

 This entire area was underwater after the torrential rainfall that we had here Thursday night and all day Friday.  I will show that later though!  Weston found a cool walking stick that was driftwood.  It was so smooth from going down the rive and the falls.

 I just sat on the sand with the camera and snapped picture of everyone playing and having fun.  Katelynn mostly stayed by me and Evan came over for a bit to rest.  I enjoyed the peaceful time.

 Evan playing in the sand.  Later, after the rain, that cave like thing behind Evan on the other side of the river was almost totally underwater.  To say that there was a lot of rain and storms is an understatement!

 Brian decided to walk down the river to some of the huge rocks.  Right across from where he is, behind some of those big rocks is a smaller waterfall.  We tried to hike that on Saturday but the trail was completely flooded in a few spots so we couldn't make it there this time.

 Coming over to check out the huge boulders and trees strewn all over the place like matchsticks!

 Brian really wanted to climb up this boulder, but I told him he was too young.  Maybe next time.

 Evan and Amber climbing by the big boulder.

 

 Since I wouldn't allow him to climb the biggest rock, he found some other larger ones and climbed those instead!  He looked strong and mighty on those huge rocks!

 

 Katelynn is such a funny girl.  She cracks me up sometimes.  Here she is talking on her "phone" that is really just a rock.  But she really was jabbering away.  It was so cute!!  She has lots of personality!

 Afterwards she had to tell me all about what she was talking about on her "call."  :)

 

 This is Weston on the rock that I had just told Brian not to climb.  I had turned around to take a picture of Aaron building a fortress by the water and take some pictures of Brian on his rocks, and when I turned back around Weston was up on top of that HUGE boulder!!!  So, before I had a heart attack thinking that he would fall off, I took a picture!  I was actually surprised that he climbed way up there.  He doesn't really like heights and for the most part is much more conservative about doing daring things.  He told me afterwards that when he was halfway up, he was having second thoughts, but decided just to get up there and face his fear.

 And here is the far away picture of him on that boulder.  Thankfully he got right back down.

 Here was Aaron building his cool fortress that distracted me from the climbing.  He was having such a grand time out there making it!

 The water kept trying to come back in to his fortress, but he was having fun bailing out the water.

 If you make this one big and look closely you can see a washed out concrete wall and steps.  This was how we got down to the beach the last time we came.

 At the time it was crazy to think that the river could do that!  But after seeing just how huge that river could get, I had to rethink that whole thought!!  We took the rest of the afternoon fairly easy.  Took a nap back at camp and played at the playground.  That evening we had showers and cooked dinner.  All of a sudden, after the kids had eaten, but before mine and Barth's hobo dinners were done cooking, a HUGE storm rolled in.  We headed up to the Lodge there at the park and stayed in their back area where they had a TV and fireplace, bathrooms and couches.  We watched a show on TV there while we waited the storm out.  It was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  The kids had fun while the rain poured down and the lightening flashed all around.  We came back to a damp tent after 2 hours and a doused fire.  It rained off and on all night long, but we stayed mostly dry!  All in all, it was a pretty good day!