Rainbow Falls

Today we woke up early, ate breakfast and headed to the Rainbow Falls trail. Talan was the first to spot a bear while we were driving. It walked in front of us in the road, but it wasn't that cool because it had a huge tracking collar on it. 😁

Everyone was all smiles before the hike, including Janae! 😊

There were streams all along the hike, and nice places to take pictures.

My tiny family!😁

Janae had a rough trip up. Brett tried to get proof but she hid it pretty well. 😂

I am always amazed at how tall the trees are, and how many of them there are. I just love being out in God's creation and taking it all in. 

Tiny family, Part 2 😂

About halfway in, we got to this log bridge with a railing only on one side. 

 Brett said to take our hands off the rail and act like we weren't holding on for dear life. 😞 I really WAS holding on for dear life! I am deathly afraid of bridges!

We never really got to a point where we were winded and needed to rest, but the kids liked stopping here and there and getting their pictures taken.

We got to this waterfall and thought it was okay. Luckily, there was a man there who told us this was NOT rainbow falls!

In this picture, we could finally see the big falls!

 We made it! We climbed the big rocks up to the top. Brett and the kids climbed up all the way and I stayed down a little ways to get pictures of them.

These falls were WAY better than the first falls we hiked to a few weeks ago!

These pictures show the enormity and magnificence of the falls. They were so beautiful.

Notice how happy Janae is now! She loved the falls!

The trip down seemed much faster! 

We even ran into a woman from Wildman that Brett used to work with. THAT was pretty crazy. We probably only saw 20 people all day, and to come across someone we knew?! That was fun!

We ended up hiking for almost four hours! We were exhausted by the time we got home. It was storming, so we ate lunch and took a much needed nap. Then we went to Splash Country in the afternoon and enjoyed cooling off there. Near the end of the day, we waited in line for our favorite ride. We got to the very front and then they alerted us there was lightning in the area, so we had to leave. Just our luck! Oh well, that's one of the joys of having a season pass...we can come back another day!

 On the way home, we could see the rain falling in sheets up in the mountains. Looks like we're in for more rain tonight!

Who Needs Plans Anyway?

We woke up today with a plan. Brett was taking Talan to baseball practice and I was taking Easton and Janae to the library and then going to get groceries. Life would be boring if things always go as planned though, right?!

Brett started my van before he left and said it still didn't sound right so he left it running. I took it down to NAPA to have the battery tested. Unfortunately, there was only one man working and he said he couldn't change it because it was under some things and would take him too long. He was very nice and called a guy down the road to see if he could change it for me. He said he could if we were patient. Great!

We drove down to the other place and I went inside. I'm fairly certain I now have lung cancer from the two minutes I stood inside waiting. 😫 Luckily the kids waited in the van. The man took my number and we walked down the road to Mad Dog's Creamery and Donuts to cool off. The boy behind the counter asked where we were visiting from and I told him we had just moved here. He said they have a locals discount so the kids got these huge cups of donut holes for $3.75 total! I love locals discounts!

At least they had some cute places for picture posing!

After the van was finished we headed back to the library so Janae could get her card. She started a series last year that she wanted to continue, and we found her book quickly. It's a small library, but very nice. It smells good in there too... much better than the car place. 😂

The cat was fast asleep on top of the checkout desk. Sooooo cute!

Like just about any place in Sevier County, there's a great view from the library.

Something that did go as planned today was church! I love going to church on Saturday nights. We are really enjoying Pathways and the preaching is wonderful. The kids like it too. That's a big plus!

After church, Brett wanted to go to A&W. I'm not really the biggest fan of it so I said jokingly that I would wait in the car. Janae said "You have to go in, Mom. Dad doesn't know how to order!" Hahaha 😂She's so right though. I'm always in charge of all the ordering! Brett would starve before he would go out to eat and place his own order. 😁

On our way home, the clouds in the sky looked so pretty. It was starting to lightning and thunder, so I think we're in for a storm tonight.

We are planning to go hiking and to Splash Country tomorrow. We'll see if those plans work out better than today's! 😊

Friday Night Lights

Wow, today was a long and busy day! I had to snap a picture of the family eating breakfast this morning. 

Funny that they get to sit down and I always end up standing to eat mine while I'm doing a hundred other things before school starts. 😁

Brett wanted to check out a new contact, so I drove him there while he wrote down more businesses along the way.

Do you recognize this truck?

Or this sign?

Yes! We went to Bush's Baked Bean factory! It was a really cool tour. They showed a video on how the company was started, as well as the factory and long process it takes to make a can of beans. 

Then we went through the walking tour. 

Brett checked to see how much he would weigh in beans. I skipped that one. 😂

The Bush's secret family recipe sure is kept behind tight security! 😁

  

Here is the original family house, which was the first thing ever on the property. It's kind of funny because it's right in the middle of everything now.

And here is the factory across the street.

Then we got this awesome free picture with Duke. 😁

They also had a restaurant, and since it was lunchtime we had to go there too! It was fantastic and we would highly recommend it!

After school, I took the boys to the park we found the other day. I packed them a snack and then we played on the playground for a little bit. We threw the football around until they were hot and sweaty and then decided to check out the library. 

The library has a cat! Talan was like the paparazzi stalking it to get a picture. 😂

 This cat could give Cali a run for her money!

We all got library cards and then picked out a book each. I'm so glad I have kids who love to read!

Then it was time to go pick Janae up from volleyball. Wouldn't you know it, my van wouldn't start because we had the back door open, so I had to call Brett to come jump it. Time for a new battery, I think! 😞

After dinner we headed to Gatlinburg-Pittman for our first Friday Night Lights in Tennessee! The stadium is awesome. I guess it should be for $1.3 million! 

We truly felt like we were at a college football game, not a high school game! It was very impressive. They had a screen above the scoreboard to show replays! 

Before the game they had a moment of silence and everyone said The Lord's Prayer. That was pretty neat!

Something else that was new to us was that the other team brought their own band. And they performed at halftime!

Our team had a good first half but pretty much got creamed in the second half and lost 19-48. We will probably not be going to any away games. We looked up a few of the teams we play and they were an hour and a half to two hours away! We're not super fans like we were at Busco yet. 😂 

Easton was tuckered out by the end of the night. The game didn't start until 7:30 so it was going on 11:00 by the time it was over. That's a long day for him! 

Time for bed and more adventures tomorrow! 😍