The Great Outdoors

Sunday we met Josh's family in Gatlinburg, Tennessee for a camping trip.  Let me clarify something for a moment...most of the family were camping this week, but a few of us girls met at the campsite every day then went back into town and stayed in a hotel each night.  The campsite is one that Josh's family has stayed at for many many years.  Josh has memories of being a kid and camping out with his grandparents.  The thing about this campground is that they don't have water hook-ups so showering was out of the question...hence the reason we stayed in a hotel.  
We really had so much fun while out there...J's family is really great and we enjoyed hanging and doing lots of "camping" things.  One thing about J's family is that we never go hungry!  There was always plenty to snack on and really yummy dinners.  With no electricity, everything was cooked on gas grills and skillets.  And of course there are all that things you can cook over a camp fire.

 

Tuesday afternoon we went on a hike up to Laurel Falls.  The hike was really fun and a little bit scary!  There were signs all along the way letting you know that fallen deaths have occurred and to watch your step...to me that's not really something you want to hear when hiking up a mountain.  

a little snake we found along the way

One of the favorite activities of the week was tubing down the river.  Our campsite was right on the river bank so someone would drive us up the mountain and we would tube back down to our campsite.  It took a little convincing, but I finally agreed to try it out too.  I can't even begin to tell you how cold the water was in the river, but once you forced your body all the way in you eventually got used to it.  

I don't know if you can see my face in the pic...but I was about to run into the "jagged rock wall"

Its amazing how time just slows down in the mountains.  We had zero cell phone service so everyone was forced hang out with each other instead of playing on our phones.  There was a lot hanging out and enjoying each other's company.