Thursday, April 9, 2009

Vacation Pictures

I know I posted a blog a couple of weeks ago about my vacation and thought perhaps it may be a good idea to post some pictures. Here they are...
This is a picture of the front of our cabin.
This is what it looked like when we decided to go somewhere. People, people, people. We loved it! This cabin was absolutely huge and when we had everyone over there were 12 of us in the cabin and we didn't get in each other's way at all.


The cabin literally was built over the side of the mountain. This is a side view.

Dad loved to sit in the living room and read his Bible. He would get up early and read because that was when it was QUIET.




This is the view from the back of the cabin. See? It is literally built on the side of a mountain. The spot closest to the front of the picture is the fire pit, which you will see later in the blog.

The beautiful snow-capped mountains in the background. You are viewing Cove Mountain, which is a part of the Smokey Mountains. It was beautiful!


There were two hot tubs on the porch but it was TOO COLD to get in them.

The steps leading down to the fire pit. When it got a little warmer, we went out and built a fire and sang around the campfire as we made smores. We experimented with our voices and would hollar 'HELLO', listen for our echo, then laugh when another group a long way from ours would hollar back to us, then shoot off their firecrackers. We enjoyed that.

Just another picture of the snow capped mountains. Looks like a postcard.


Mom and Travis walking into the cabin. Since it was so slippery, we had to be careful that we did not fall.
Looking down into the living room from the upstairs bedroom. This ceiling light was so unique.

This is my bedroom. Sleeping in a KING size bed was nice. There were FOUR King sized beds in the cabin.

Looking at the dining room, from the living room.
I got creative and made a snowman.

A view of the snow from the porch.
Another view of the mountains (and my snowman - of course).

A view of the kitchen, from the livingroom.

The appliances were AWESOME. Stainless steel silver throughout the kitchen.

A drop-in stove. The kitchen was BEAUTIFUL!

More pictures of the kitchen.
Sitting around the campfire.

I loved the skylift in Gatlinburg!!!!!!!!!!

We all enjoyed the Ripley's Aquarium.

Travis turned 17 on March 1, the day after we arrived at the cabin. We were snowed in and couldn't go anywhere. What a memorable birthday celebration.

Heidi taking pictures at the aquarium. (Maybe Ryan is rubbing off on her)
Picture from the skylift.

On our way up the mountain. It was about right here that I told Ryan, "I am about to lose my shoes!" So, he very carefully reached over and took off my shoes. That would have been bad to lose those.

We had our own personal tour guide in Aunt Pat and Uncle Al (My mom's brother and sister-in-law). We had so much fun with them. Uncle Al and Heidi have a special story to tell from the Haunted House and Heidi's hysterical moments. "Go Al GO!!!!" She was screaming. I think he was probably scaring her as they went through but I don't know how she could of been aware of what was going on because she kept her eyes closed the whole time and held hands with people (and cried). I would have cried too. That's why I didn't go in there! No WAY!!!

This is my mom's oldest sister, Dalis. I think they look so much alike. It was so fun to get to know her.
My mom and dad at the top of the mountain. We rode the Ski Lift up to the top, got off and took pictures and rode back down.
The guys who rode the lift. Al, Dad, Travis and Ryan
Ryan and me posing at the top.

This was a normal scene with Ryan on Saturday. We set aside the whole day to STUDY! With his college classes being so intent he needed time to devote to Greek and other subjects. We were all glad he could be there with us too. With the mountains, it was disheartening because his transmission went out on his car while there. He pampered it till he got back to Cincinnati and had to have the transmission replaced. $1700 later... YIKES!!!!