The Rest of the Story

Methodist Church, Cades Cove

To finish up from the last post....

After crashing and burning Wednesday night from our Chimney Tops hike, We woke up Thursday morning and spent a bit of time recuperating in our wonderful hot tub as we enjoyed the mountains and nice fall weather. We both decided that we could easily get used to having a hot tub and even discussed having one here in Indiana.

Thursday afternoon we headed back out to the Smokey Mountain National Forest and meandered back to Cades Cove. We stopped and had lunch at one of the picnic sites and watched for bears. Much to Scott's dismay, they were all hidden away! Anyway, after lunch, we started on the 11 mile drive through Cades Cove. Many of the original buildings have been maintained, most close to their original locations. We were on a very narrow, one-way road and most of the time we crawled at a max of 20mph.

I have posted some of the pictures as we winded our way through the Cove!

Scott and our traveling companion, Bart, in Cades Cove

Blythe and Bart in Cades Cove

We continued on our drive through the Cove only to get stopped by traffic as they were all taking pictures of the White tailed deer that make their home in the National Park. The only annoying thing was the blatant dismissal of the posted signs stating "Do not Stop". We had about 3 cars in front of us stop each and every time they saw a deer, open the door, get out, and take several pictures! We were very grateful to reach the exit!!

We then headed back towards the entrance to the National Forest and stopped at the Laurel Falls trail and did a quick, "easy" hike. It wasn't bad, this was what we saw at the falls!

Well, needless to say, as of Friday, my left foot was out of commission, so Friday and Saturday, we were unable to do any hiking. We instead toured the craft community and downtown of Gatlinburg. Saturday we left the cabin and then headed thru the National Forest into Cherokee, North Carolina. We did an educational tour of the Cherokee Indians. It was really interesting and informative. After that, we had lunch at a place that we will never, ever speak of again. We then headed on "scenic" tour of North Carolina, back into Tennessee. We ended up staying Saturday in Knoxville and then headed home Sunday!

It was a great week and we are really, really looking forward to go back. We just have to make sure to keep hiking so no one injures themselves!

Honeymooning in Tennessee

In my last post I promised to give more information on the wedding and honeymoon. Since I do not yet have the photo cd from the wedding, I will instead fill you in on what we did last week on our honeymoon...

We left Monday after the wedding about 2 p.m. to start the journey to Pigeon Forge, TN where we had rented a cabin for the week. We made it into Kentucky and stopped to check the tire pressure (and for a bathroom break) and Scott noticed something in one of the front tires. It seemed to hold pressure well, so we decided to continue on our journey and have it repaired on Tuesday. Well, you were probably wondering what happened....We did make it all the way to our cabin (about 8pm) without any tire issues.

Now for those of you who have been to Pigeon Forge, you probably already know this, but let me tell you that there is a ton of JUNK there! There are also a variety of shows to take in, if that is your kinda thing. For Scott and I, this wasn't really something we wanted to see. I must say, that as we were driving through Severville and into Pigeon Forge, I was completely overwehelmed and had sensory overload from all of the lighted signs, go-cart tracks, and shops of anything and everything. I thought you might find this amusing:

We actually saw about 4 or 5 of these stores where you could purchase anything that is on a TV infomercial. We never did go into one of these stores, but we were very curious and have added that to our list of things to do the next time we are in Tennessee.

Now I mentioned earlier that we made it to our cabin safely. what I did not tell you is that we were staying on top of a mountain in Pigeon Forge! Literally!!! Each time we decided to go to the cabin, Scott had to put the truck in the lowest gears in order to climb the mountain. He also became very adept at driving the twists and curves up the mountain without any damage to the truck! There were a few really tight turns that we both gave thanks each time we made it safely through.

Anyway, I digress...Now on Tuesday, we woke up and since we didn't have anything for breakfast, we decided to dine at a local establishment (Flapjacks) that we learned was a small chain in the Pigeon Forge-Gatlinburg area.

After breakfast, we decided that the tire needed some attention so we found a local tire store and while they were working on the truck, we wandered over to the outlet mall and did some shopping. Scott found some great deals at the Hagger store and I got a few new pairs of shoes.

Once we had the truck back, we headed out to Gatlinburg to shop a bit more. We wandered in and out of several of the stores, but again we were overwhelmed by all of the "junk" that you could purchase. There were t-shirts, mugs, purses, etc. Most anything you might want, and all of it made in China. We did stop into one of the Old Time shops and had our picture taken. Neither one of us had ever done that, so it was fun!

We ended up doing some shopping at Wal-Mart to have groceries for the week so we didn't have to spend so much money or get up super early! We then headed back up the mountain to our cabin and enjoyed some time alternating between the hot tub and sauna.

Wednesday we spent the afternoon hiking the Chimney Tops Trail. This is one of the more difficult trails in the Smokey Mountains, and we soon found out why. A large portion of the hike you are going up pretty steep inclines and for those of us who were slightly out of shape, it was a challenge. I remember stopping several times to "look at that cool rock" to have a break and catch my breath. We did make it to the top and here are some of the magnificent views:

Let me just say, that it was all we could do to make dinner and eat before we both died for the night. I fell asleep right after dinner and then woke up and Scott was asleep! We both then climbed gingerly into bed and slept very, very hard!

I will post more about our vacation later!

Blythe

What a great time!

Scott and I just got back from our honeymoon in the BEAUTIFUL Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. But I will fill you in more on that in another post...

Thursday before the wedding, my family from Seattle came to town and my cousin, Elise, came with me and we got our fingernails and toenails painted for the big event!

Elise's fancy toe nails. She had a very pretty flower on each big toe!

The Friday before the wedding, we were up and going pretty early in the day to get everything done. We had to take the kids (Chloe, Molly, & Bear) to the kennel for the wedding and honeymoon. We use a place called Four Paws Palace in Edinburgh, IN. They do a nice job and the dogs are always worn out when they come home. They have done nothing but sleep today!!!

Anyway, Friday we had decided to have a cook-out and hayride in Brown County State Park. We loaded up our vehicles, along with Steve's car (Scott's dad) and headed out for the weekend. We had lots of great helpers to get everything set up for the evening. Steve and several of my uncles mastered the grills for the evening and the food was great! We even made smores in the evening with one of the campfires. They were yummy! After dinner we went on a hayride through the park. It was really nice to see so may stars. It was great to have family and friends to a great party for the night and even though it got a bit chilly, I think that everyone had a pretty good time!

Scott had a really good idea to carve pumpkins to put on some of the tables for center pieces. So, we spent some time Thursday night carving about 8 pumpkins and then we had some help with the remaining pumpkins Friday as we set up for the evening. They turned out really well and I posted a few of my faves!

This is one of the Doggie pumpkins we carved, cute, huh?

This is Hippo Lovie, it was carved in honor of Elise's hippo by her dad, Scott Stouffer!

We followed a smiley face pattern for this one...it's amazing what they have to help you carve a fun pumpkin!

This is Blue's Clues, for all of the fans out there! Enjoy!

Anyway, I have tons more to share, but I need to get the photos from the wedding and reception before I can share too much more! I promise more posts will follow. I hope you all are doing well!

Blythe :)

In the home stretch...

I knew all along that this time would come and it eventually hit me this week that in about a week I will be a married lady. Now I know you are saying, "well, duh Blythe" but I guess with the planning and everything you forget about what is really going to happen until God smacks you in the face with a reality check!

My reality check came on Monday as I was driving to work and thinking about everything that needed to get done in this week and next. All of the sudden, it was "wow....I am going to be married pretty soon..." Sorry if it wasn't more insightful, but it just kinda blew me away. Even today when I was out running some errands and I said that I was getting married in about a week, it was kinda odd, but in a good way.

I am getting really excited and I can't wait to see everyone and spend the weekend with family and friends. I promise to post pictures after as well!

Off to accomplish a bit more!

Blythe :)