The Hiking Chronicles ~ Baskins Creek Trail

Yesterday we decided to take a little hike in the mountains.

Well first we decided we would like to go on a picnic, then we decided we would like to hike to our picnic spot.  So I consulted my handy dandy copy of Family Hiking in the Smokies and picked a hike on Baskins Creek Trail that would take us to a cemetery, a waterfall, and back in less than four miles round trip.

Look!  Even Andy was smiling!!

After snapping the obligatory trail sign photo, we set off on our waterfall picnic hike.  Despite Logan's constant chatter about poison ivy and Chloe pointing out every possible nook and cranny where a snake might be hiding (I've taught them well my friends!), we were less than a quarter of a mile up the trail before we spotted deer.

Another quarter of a mile and we were surrounded by wild blueberry bushes in bloom and flaming azaleas, which I managed to grab a shot of with my iPhone.

None of my fellow hikers would stop long enough for me to snap a shot with my actual camera.  They were HUNGRY.

Anyhow, shortly after the blueberries and azaleas, we started to go downhill.  Around the one mile mark, we came to a creek called Falls Branch.  Apparently this can be a tricky crossing after a rainstorm, but it's been fairly dry recently, so we had no trouble helping the kiddos across and keeping their feet dry.

I'm always looking for kid-friendly trails, so at this point in the hike I was commenting on how nice this trail was, what with the lack of drop-offs and ankle-twisting rocks you sometimes encounter hiking in the GSMNP.  Our actual trail guide said the last fifty yards or so to the falls were more on the rugged side, though, so I was waiting to form my final opinion until we actually got to our picnic site.

We continued hiking downhill along Falls Branch when we finally saw our first hikers making the return trip up from the falls.  Unfortunately, one of the hikers said that there was a rather large black bear just around the bend.  I didn't hear what he had said until Emma and I caught up with Andy, Logan, and Chloe, but the news pretty much put an end to our chances of seeing a waterfall that day.

I've come across black bears on the trail before and have heard them attempting to raid the dumpsters at the park campgrounds at night, but it's a bit different when you have your kiddos with you. Black bears in the park are rarely aggressive, but if you have a choice about it, why take the chance?

So back up the hill we hiked and over the creek we trekked.  When Andy and I had decided that we had put enough distance between our picnic basket and Yogi, we finally stopped for lunch.

Yep.  Logan was wearing his black bear t-shirt.  Guess it's time to add black bear safety to my list of talking points.  Since Logan is the poison ivy expert and Chloe can spot a snake hideout from fifty yards, I suppose Emma will have to become our resident black bear expert.

Despite cutting our hike short by a mile and eating our lunch by a tree stump instead of a waterfall, we had a good time.  I've already picked out our next hike!

Summer!!!

As seems to be my usual pattern, a frenzy of posts posted has been followed by crickets.  And I now have so many things I could write about that I'll probably never get caught up on it all.  So I'll just forget about all that other stuff for now and share some photos from today.

Today, after Emma and Chloe's tee ball game, we headed to Mamaw's house for Uncle Billy's birthday party.  After pizza, cake, and presents, we took a little walk around Mamaw's property.

And, surprise, there were flowers!

If it's one thing you should know about us, it is that we LOVE to stop and pick flowers.

Logan found a wishing flower and I had to stand next to him with my ears covered for at least two minutes while he made his wish.  I kind of wish I had listened because I really want to know what my sweet boy wished for for two minutes.

I asked, but of course he wouldn't tell me.

By the time I got all three together for a picture, the light had changed.

The light, but not the heat.  Chloe was too hot to hold hands apparently.

So that was today.  The third day of summer vacation.  Bring it on!

Strawberry Picking!

Okay, so my next post was supposed to be about my trip to visit Laura and Lee, but last week we went strawberry picking.  And I took pictures.  And I edited said pictures.  So now I must post an entry so I can share the edited pictures with you.

Our strawberry picking adventure was actually supposed to take place several weeks ago, but Logan woke up that particular morning with a 102 fever.

Last Friday, however, everybody was healthy.  That's a small miracle considering our group consisted of seven kiddos and two mommies.

I found this farm through a local hiking group that I joined online a couple of years ago that I've never managed to actually accompany on a hike.  Someday, I suppose.  In the meanwhile, they give me leads on lots of activities and places that involve the great outdoors.

That makes me a happy Momma.

Anyhow, Chloe was the strawberry picking queen.  This little girl is meant to live on a farm.

Really, I think she was responsible for over half the strawberries we ended up bringing home!

Logan spent half of his time picking and the other half hiding in the weeds growing between the rows of strawberries.

Plus, I think about half of his pickings went straight into his mouth.

Can't blame him about that, though.  Nothing quite compares to a freshly picked sun-warmed strawberry.  It almost makes me want to head back out and pick some more this afternoon!

Emma picked with us for a while and then did what she usually does: found a quiet place to "play" by herself.

 I'm not sure about her strawberry consumption as she insisted on picking as far away from us as I let her.

So now I have several gallon bags of strawberries in the freezer waiting to be used in summer smoothies and popsicles.  I do want to try picking one more time to make some jam, maybe next week after Logan gets out of school for the summer.

If you want to see a few more photos from our adventure, you can check them out here.  

The kids put on a show for me yesterday.

We were out on the front porch yesterday listening to the sound of the rain falling when the kiddos decided they wanted to put on a show for me.  I, of course, grabbed my video camera.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Happy (Soggy) Mother's Day!

It has been raining non-stop today.  It kind of put a damper (ha ha) on my plans for a Mother's Day hike with my family.

But that's okay because my sweet boy brought home two rays of sunshine from school Friday that he hid for my special day.

Ray of sunshine #1 features Logan giving me a hug and a shelf of special things he's made for me:

And sunshine ray #2, my favorite of the two:

I love the hearts he added to each corner.

I love all my babies.  I'm not eager for Emma and Chloe to go to school, but I am looking forward to the day that they bring home secret gifts for their momma that they stash in their room too.

This Year's Garden Attempt

I'm back from Washington!  Actually, I've been back since late Monday night, but have been trying to get back into the swing of things after four days away that were preceded by a week of sick kiddos.  Luckily for me I have an awesome husband that not only took vacation time so he could be home full-time with the kiddos while I was gone, but also had the house perfectly clean and every stitch of laundry done.

But I'm not going to talk about my trip today.  (Although I have thought of a witty title for that entry already.)  Nope, today I'm going to show you my "garden" in hopes that it will keep me motivated in July when the temperature is 1,000 degrees and I am dreaming of our one winter in Minnesota.

I may have mentioned once before that, although I love the trees in our backyard, it doesn't give me a lot of options when it comes to planting veggies.

Never mind that the green thumb I long for is really closer to black and it probably wouldn't matter where I planted my garden.

This year, though, I'm feeling even more ambitious and confident than usual.  I have two raised beds.  The first currently has broccoli, cucumbers, lettuce, and zucchini.

The lettuce is supposed to be in the middle, but hasn't come up yet.  The day after I planted the seeds, a squirrel terrorized this bed, so I'm wondering whether I need to go sow some more into the soil.

Here's a (somewhat blurry) close-up of one of the broccoli plants:

I've never grown broccoli, or seen it growing for that matter, so I am fascinated by this teeny tiny bit of broccoli.

Here's the second bed, which is currently hosting corn and summer squash:

I tried corn last year too, but planted it way too late.  As for the summer squash, I am more than aware that it will take over that entire bed and more so I was going to try and trellis it.  I swear I had read somewhere you could do that, but now I can't find any information on it.  After a bit of research last night, however, I have found another idea that I'm going to try.  I'll report later on whether it's successful or not.

Like I said, I don't have much in the way of sunny ground, so I have to make use of what I have.  I've got tomatoes and bell peppers lining the stairs from the back deck.

 
I also planted Mr. Logan's sunflowers that he started in his kindergarten class in a bucket.  See:

They're not much to look at yet, but I figured I'd tie them up to the railing as they grow.

I thought he had planted green beans, but he swears he planted sunflower seeds.  I guess we'll see.

I also have some plants in the front yard.

For the neighbor's sake, I bought some nicer looking buckets for my "front yard garden."  (My poor tomato plants fell over while I was away.  I now call them my "arthritic tomatoes.")  I'm experimenting with growing corn and green beans in that long planter since I had the extra seed.

So that's the garden this year.  I lost the cucumbers to cut worms last year and it seems like they are trying to attack again.  I had already put collars around them, but pushed some sticks into the soil right next to their stems last night along with dousing them with some insecticide soap.  I bought some sevin dust today as well, but have issues with sprinkling my veggies with poison.

The Power of Positive Thinking

I am currently resisting the urge to change into the new PJs I bought my upcoming trip to Washington State this weekend.  They look so comfy and I feel so cruddy.

I am not getting sick.

I am not getting sick.

I am not getting sick!!!

Logan's three-day-weekend turned into a four-day-weekend when he was still feverish Monday morning.  I called the pediatricians' office as soon as they opened and got him in for an appointment.  The diagnosis?  Double ear infection.  So Mr. Logan is now on antibiotics for the next week or so.

Emma has been coughing and hacking and feverish for the better part of forty-eight hours and demanding cuddles.  Of course, the cuddles have to be on her schedule.  As a matter of fact, she came and got me out of bed at 11:30 last night in need of cuddles. After about ten minutes she rolled over and told me I "could go sleep with Daddy now."

Chloe, so far, has had a mild cough.

We've had the TV on a lot the past few days.  The kids are exhausted but hyper.  Good times.

So that's pretty much what's been going on on this side of the computer lately.  I don't even have any new photos to share because I haven't pulled out my camera since I took some maternity shots for some good friends just over a week ago.

I'm sure that won't be the case after this weekend.

Unintentional Long Weekend

This weekend turned into a three-day weekend when Logan came home Thursday from school coughing and cranky and woke up Friday morning with a 102 fever.  Suddenly fun things like strawberry picking and not-so-fun things like grocery shopping had to be tabled while Logan camped out on the couch watching movies.

The poor kid must have felt bad because when I offered him the Wii controller and Super Mario Brothers, he lasted all of five minutes before he asked to watch a movie instead.

He woke up Saturday with a lot more energy and his temperature was almost non-existent, so we headed to the ball field for our games.  We might have stayed home if it hadn't also been picture day.

We spent the rest of Saturday doing pretty much the same thing that we did the previous day and, by bedtime, Logan looked pretty pathetic.  Andy, who is of course working this weekend, luckily made it home in time to  listen to Logan's chest before he to bed and said there way no wheezing.  Despite that good news, it was a long night that I hope not to repeat again when I go to bed tonight.

Today we hung out at home with the exception of a quick trip to the store for supplies.  We spent the morning drawing and playing before heading outside to play for a bit.  Then it was back inside for early baths and comfy pajamas and our third day in a row of watching Winnie the Pooh.  Now Emma is looking pretty pathetic and I wonder if she's going to wake up with a fever like her brother.  *sigh*

Anyhow, like I said, we spent the morning drawing and I scanned one piece of art from each of the kiddos.

First up we have Miss Emma's:

Things to look for: lots of sunshines, ladybugs (they are the tall pole looking things with the blue circles attached), caterpillars, a flower, and Miss Emma herself.  Why does Emma have six arms you ask?  Because she is pretending to be a bug.  Duh.

Next is Chloe-bug's:

Yeah.  If you know Miss Bug at all, you know exactly what these are.

And lastly we have Logan's:

This, apparently, is Logan's more boyish take on Chloe's drawing above.

Can you tell that we have been outside a lot lately???

The Boardwalk

Last Friday night was Logan's elementary school's annual spring carnival, also known as The Boardwalk.  The Boardwalk had been talked up during morning announcements for weeks to the point that I think Logan's kindergarten teacher was ready to pull her hair out.  So to say the kids were excited would be putting it lightly.  Even Chloe and Emma, with whom Logan had shared all of his boardwalk knowledge, were hyped up most of last week.

So after donning our wristbands and flip-flops, we headed back to school around 5:30 Friday afternoon.  Our first stop was the school cafeteria to purchase our Jazzy Jars.  Jazzy Jars, for the uninformed, are containers filled with all those teeny tiny items that kids love and parents hate.

Now, normally, this is where I would post a photo of the kids choosing their jars.  The Jazzy Jar table, however, was more akin to Black Friday than anything else.  So yeah.

Then we were off to the bouncy house, Gramma thinking it would probably be a good idea to do that before we ate, followed by rock climbing for Chloe and an obstacle course for Logan and Emma.

After our hamburger and hot dog dinner in the cafeteria, we headed back outside to play the games.  There were a lot of games.  We started off with Plinko and then we used nets to catch ducks in the duck pond.

There was, of course, the bean bag toss.

We went fishing.  (Logan had to run around the wall as soon as he was done to figure out how this game was done.)

I think their favorite game, though, was throwing balls at stacks of cans.

Here's Logan's happy dance when he knocked the cans down:

We ended our evening with cotton candy, face painting, and slushies that we ate while waiting in line for the face painting.  I managed to get this shot of my sugar-infused children on the front steps of Logan's school on the way back to the car.

If you are curious about Logan's pose, apparently that's what superheros do when they're having their photo taken. Now you know.

If you want to see more photos of the fun, they are here.

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