Juggling Our Way Through Life: Smokey Mountains 2015

For spring break in March we headed to Gatlinburg, TN and the Smokey Mountains with the kiddos. This was the first time going with just the 4 of us. We had a blast together. The kiddos made it through some pretty rough hikes. They did a 4 mile roundtrip one to a waterfall the first day there and were troopers. The 2nd day we were there, we spent a greater part of the day exploring Cade's Cove and eating lunch out of the back of the van overlooking the mountains. We then did a short hike to Cascade Falls and the kiddos and Jeff finished with a dip in the pool and hot tub! Day 3 we did something totally new. We drove through Cherokee Indian Reservation and through Bryson City to Deep Creek Trail. We had never been on this side of the mountain and it was super fun. We saw 3 waterfalls on the trail, then ate lunch by the river and played frisbee. Then on the way back, we stopped in Bryson City and had ice cream at a cute shop. We also stopped at the visitor center over there and saw a really cool old settlement and saw our first animals here. We saw an elk, and groundhog! The kiddos ended the night in the whirlpool tub! Our last day in Gatlinburg we spent indoors. We went to the Ripley's Aquarium which we absolutely love! And then we did something I have been trying to convince Jeff to do for years. We went to the Dixie Stampede dinner show and it was great! The kiddos got really into it and the food was delicious! It was such a great trip overall. It's nice that the kiddos are getting older and it's so much easier to travel with them! Can't wait for our next family travel adventure!

Checking out the rivers on our first day

These boys could throw rocks for hours!

This bridge freaked me out. We had to cross it our first day to get to the waterfall. It only had a rail on one side and beneath was a roaring river that if you fell in could really hurt you. I made it across with Cale! I sang outloud to God the whole time crossing!