On Top of Old Smokey

And no, its not covered with cheese, but it is covered with fog. We went to the very top and couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of us.

We went to Tennessee two weekends ago and went to the Great Smokey Mountains. I had no idea how beautiful and fun it would be, so I'm glad we went. We were worried it would rain, but it turned out to be a nice weekend weather wise and it wasn't hot at all, in fact, on top of the mountain it was windy and a little cold.

Casey on top, you can see how foggy it was. It was about a half mile paved hike to the top, but it was very steep.

On top they have a big observation deck. If it was a clear day, you could see four states.

The fog parted for just a minute on one side, you can see the difference it makes.

We also went for a six-mile round-trip hike up to rainbow falls. It was a nice hike and Claire seemed to like it. She slept the whole way down. There was a nice creek that ran by part of the trail. It was really beautiful.

This is us at the top.

We also saw a black bear! It was really close too. We were in the car, otherwise I would have gotten freaked out, but it was just on the side of the road. It didn't react at all to the six cars just sitting and watching it. It was just looking for worms or bugs in the grass. We were probably less than 10 feet from the bear.

We had a great weekend trip and can't wait to explore more cool stuff in the South.

Tomato Tragedies

Our tomato plant has had a bit of a tragic life lately. This is how he looked two months ago when we got him.

He now looks like this:

He has grown quite a bit and we have even had two yummy red tomatoes. However, last week we got a knock on our door and it was the nice, respectful boys next door who let me know if my tomato plant has tipped over and call me ma'am (I love good little southern children). They told us that two kids were in our backyard and had picked our tomatoes off our bush. I ran out there and indeed, our tomato plant had no tomatoes on it. I found the kids who were behind the partial fence that divides the backyards of the townhouses. They were little, like 5 and 3 and quickly dropped all the tomatoes they were holding and when I questioned them about it, they started babbling about dogs.

I told them we needed to take them home and tell their mom what they did. So they starting running home which I thought would be close but was way down the street. I didn't have shoes on, so I was chasing them the best I could. When we finally got to their house, their mom (who was little bit white trash) said she thought they were at a friends and the only thing she could do was pay me for my plant. I didn't really want any money, but I wanted to feel better about her kids picking off 10 of my little green tomatoes!

So after this ordeal, we found another little predator on our plant. Enter the Tomato Hornworm. I had never seen one of these, but now we have killed about 5 that we have found on our plant. They are big and have a big stinger on one end. This one has little wasp eggs on it that will hatch and kill the worm, but we didn't want to wait that long. Casey found a huge one out there the other morning. He went out to check for them and HEARD this one munching before he could see it.

This is a branch that was gotten by the worm.

Our plant is trying to recover from all the drama. He has two little green ones growing, so lets hope they can make it!

In other news we went to Grease last night in Atlanta thanks to Casey's Aunt and Uncle who had extra tickets. They did a great job. I wish they would play down the crudeness that is woven throughout the play, however, the music was fantastic and the performers were wonderful. It was nice to have a date night.

6 Months!

I can't believe my baby girl is 6 months old already! Time has flown, but I guess we've been pretty busy since she was born.

She's gone from this...

To this...

She's getting to be so much fun. She laughs all the time now and loves to play with her little toys. I can't wait to see her continue to grow. Being a parent definitely has its challenges, but its all worth it when I walk into her room when she wakes up and she gives me that big smile and when she laughs at my funny faces and looks at me with those beautiful blue eyes. Love it!