Home from the Smokys ...

... and what a great mini-vacation it was!! Melissa had never been to the mountains and she did plenty of "ooohing and aahhhing". Hillary hadn't been since she was two years old, so she equally enjoyed it! Except for suffering through a time share presentation, we all oohed and aahhhed plenty of times! Okay, first some pictures:

I took the picture of the deer from my car window at Cade's Cove. The car in front of us slowed down, someone said, "OOH! It's a deer." I grabbed the camera, stuck my head out the window, clicked, and 72 hours later saw this sweet picture!

While we're talking about pictures from cars, I also took this one as we were heading down the mountain from Newfound Gap back toward Gatlinburg. Again out the car window. Maybe I should put together a book called, Pictures from a Car Window. It could be a coffee table book.

The true nerd in me comes out. Actually, I'm a huge fan of Anne McCaffrey and her Dragonriders of Pern series. Some of the guys at the office are always poking fun at my love of science fiction, so I combined the two best sci-fi worlds into one photo: Star Trek and the Dragonriders. haha. This was at "Fantasy Golf" in Pigeon Forge.

The whole family at the overlook on the Gatlinburg bypass highway. I love this photo. From the left, Richard the hubby, Hillary the sullen teenager, Melissa the diva, and me. I'm glad I don't see pouting or crying in this nice photo. I'm positive it will become one of my lifetime favorites!

The girls and I right before our helicopter ride. It was expensive but worth every penny! Neither daughter had ever flown in anything so it was a great experience for them. Riding in a helicopter is on my list of 100 things I want to do, so I crossed that off. Just call me Earl.

And finally, the classic Smoky Mountain photo. Only now did I realize Smoky is spelled without an "E"... So I'm going back and editing all the "E's" out of Smoky Mountains. Seriously, is this sign spelled wrong????? Anyway, we sure had a nice time. We crammed in a lot in three days: two driving tours of the mountains, go-karts, mini-golf, Ripley museum, chair-lift, Ober Gatlinburg (wow has that place lost its luster - that'll be our last time there), helicopter ride. It's all good (except the time-share part). Those fools wanted $47,000 for a time share. They finally offered less points for $10,000 but hells-bells NO! I called my hubby's stepmother and she's willing to sell their's for $1800. Now that I can deal with! One week a year of vacation with three weeks already banked?! YES!

I'll post more later. Meanwhile enjoy the pics! love and kisses, kathy