Moments of our lives!

So many celebration so little time to write about them. After the holidays I was kind of tired of celebrations but  life should be about celebrations so I got over it and got right back on the wagon. Life is so serious some times that letting my hair down is not something that comes natural to me. Thank goodness for H.B. I think that's why we work so well together. I think he wins more often then I do but he can be serious when he has to be. Speaking of the boy for his 31st birthday I decided to make him some cake pops instead of a plain cake. The girls loved them. I guess he liked them too. I was just proud of myself for actually making them. I have a fear of failure which can cripple me into not doing things I really want to try because failing is just not an option for me. I have been working really hard at over coming this weakness. When I think of the possibilities I realize that the sky is the limit. Just yesterday I tried making a bread from scratch that I have only been able to make successfully once. I know I can do it but the last two times that I attempted to make it the dough would not rise. I finally realized that my yeast is no good but instead of giving up I looked up how to rescue my bread and I did some research and I found that I can still make the bread. No more giving up on things that scare me!  

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Vilma's Spring Break visit also brought a trip to Lego Land in early March. Thanks to J.P.'s generosity we got six tickets to go check out the new park. I was just happy to have Vilma and Andrew with us for four whole days. I must say that it was a pleasant surprise. There where a lot of attractions that the kids absolutely loved. I would say that the only down fall was that there were also many rides that Mae was not allowed on which I thought was kind of dumb since this is supposed to be a kid park. I guess not really for a 3 year old! Over all they had a good time.

 One of the really cool attractions they have are small replicas of major cities entirely constructed of Lego's. It was a full day of rides and just plain fun. The park also has several areas for the kids to simply play in. The only way I can describe it would be just several playgrounds through out the entire park. They are very interactive play areas. The kids could have easily spent the entire day just in the playgrounds.

Mae posing in front of New York City.

Mae only went around once because she couldn't really figure out how to steer her car. She has become accustom to being driven around by her sister in their jeep. She never really wants to drive it.

                                                       Our Smoky Mountain get away!

All I can say is really relaxing and peaceful. It was so nice to be back in these mountains again. H.B. and I have been to the Somkies twice before but this was the first time with the girls. I am so glad that we decided to spend our Spring Break in the mountains. The drive was a good 11 hours but it was soo worth it. We left first thing on Monday morning at 6 a.m. The drive was really nice. H.B. drove the entire way which allowed me to sleep most of the way. Perhaps that's why it didn't really feel like it took us that long. The girls did amazing. This is the longest we have ever taken them in the car. They were so excited about being in the mountains. We stayed in a really cute really cozy cabin called Beary Cozy. The name was very fitting as that is what we call Mae our little bear. There were pictures of black bears through out the entire cabin. Mae really liked that.

This is what happens when you are in the car for this long. Mae had a little fun with the stickers.

Since it pretty much took us all day to get to the mountains the only thing we had time to do on the first night was have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Pigeon Forge.

Once we were settled in we hit the ground running. We went to the Gatlingburge visitor center and purchased a map with all the day hikes. The first hike we did was Laural Falls. It was only a two mile hike and paved so the girls did great. It was a really good starter hike for our family. We really don't do a lot of hiking in Florida (unless you count walking around Disney for hours at a time). It was really nice to be able to just get outside and enjoy nature.

Mia especially loved climbing on the rocks on the way to the falls.

It was really nice to spend time together as a family. Having dad around is especially nice. The girls were in their element. Mae absolutely loves getting dirty and playing in the dirt or sand. This was a good opportunity for getting messy and dirty. She loved it. Who knew my little princesses would love the outdoors so much. After the hike we went back in to town for lunch Gatlinburg is pretty much like going to Disney minus the theme parks. I was reading in our map that in July Gatlingburg will get 1.3 million visitors. I'm really glad we went in the Spring. Apparently they only get half that amount in March. In spite of that the town was packed. They have everything you could possibly want to do. It is definitely a tourist town. The nice thing is that unless you go into town you really don't feel like your in a tourist town. Once you are in the park it's all about nature and its beauty. They had really cute shops with unique art pieces. In a sense I felt like I was at Disney. There was a particular art shop that had the most amazing art pieces depicting well know Disney characters. The girls loved going through the gallery looking for their favorite pieces depicting their favorite Disney Princesses. One of our favorite shops was the doughnut shop. I thought I was in heaven. They had fresh doughnuts and the best cinnamon bread which we took home and had for breakfast the next day. The girls also loved going through the Ripley's Mirror Maze. They made dad do it a couple of times.  After our walk through the town we were ready to hit another trail. Since the girls did so well on the first hike we decided try a longer hike. Again we decided that we needed something to look forward to so we hiked to another fall.

That water was cold.

Our next hike was Gorotto Falls and was by far my favorite hike. It was a 2.5 mile hike and the entire hike was just really nice. We also got to see our first black bear. The girls were starting to get tired but Mia hike the entire way. Mae had a little help but she too walked most of the way.

Mia starting to get a little tired.

 

This waterfall was nice too. We got to walk behind it to the other side of it for a better view.

One of the most amazing things was that we could also do car hikes. After our hike we went on a car hike. By this point it was 7 p.m. so the car hike was the perfect thing to finish off our day of adventures. Our cabin was equipped with a hot tub and a garden tub in our room. After a long day of hiking the hot tub was just what we needed. The girls also loved being in the garden tub for their bath.