Bear!!

We are in Gatlinburg, TN this week on vacation. I had one goal on this trip (besides having fun and relaxing), I wanted to see a bear. I knew we would be hiking in the mountains and I was just convinced we would find a bear........even though the rest of my family thought I was crazy! Today we were pulled over on the side of the road looking for a geocache and guess what was there............a huge black bear!!


This is a terrible picture but here is the bear trying to get into a house!

And here is the bear right before he started running towards us and we had to jump back in the van! Unbelievable!!!

New Kitchen

I have wanted to redo our bar area in the kitchen for awhile now so a few weeks ago we decided to go ahead and do it. The kids and I were headed out of town for a few days so Ryan decided it was the perfect opportunity. Here are the before pictures.....

And the after......Ryan did a fabulous job!!!

Blueberry Pickin'

This morning the kids and I ventured to Noblesville to pick blueberries. We had gone to pick strawberries in June and had a great time so I thought, "let's go get some blueberries too". The kids started out strong.
And then we all quickly realized it was going to take a lot longer to fill our baskets with blueberries than it did strawberries! They were troopers though and we ended up with 2 full baskets. If you notice Alli's basket is empty, every single berry she picked went into her mouth! All she kept saying was, "So gooood Mama!":)

We rewarded ourselves with some ice cream from the country store. Fun day!!

Camping

Last week we went to McCormicks Creek to camp for a few days. Despite the cold temps and a little rain it was a fun time. We hiked down to the creek, it was just a short hike from our campsite.

Unfortunately, getting back up to our campsite was a little harder!

Because of all the rain we've had the last week the creek was at flood stage so we weren't able to get in the waterfall. But it was still cool to look at!

HOT!!!

It was so hot today we got out the slip-n-slide to cool off. When Ryan got home he decided to join in.
And then the racing started. I'm pretty sure the slip-n-slide won't make it through the week!

Cinderella

Today Alli and I got to go to Beef and Boards Dinner Theatre and see Cinderella. It was so fun! We sat right on the floor.........the kids were almost close enough to touch the stage. The town cryer even tried to fit the glass slipper to Alli's foot..........too bad it didn't fit!:)

The girls loved twirling like Cinderella during intermission!

Happy Easter

We had a great Easter weekend. We went to the Easter egg hunt at the park.

The kids found more eggs at home with their cousins.

We had a great church service celebrating the resurrection! In their dressy clothes for church.

And here is what Ryan built for Alli for Easter. I had been looking for her a storage place for her dress-up stuff. When I saw how much they cost I decided that Ryan could probably build her one for a fraction of the cost. I think it turned out fantastic!