The Great Smoky Mountains

Ok, I know this first picture isn't of the Smokey's but it's too cute so I had to post it. I told him not to climb up there and just a few seconds after I snapped this photo he pulled a book from the shelf and fell backwards. He hasn't done it since though so maybe he learned his lesson.

We went camping in the Great Smokey National Park a couple weekends ago with our friends the Jackson's. Rachel and I took the kids down early in the day so that we could try to get a campsite at Big Creek campground. It was a pretty uneventful ride down but it did take a little longer than anticipated due to construction on I-40. I don't know how long it is going to take them to make them feel like the rocks aren't going to fall onto the road again but it sure seemed a bit ridiculous to me. Maybe someone from Utah should come out here and help them out so it doesn't take them forever. When we go to Big Creek it was full so we had to go to Cosby Campground a few miles away. Cosby is HUGE with over 160 campsites so we were able to find 2 spots right next to each other and set up camp. Kris had all of our stuff in our car that he and Garett drove down later that night. By about 10 pm the boys still hadn't arrived and we were getting just a little bit worried. They showed up after 10:30 and they apparently were in traffic at the construction for well over an hour.
This is my genius of a husband, using plastic bags on his hands to prevent getting sausage gunk on his bare hands. We had a delicious breakfast of pancakes and eggs and sausage. Denzil ate almost a whole pancake by himself.
Then we took down camp and were on the search for a place to play in the water. After a long "1/4 mile" hike we found a great place to play. The boys found a crawfish which was cool but we didn't get a picture. They also tried to catch some little fish in their hats but weren't successful.
We jumped into the water from a little rock. It was pretty chilly but oh so refreshing.

Denzil has been giving me "kisses" lately and we fortunately caught one on camera. He is such a cute little guy!
I can't wait until we can go to the Smokey's again. There are so many places to see and so little time to see them in. Oh well, we will have fun trying!