General Conference

Saturday we had our annual general conference activity with the youth in the ward. Every year in April we all get together and watch conference together and eat a lot. It is a great time and I enjoy the opportunity to spend time with the kids.

A note on the pictures...remember don't judge, every listens in their own way.

Spring Break Part 2

Monday was our last full day in Tennessee and we all thought it would be a great idea to go to the Smokey Mountains and go on a hike. We were going to go on a fairly easy hike, only about 2.5 miles round trip, to visit a waterfall. When we got up in the morning and started to get ready to go it started to snow lightly, it was not even staying on the ground but to be safe we made sure that everyone had good hats, jackets and gloves. Matt was not able to go due to work so I drove one car and the Paige and Kari piloted the other one. It was about an hour drive to get to Galveston and right before we got they we had to go by Dollywood. This town must have about 25 miniature golf courses it was crazy. As we finally headed up the mountain it started to snow again and when we got to the national park the road turned into a one-way single lane road on a steep mountain side. At this point let me remind you that Kari and Paige are in the car behind me and both are afraid of heights. Kari was driving so close to the side of the side of the hill that she might have bumped it a few times. We finally arrived at the hiking trail everyone filed out of the car and started breathing again.

The walk to the falls was not too bad, we had to cross a couple of little steams and just as we start to get to the falls it started to snow again. The falls were great you could walk behind them and around to the other side it was worth the hike in. We took some pictures and had a great time. The unfortunate part is that by now many of kids have very wet shoes and it has started to snow pretty hard. We turn and start to head down the hill…that's right down hill in a snow storm with wet, cold and frozen shoes. Yes this was the perfect storm. It did not take too long for people to start slipping, sliding and falling on their behind. Kari was carrying Kate in a backpack and when she finally fell Kate had had enough and lost it. When we finally got to the bottom butts were sore, ankles twisted and many many cold and numb feet and fingers. At this point Paige and Kari were sure the kids were going to have frostbite and were definitely bad mothers. But soon we all defrosted in the warmth of the cars and there we no scary cliffs on the way down. It was however an amazing beautiful hike and drive in the snow of the Smokey Mountains an experience I hope the kids remember. Sometimes the craziest adventures turn out to be out greatest memories.