mountain getaway (photo journal)

Man, I've been slow about getting to this post, but the time is now I suppose. It's been a week since we got back! Enough already!

We went to Dowelltown, TN (somewhere in Middle Tennessee) to have a late Christmas get together with my Mom's side of the family (the Collins clan, aka "The Estrogen Nation") last Friday through Sunday. We stayed at this IN-CREDIBLE house in a "holler" in the Dry Creek Valley near Smithville. All I can say is, I cannot WAIT to come back here in the summer. Dry Creek is fed by springs that flow out of a cave, with absolutely the clearest water I've ever seen in the mountains (a huge swimming hole just outside the mouth of the cave you could see to the bottom of). Two creeks actually merge just down the road and there are plenty of shallow spots for the kids to wade in and look for craw dads. It was a wonderful time.

Sunday around lunchtime we went back to Waynesville, North Carolina (about a 3.5 hr drive) which is near Asheville to visit our friends Kalon and Lesley and Richard and Karen. We met them last year when we volunteered to deliver a mutual friend's borrowed truck back to them (she was here in the States on sabbatical from the mission field in India). We become immediate friends and bonded over the Snowmageddon that left us "stranded" up there for a few days. We stayed with Kalon and Lesley and very much enjoyed seeing their kids and meeting their new foster daughter and seeing all the awesome stuff they've done around Camp Bethel over the last year (more chickens, new cows, pigs (including I think four that are now bacon, sausage, roasts, hams, etc), Scout's sister Honey Bear has joined her to guard the place at night (two Newfoundlands that are sweet as can be) - even though that jaunt around the camp was short lived due to the kids getting so cold.

Mostly we just had such a wonderful time hanging out with those guys, eating and drinking and being merry. They just feel like family to us and we would love to one day be a part of what they're doing up there.

To top it off, they'd slaughtered four pigs recently and sent us home with probably 25lbs of hams, roasts, bacon, pork loin, sausage... you name it! All happy, free roaming critters when the lights went out. They also sent us with a gallon or more of homemade laundry soap and a dozen multi-colored beautiful eggs! We love those guys.

Without further ado, enjoy these photos from our trip! Oh and by the way, I know they are sorely overexposed. I was having a brainfart and should have dropped the ISO.... blech. Oh well. Enjoy them, nonetheless.

my niece Ellie

my aunt Sarah

my husband

Shiloh and Daddy

forgot to drop the ISO... dang.

my uncle Steve

a dry creekbed - limestone

Giant icicles make great popsicles/swords

Shiloh and my niece Abbie

Shiloh fell asleep on Daddy's shoulders (again sorry for overexposure)

the deep pool just outside the cave originally created to trap trout which fed the folks who lived in this holler

See how clear that spring water is? That pool was easily 15-20 ft deep...

A rare moment of Noah sitting still with anyone... but loves his Papa

I'M FREE!!!!

I cannot express how happy this made me or him for that matter!

  

my cousin Laura

now he always has eyes closed in pics but why for this one!? we were outside!!!

Papa and little Bear

We were playing and Grandmama got the mushed cowboy hat... so everyone takes a picture.

...said picture.

the Estrogen Nation

view of the valley on the drive out

 now on to North Carolina pics...

Shiloh and "Bigger Noah"

Camp Bethel

Noah enjoyed chasing their free range hens

"Bigger Noah" in the hen house, somebody laid an egg!

Shiloh digs for an egg :)

kitty in the hen house

look at those pretty eggs! 

one of two potbelly pigs - ugly fellers!

Lesley and the cutest little 2 year old boy ever!!

a not so great pic of downtown Waynesville