So our family took a trip at the end of last month to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, in the heart of the Smoky Mountains. We spent half a week there with Leigh Ann's family, staying in a cabin in Pigeon Forge. We lucked out with beautiful weather, and had a great time. Being in the mountains was a great feeling - although it made the flatness of central Ohio all the more stark. One day we took a drive up to Clingman's Dome. This first picture is of the 3 of us sitting on the Tennessee/North Carolina state line at Newfound Gap, not far from the Dome.
We then drove further up to Clingman's Dome, where we had a picnic lunch.
Finally, this picture was taken off of our back balcony at the cabin - giving you a pretty good idea why they call them the Smoky Mountains - this was early one morning.
Jacob behaved perhaps the best he has ever done on a long trip. We enjoyed eating at Bubba Gump's in Gatlinburg on our first night - Leigh Ann has been craving their stuffed shrimp ever since she had it while visiting San Francisco during our honeymoon.

We also took a tram ride up to Ober Gatlinburg. Jacob enjoyed the long tram ride up and back. He was also excited to see that they had real bears up at the top. Ober Gatlinburg has a series of amusement park-style rides. Leigh Ann's brother Brian and I took the opportunity to ride the alpine slide they had there. We bought Jacob a stuffed black bear, which he loves, and after helping him realize it was not a cat (when he first got it, he kept making meowing sounds), he now affectionately calls it "Smokyabear."

We were all sad to leave, but Leigh Ann and I were grateful to not have to share a room any longer with a little boy that enjoys getting up earlier than we do. Unfortunately, several of us seem to have picked up something in the air up there, and we then spent much of the next week with intestinal flus (I'll spare you all the grisly details - suffice it to say it was no picnic).