Thursday, June 18, 2009

Appalachian Trail Hike 2009 - Max Patch to Hot Springs

I finally uploaded all of the pictures from this year's appalachian trail hike. It was quite an adventure and I am definitly hooked on hiking now! We started the trip at a place called Max Patch. It is basically a huge grassy area on top of a mountain with almost no trees, it provided great views of the surrounding mountians. Jeff Muzik, Todd Young, Scott Berkel, Brad Smith, John Emard, Scott Kidder, and Scott Coryn

View from Max Patch - yes those other mountains are covered in trees

We hiked just over 5 miles the first day, that night it stormed and rained pretty bad all night long. With the rain pelting the tents we didn't even hear the commotion of the bear raiding the camp just up the trail (not kidding - they had to through bottles at it to get it to leave).


Bear alert sign and our food bag hanging to keep it away the bears away from out camp

Day 2 was the longest day, over 10 miles with a lot of elevation changes. We hiked up Walnut Mountain, then to the top of Bluff Mountain and then back down to our campsite at Roaring Fork Shelter.

Here we are at the top of Bluff Mountain. We're happy to be at the top and at this point had no idea how hard going back down was going to be!

On the third day we made it to Hot Springs, NC and headed straight to a little bar for a hot sandwich and a cold beer. It was a nice day so we took a couple hours for a quick raft trip down the French Broad River. With all the rain we had our first night of camping, the river was much higher and muddier than normal.


That night we headed to the cabin where we chef Emard cooked up his world famous gumbo.


The hike was great, and I already can't wait to do another section of the trail next year. Click here to see all of the pictures from the hike.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Pictures from moving day


We actually moved in late April, but we just now found the pictures on our other camera so here they are. It was a "smooth move" but never the less, I hope it's the last one in a long long time! Dave Snyder and his crews did a wonderful job and we would definitely recommend him for anyone looking to build a house in the future. These pictures are over a month old now so believe it or not that bare yard needs to be mowed for the first time this week!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Disney World!!!!

Earlier this year we took Grace down to Florida to spend a few days at Papa and Nanny's Florida house and took a day trip over to Disney. Of course, Disney was wonderful and Grace got to meet all of her favorite princesses...

Look at that smile, could she be any happier?

In addition to the day at Disney, we spent some time at a local beach, visited with the manitees and the hippo at the Homosassa wildlife park and spent lots of time enjoying the pool. See the rest of the pictures here.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Catching up...

It's been a busy, busy 2009 thus far. Here are some snap shots of what has been keeping us busy...



A 70's Party


Chicago Children's Museum



Grace's Third Birthday