Friday, August 15, 2014

Last Week of Summer Break

We've been super busy relaxing these past two weeks, our final weeks of summer break. There was a hike to Spruce Flat Falls with friends and kids. Our "let's do lots of hikes!" ended up being only this one hike, but still—it's one hike in the Smokies, one afternoon that we all got to breathe in the mountains and river.




There was a whole day of tubing on the river with our homeschooling group's teen group. That's Duncan on his third trip and Laurel and her boyfriend, Daniel, finishing up for the day. We moms put our chairs right on the river bank under a big, shady tree and talked. All day.




There was a weekend trip to Charlotte to visit Randy's brother and his wife in their new house—the one with a pool and hot tub. The kids each brought a friend, there was lots of good food (that's Randy and Cindy making pasta), a fabulous afternoon thrift shopping, and, most of all, we got to spend that one last weekend with some of our favorite people.







There was the big event of our oldest son moving into his own apartment.



And Randy and I woke up early on Wednesday morning to bike around Cades Cove. The 11-mile loop is closed off to car traffic on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. It was a beautiful ride, although the fog obscured the views for the first half of it. We saw four bears up in trees, and bear spottings always enrich a trip to the mountains!

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And there was a trip to the NASCAR speed park in Pigeon Forge as a final end-of-summer trip for the boys. This is one of those touristy things that we rarely do—Duncan has done it once before as part of a field trip—so this was a big deal to the boys. They had a blast (that's Duncan and Emery below), and Diane and I got to spend a whole day just talking. 


We still have a tubing trip and a camping trip planned for later this month, but our co-op classes start back on Monday, so this is the last official week of break for us. I'm not ready, but I never am.

Still: full steam ahead!

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1 comment:

  1. You have been busy but it looks like a fun sort of busy. Spruce Falls looks beautiful. I feel your pain with your oldest moving out. My oldest left earlier in the year and, although he didn't go far and we still see him most weeks, it does feel strange.

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