Gatlinburg Family Reunion Part 1

Every 2-3 years my stepdad's side of the family gets together for a fun family reunion.  Each year the location changes-- we have been to Colorado, on a cruise to the Caribbean, to Iowa, the Outer Banks, to St. Augustine, Corpus Christi (among many others) and this year to Gatlinburg. Each night one family is in charge of entertainment and dinner *not necessarily on the same night* so usually we have lots of fun family time at night....

Unfortunately, K had to work and was not able to stay all week with us but he did get to spend the weekend before the reunion with us and we had a lot of fun!! :) here are some of the pics of the first weekend (when K was with us...)

(you can check out the rest of the pictures from our trip via Gatlinburg Family Reunion Part 2 by clicking {here})

AJ, RG and K at the Old Smoky Moonshine shop

while we were testing out the moonshine these two were having a blast!

chewing her thumb and the blanket at the same time= skills!!

beautiful butterfly that my sister found! :) 

family bfast!

We went to the Ol Smokey Moonshine- the first legalized Moonshine in TN -- we sampled every one of them in less than a minutes time. 

Pop (my stepdad) and RG listening and watching the bluegrass band play

I think I have about 10 pictures like this... this was the highlight of RG's week for sure :) 

Rocking with Gma (Lolli or Lala) :) 

We also went and saw several of the abandoned house in the Smoky Mountain National forest

RG and Pop crossing a "bridge"

RG's first time playing in a creek

love this pic :) 

looking at Daddy on top of the rock

Getting flowers for Gma (this is before we found out you weren't to pick anything...oops!)

Gma LOVED the flowers :) 

We saw one of THESE!!!

and TWO of these!!!!
I can't believe we saw a mamma bear and her two cubs- literally the neatest thing that happened all week and definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity!

do you see the big tree on the far left? there is a little white dot to the right of that.. follow that dot past the next skinny tree to the right and just beyond that small tree there is an owl... do you see him? 

and we saw a few of these :)

and LOTS of these beautiful Smoky mountains! 

BEARS! 

There were lots of these throughout the park- so beautiful!

enjoyed dancing with Gma :) 

Watched Pop do his "Donald Duck sneeze" about 100 times and anticipated it every time by squinting her eyes.. so cute! 

her favorite breakfast toys!

she did this every time we tried to see her tooth or show it to someone 

a PERFECT "SIC EM BEARS!" :)

At Newfound Gap... elevation 5,046 feet- it was colld (60's) and foggy as you can see- we were literally in the clouds!

Where FD Roosevelt gave a speech dedicating the Great Smoky Mountains as a national park

fell asleep holding Daddy's hands

on the Appalachian Trail for the first time

Can you read the fine print on the bottom sign?
 "shelter closed due to aggressive bear activity..."  and why am I out here hiking?!

Stay tuned for more fun picture of the rest of the week.... We had a great time!! :)