The next week and a half

Tomorrow Cooper and I are headed to the Lake in Sparta with some of dad's family. We will come home sunday and then turn around and leave monday to head to the Smoky Mountains. We are doing our first ever night hike. There will be a full moon that night for us see and of course we will have flashlights and headlamps. The thing about this trip though is that we will have not slept. We will be hiking up Boulevard trail. It is the longest but the safest in the dark. We will watch the sunrise on Myrtle Point, eat our breakfast and then come back down Alum Cave. And then of course we have to drive back home. So going up Boulevard is 8 miles and coming down alum cave is 5.5. Zac and I have not been hiking since I think 2003. I use to go every single year with my family, then Zac and I got married and had kids and haven't gotten back up since. We will get back from that trip on Wednesday and then turn around and pack up for the beach. We are leaving for the beach on Saturday night and driving through the night. All of this said because my blog will most likely be abandoned for the next 2 weeks. I hacked into mom's shutterfly account this morning and pulled up some old pictures of our past hikes. I think this will be my 13th time up Leconte.

I also got this information from the website:
Mt. LeConte (via Boulevard Trail)
Trail Features:Panoramic Views
Trail Location:Newfound Gap
Roundtrip Length:15.6 Miles
Total Elevation Gain:3000 Feet
Avg. Elev Gain / Mile:385 Feet
Highest Elevation:6593 Feet
Trail Difficulty Rating:21.60 (strenuous)
Parking Lot Latitude35.61084
Parking Lot Longitude-83.42509

Napping on cliff tops

I think the first time Zac and I hiked alum cave trail together, we were in the 10th grade. I didn't have any pictures from that one. This one here is in 2003.

 I think this was my first trip up in 1990. Alum Cave is half way to the top and I fell or something at that point and cut my knee.

 Me, Erin and Papa on cliff tops.

 Here we are from 10th grade. I found it.

 HEY, Greg's first trip with us. Hahah. Best picture ever. Wow

Coming down alum cave trail

Ok I have to get out of mom's pictures. She'll kill me for that one of her and Greg. I'll post the pictures from the night hike sometime soon.

Cheekwood

Last Friday mom had planned on taking us to the Tree houses at Cheekwood. Well Cooper had his MRI and  our plans got pushed back. Since today was the least hot day, we decided to go this morning. Cooper was already getting a bit tired, but he still had a lot of fun. Hank kept up with the older kids all day though. He loved it and was able to pretty much do everything the others did. It was really fun, I think Cheekwood may be my new favorite place to go in Nashville.

 This treehouse was by far the best one. It was like a little cabin. The boys climbed the stairs and ran around this one for quite a while.

 It even had a loft to climb up in but my boys were too small to do that so I took this kids picture!!

 Hank was so excited. I was neat watching him enjoy this.

 This was not a treehouse but we stopped for a juice break.

 The ship was my second favorite. Cooper doing his weird squint eye thing made it even more pirate like. I should have put a patch on him.

 Nana took Hank down the slide. Cooper said he didn't want to.

 Like any good mother, I put Cooper on the slide and pushed him down. Somehow he turned and ended up backwards going down the slide.

 I love watching the boys walk. Their tiny little legs are the cutest things.

 The fish treehouse was made out of CDs.

 This one was fun but small. The big kids kept running over my boys.

 Cooper zonked out on the drive to Pei Wei