Hiking Laurel Falls. Smoke on the Mountain.

This morning we went hiking to Laurel Falls. Originally it was supposed to be a Sunday school class activity but with the summer months it seems not many could go. In fact, only two families went. We are in that count. So yeah, it was just us and one other family.

No bother though because we had a great time. It was a dreary day and has been rainy the last couple of days but that meant a great day for hiking. No heat. No sweating (sort of) and the water table was up so the waterfall was beautiful. The ride up was curvy!! Look at my GPS.

And the family who went hiking with us has a son and daughter the same age as our kids. They enjoyed getting to be with them. Andrew and Levi must have been on the same brainwave as far as dress - they matched from their navy athletic shorts to their camo caps. LOL Notice too that all four kids have glasses. Poor things!



Scott, the dad, also has a Canon Digital Rebel so we were able to share some tips with each other. It makes me realize it would be great to be in some kind of camera club or actually take a class in photography. I just signed up yesterday to take an intermediate to advanced class on photo editing by Jessica Sprague. I can NOT wait! I'm really excited. I've taken a couple of classes by her in the past and they are really good.

So when we made it to the waterfall it was much bigger than I thought it would be. I was pleasantly surprised of course! The kids enjoyed falling playing in the water to cool off. We sat on some rocks and ate the snacks we brought.

Playing, finding a crawdad with TON of eggs, resting . . .


Here are some of the neat mushrooms we saw along the hike.


Check this out! Hanna saw a snake and upon closer inspection we discovered it was eating a trout. I'm just glad he had his mouth full so he didn't feel the need to use it on us. LOL (This photo is compliments of Scott. Mine didn't turn out quite as good as his.)

Last night we got together with some friends and visited the Blue Moon Dinner Theater in downtown. The kids spent the night with my parents but Wade got them this morning so we could start out early enough for our hike.

The theater was showing "Smoke on the Mountain" which I have seen at the Barter Theater in the past but is really good and I didn't care to see again. Some of their others have looked a little iffy for us to go see. The food they served was actually good - BBQ chicken, corn, collard greens, fruit salad and a biscuit. Dessert - peach cobbler - was served during intermission. The food was still warm even though they served probably over 100 people in just a few minutes. The play was hilarious. Good music and good laughs. Thumbs up for this play. It was a great night with friends.