Sometime before Christmas, our youth pastor asked Matt if he would be one of the speakers for our church's summer youth retreat. They had decided to skip the "canned" youth camp experience and partner with another local church to do their own retreat. The neat thing about it was that the whole family was invited to go along!
I love working with youth, and the girls in my Sunday School class at Carriage Hills are close to my heart. Even though I wasn't actually going to be a counselor on the trip, I was excited about the chance to be able to have the week to fellowship with them.
Of course, when I agreed to go, Lily was still several months away from being born and I hadn't really considered the logistics of taking an almost 4 month old off to camp. I am happy to say, however, that we had a wonderful time!
We had a little bit of a problem explaining to Nathan what "camp" in the "Smoky Mountians" would be like. For Nathan, camping involves a tent. He didn't understand how spending the week in an eight bedroom cabin with a hot tub on the porch could be called "going to camp." He was also very concerned about what made the Smoky Mountians smokey. Once he realized that he wasn't in any immediate danger of burning up, he lightned up a bit about the trip.
We knew the hike the youth were planning on taking Wednesday was more than our kids could handle, so we decided to do a driving tour through Great Smoky Mountians National Park instead. There were several places along the Roaring Fork Motor Trail where we could get out and see various things. The above pictures raise the following question, however: Will the Brady family ever be able to take a vacation that doesn't involve a log cabin? We visited two or three little one room cabins before reaching the last cabin on the trail, which I don't have a picture of. This cabin had three rooms, an upstairs loft, and was painted! Lydia realized how different this cabin was from the others she had seen and went on and on about what a fancy cabin it was. I hope that being reminded of how people used to live will help our kids be grateful for all that we have. So, chances are, if we're on vacation and there's a log cabin close by, we'll go see it!
Grotto Falls could be reached by hiking a mile and half from the motor trail. It was raining when we stopped, and I had forgotten to pack Lily's front carrier, so she and I waited ( and waited...and waited...) in the car while Matt, Lydia, and Nathan hiked up to see the waterfall.
Lydia realized how much fun it is to be an encourager on this hike. As she walked back down the trail, she told everyone she passed, "Only a little bit further. You're almost there!" As they neared the road, Matt finally had to make her stop, for fear her encouragement would turn to discouragement when whe people she passed realized they were no where near the falls!
This picture was taken in front of one of the scenic overlooks on the trail. Occasionally, Lydia decides that she doesn't want to participate in Mom's photography sessions. This was one of those times!
The best part of any youth trip is making new friends, and for my kids, it was no different. The pastor, worship leader, and youth pastor of the church we partnered with all brought their children. The adorable boys in the Davy Crockett hats are Cameron and Caleb Humphreys. Lydia and Nathan enjoyed playing with them all week. I was trying to get a picture of how dirty they were after climbing the "mountian " (hill of dirt) next to our cabin. I guess I should have taken the picture of their backsides.
Lydia and Jordan, the worship leader's daughter, quickly became friends. Lydia was terribly upset when we arrived at camp and she realized that our family would be staying in the boy's cabin, and that the other two children in our cabin were also boys. She was relieved to find out that there was a girl just her age next door in the girl's cabin!
While the youth went white water rafting Tuesday afternoon, we took the kids to the aquarium in Gatlinburg. Matt and I learned something about ourselves on this trip. We will never, ever, ever vacation along the beaten path. How anyone could think that driving in all that traffic and waiting in all those lines qualifies as vacation is beyond me! We are grateful that homeschooling will give us the opportunity to see and go places during the off season. Apart from the crowds, we enjoyed the aquarium. There was a long, glass tunnel where we were able to walk under sharks and other bizarre looking fish. This was not Nathan's favorite part of the trip. I could see in his eyes that he was trying hard to figure out just how thick the glass separating him and the sharks actually was.
I regret that I did not take any pictures of Lydia and Nathan's favorite part of our trip. On the way to Gatlinburg Monday, we stopped at the Natchez Trace State Park to feed and change Lily. While she ate, Matt and the kids went into the park headquarters to look around. Inside was a little museum and there, in a small glass case, was a little corn snake named Katy. Lydia and Nathan were enamored with Katy. They talked about her for the next five hours in the car. They told their new friends about her. And when we got in the car to go home, we were not out of Knoxville before they started asking about seeing Katy agian! Matt and I laughed when we thought about all the money and time we had spent so they could see sharks up close and personal, when the thing they like the most was a free trip into a dinky old building to see a common little snake!
This trip marks the last of our big summer travels. I've enjoyed it all, but I'm glad to be able to put the suitcase back in the closet for a few weeks!
"Mom? What is this stuff?" 
Part of Lily's problem with her first feeding may have been that she had some distractions. Two to be exact. Lydia and Nathan have been anxiously awaiting the day that Lily got to eat cereal. After all, cousin Kayla is already eating green beans and carrots, and it's high time Lily caught up with her. They waited patiently in the kitchen as I mixed up the bottle and pulled out the box of...wait...what is that? That's not cereal! When I told them Lily was going to eat cereal, they were thinking of their personal favorite--Raisin Bran. After I did a little explaining about what babies could and couldn't eat, they gathered around the high chair to watch the fun begin.
And what fun it was! You see, Lily has been working very hard on blowing little raspberries. She got one good mouthful of cereal and decided it was time to practice her new trick. You can make some great raspberries with a mouthful of mushy cereal. It wasn't fun for Mommy, but you can tell from the picture above that Lily thouroughly enjoyed it! Rice cereal is good for something after all!
