Hiking and the Smokies

The boys had a service project/hike to do for scouts this month.  We went to Ijams Nature Center and helped haul huge branches to a truck.  We all got there at 9:15 to try and beat the heat but the people at Ijams were running behind and didn't get us stared on the branch hauling until about an hour later.  By 11:30 we decided it was getting too hot to put off the hike any longer.  Will had a three mile hike to do and Isaac had a mile hike.  Will was supposed to be the leader for his group so I went with him and let Isaac go with the Bears and Wolves.  It ended up being so hot and humid that we only went two miles.  Isaac's group went on the same trail as us and even though they thought they were doing one mile they ended up doing two also.  I was really proud of the boys and their good attitudes because it was miserably hot.  I had frozen water bottles in the backpack where the camera was so my camera was all foggy and I didn't get great pictures.  

On Monday we headed down to Metcalf Bottoms in the Smokies with some friends.  We spent the day just playing in the water and having a picnic lunch.  It was the perfect day.  My friend brought camp chairs and we took our chairs down to the river and sat in the middle of the river in our chairs.  I thought, "Now I'm officially a Southerner!"  It seems like such a typical southerner thing to do.  The boys tried to skip rocks, made a rock slide and tried to catch little fish all day.  It was perfect. 

The summer is just about over now and we will probably stick close to home the next few days while I catch up on laundry and get ready for our first day of homeschool on Monday.