Gatlinburg Trip: Part Two. Ripley's aquarium of the smokies

                    

a flounder! i hadn't even seen one in real life. so cute.









hahah i love that sawfish's lips









omg this is a TINY TINY octopus!! like three inches long! ahhh! i was freaking out! it kept going up and down in that little glass tube thing like it was playing. ahhhh!







so my verdict on the ripley's aquarium? it was small, but i think it had the perfect amount of awesome things that you were entertained the whole time, and it was short enough that you weren't wishing it would end, like the chattanooga aquarium is sometimes. so i thought it was great.

later that night travis and i met my mom, dad, and aunt at the sky lift.







i love the sky lift! it has been there forever. so scary! especially when you go over the road and the river. ahh! travis was getting mad at me because i didn't have the camera strap around my neck.







view from the top







after the sky lift my mom and aunt went to meet my cousins at a bar and my dad went with us to ripley's believe it or not. i love those kinds of places. for real.









tiny antlers made from nuts!! ahhh! i want some!





both of those pictures really disturb me. one is of an elephant that was hung because it killed three people! and that guy bounced down the stairs on his head. so freaky.





before we went my dad and i had been talking about this statue of a man taking a picture that we saw in st augustine and how funny it was that we fell for it! and THEN we BOTH fell for it again here! hahah, he right around the corner so you think someone is taking a picture and you back up and say excuse me.

my family vacation to gatlinburg: part 1

we went through the national park to get to our cabin up on the mountain. there is a view of it from below.

the view was just gorgeous. we didn't do much the first night except sit on the porch and get in the hot tub. we were there for my grandparents (on my dad's side) 60th wedding anniversary. which just blows my mind! i can't even fathom ten years! ah! i hope travis and i live long enough to have a 60th anniversary. almost everyone in the family was able to come, except for two boy cousins and one of their wives. my dad's family is really spread out so we are almost never together.

in the morning we got up early and went horseback riding. i thought that it was just going to be us and my mom but it turns out almost everyone wanted to go.

the whole group of us about to go riding!

my horse is the dark dark brown one. her name is crissy. the redish one in front of me was named porter wagoner. so cute!





ah! the baby ducks are getting washed down the river! poor things. mama had to come and save them.

we walked around down town gatlinburg for a while. it's mostly really tacky stores (like the same tacky crap you buy at the beach) mixed in with putt putt golf and candy shops. not really what i remember from when i was little. here are some pictures from the candy shop i DO remember.



i got a caramel apple with peanuts. my favorite.




i love all the cute bears everywhere. and omg i love taffy. i only bought a small box because i would have eaten it all so fast! yummmm.



i love standing and watching the taffy machines. after sight seeing for a while we went to the aquarium. it was awesome, so i'll let it have it's own post!

Goodbye Kyle!

allright guys! i'm going to catch up on my journal! here are some pictures from the movie in the park last week! they do this every wednesday night in june and sadly i was out of town for batman and bill and ted's excellent adventure. thankfully mean girls got rescheduled and we are going to that this week. so here is kung fu panda in the park night! also kyle's last night in tennessee. he got a really really great design internship in new york city so he will be gone for four months.


first i will bore you with pictures of the lilies that are blooming in our back yard! i think i missed the dahlias, but there are tons of day lilies. so pretty. ms. harlan told me that they are really bad as cut flowers though so i haven't brought any inside.

on my way to the park i stopped behind a retirement home for a little bit of letterboxing. this one is from a couple who is trying to plant a box in every state before they are 60 (which is apparently 24 months away). how cute.


cara and brett were already at the park when i arrived. you have to get there early to get a good spot. look at brett's cute new hair! he works at CMT and apparently that day an older lady asked him what he was dressed up as! haha, and when he told her that is just how he looks every day she said "well, it's classic!" i love it!

if i hadn't just gotten home from being out of town i would have made something for kyle, but i didn't have time so i just picked up a strawberry fields cake from whole foods. i got them to write "just kyle" on it, because that is his website.


it was pretty good. i think it was just a little too sweet.the chocolate curls on the outside or the cake were unneeded i think.


jess and joe came, and brought me a burrito from baja burrito. it was my THIRD burrito EVER. i used to say i don't like them, and one was forced upon me and my world was changed. yum. i want one now. i wish there was a burrito place near me right now.


everyone loves the crazy flash on my camera. haha. camera attack! i think my favorite thing about the movies in the park is the the screen attracts bugs and cute little bats fly in front of the screen. ahh! adorable!


we went to cafe coco and got italian creme sodas. i'm glad no one told me it was just soda with milk in it, because i wouldn't have gotten one, but it was so delicious!


we just sat around and talked and enjoyed each others company til almost one am. then we said our tearful goodbyes and send kyle on his way. i'm going to really miss him! but he is going to do so well in new york and hopefully be back in the fall. good luck kyle!!

Murray's Cativersary!

With all the excitement of finding the new babies in the garage i almost forgot that we have reason to celebrate!

My little Murray Hewitt Hartsock has been with us for one year!!

his first picture!! he was born out behind our good friend dana's house, and we saw the babies when we went over for a fourth of july cookout. we hadn't talked about getting another cat (travis had scampi when we moved in together) but both fell in love.

he is my first ever kitten and i love him so much. he is definitely "my cat" and the cutest thing ever. so here are a few cute pictures:

i love you baby boy! even if you aren't a baby anymore!

Kittens!

OMG! travis called me while i was still in bed this morning, telling me to come outside with my sandals and my camera. i didn't know what it could be, but i didn't expect a litter of grey kittens!!! AHHH!!! they were rolling around in the dirty old leaves.

their mom has been hanging around our house for a long time. travis forbid me from feeding/petting her. (we decided that two cats is our limit). she is really skittish of people.



i put the bottom of one of our carriers out there with an old towel so they would be out of the dirt. i pulled a tick off or one too. the mom has left them in there so far. hopefully she will raise them in the garage and we can find homes for the little dears. travis has already told me multiple times i can't have one :(
we'll take the mom to get spayed too once the kittens are gone. i don't know if she can be tamed.