We had the nicest time at Tumbling Waters. Joe and Carolyn have made a great family friendly campsite, lots of trees and creeks and trout and hiking -- all that good mountain stuff, with free coffee.
We got home last night from camping in a tent for a week in the NC mountains. It was fabulous, especially the first night when we didn't put the fly over our mesh-roofed tent and it started to downpour at 3:00 AM. Oh, if only we could have had some one there to take video of us putting the fly on in the dark in the pouring rain, with Noel half awake stumbling around in the mud and the girls fast asleep with rain falling into their open mouths. And not even able to swear properly what with all of Dee Dee's relatives sleeping in tents around us. But after we got the fly on, everything went well despite rain every night. No yellow jackets. No broken bones. Not even any hurt feelings, although Noel never could quite understand why he wasn't allowed to just keep fishing in the trout pond. He and a camp buddy spent entire days fishing under this little creek bridge. When the fish farm guy saw how dedicated Noel was about fishing, he let a half dozen farm trout, about 2 lbs a piece - pretty good sized fish, loose in the stream for Noel and his friend to catch. The boys never caught them, but they could see them swimming around and they had a great time trying. The trout were really delicious this year, and we let Noel catch 5 right before we left. We ate two on the way home, and have three in the freezer.
Thus endeth the fish story.
Renee did a nice paint job on my toenails. Memo to self: Make sure you've got polish remover on hand before you let cute 5 year old paint your toenails.
Rochelle and Dee Dee did some horseback riding and inner-tubing, and we all made quite a few hikes up to the Panther Creek swimmin' hole -- that's where most of the pictures are from. You can see them at the new photo album on the right, or click here.
See y'all next year, Tumbling Waters.
NEW PHOTO ALBUM ADDED -- TUMBLING WATERS. Check it out.