Happy Mothers Day

I hope all of you had a nice Mothers Day with your kids, your moms or memories of your mom.
This was my first year without a mom to celebrate.  My mom passed away 21 years ago this week.  Bob's mom passed away 5 years ago and my stepmom Ann passed away in December. I was blessed to have each of them in my life.
Our daughters Laura and Heather, and their families came over on Saturday evening.

Cassie is showing Bob a picture of a birthday party she'd been at before coming to our house.

She is always so happy to see her cousins!

These cups are amazingly entertaining to them.

I love to see them together.

I got these sweet cards, and a keychain that Ruby made.

This necklace has my kids birthstones, and their initials on the leaves.

Laura made this beautiful flower arrangement.

She also made this yummy Lemon Raspberry cake.

I also got this, which let us know the name of the baby boy coming in August.  Connor William!  I really like that name.

Sunday was a quiet day.  We had a nice service at church and all the ladies got a carnation.
Bob's been spoiling me all day and I had a nice call from Andy in Kentucky.
I'm ever so thankful for all my kids and grandkids, and also thankful for the moms in my life!

Friday Funny

 

Smoky Mountains, last day

 When I left you yesterday, we were having lunch in a little town in North Carolina.  It was a cute town and we enjoyed walked around it a little.

I stopped and got this picture of Bob, because we were told there were a lot of bears in the area we stayed at.  We were told to lock our car doors or they would get in.  But guess what?  We saw no bears, although Andy and Nikki did while on a hike.  So this bear was the extent of what Bob and I saw.

After lunch we went to investigate something Andy had read about.  It's called The road to nowhere.  It's a road through the mountains that was started in the 1940's.  They tore down houses and dug a lake to make a community.  However, for some reason it was never completed, leaving some angry former homeowners and tax payers.
Now it's a road that only tourists drive and it ends with a tunnel.
The road itself is about 6 1/2 miles long and the tunnel is 1/4 mile long.

Can you believe they were doing construction on this road to nowhere?  Because it's on a curvy mountain road, we had to follow this car through the construction for several miles.

We parked and then started walking.

At this point, no more cars, you can only walk.

We reached the tunnel

Here we are in the middle of the tunnel

And here we are at the other side, the tunnel is ending in the woods.

Andy and Bob climbed to the top of the tunnel

And here's Andy, Nikki and Bob emerging from the tunnel!

It was so strange to see something like this; all that work and cost and now just abandoned.

We then drove back to Gatlinburg.

We stopped in this cute little shopping area.

It felt like we were in Europe with the old style buildings and the cobbled streets.

On our drive back to the cabin we saw 2 elk.  We were thrilled to see these majestic creatures!

We had a nice last evening together. Because Andy and Nikki live in another state, we don't get to spend time in person with them too often, so this time together was a joy!

The next morning we were on the road before 8 am.  Andy and Nikki had a 4 hour drive, we had a 10 hour drive.

We started the drive in rain, but it soon cleared and we had a good drive home.
We arrived safely home about 6:30, happy to be home and with good memories of our time together!