TN Vacation - Part I

In the middle of May, The Kler family vacationed in Tennessee. We stayed in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park and spent most of our time in the great outdoors! It was an awesome week full of hiking, grilling yummy food, swimming and spending time together. Jeremy's sister Anna and her family were there. A few days later, Kelly arrived from Clarksville, where she's currently getting her master's degree. Jeremy's parents weren't able to make it because his dad's undergoing chemo (he's doing great though!).

The kids were troopers. Being that they're all pretty young, we weren't sure how they'd hold up to the long hikes. The first day, we hiked a little over 3 miles (round trip) up to a beautiful waterfall. The path was narrow, but they listened well and stayed together. Corralling four toddlers can be a little stressful, but they surprised us. We stopped every so often to check out something along the trail. This broke up the walk a bit and of course made it more memorable.





There were so many great places to stop and get pictures and we happened to be walking near another group of really nice people. We kept snapping pictures for each other along the way so no one was excluded as the photographer.

Carter found a ladybug.

Anna, Oliver, Jeremy and ElliotOn the return trek, Steve pushed the four oldest in the stoller. This was a little tricky, as it was mostly downhill
Crawford, taking a little break.
The second day, we took a shorter hike on the trails near where we were staying.

The kids were determined to find a salamander and checked under every rock they could as we walked along.Here's Carter showing me the baby worm he found.

Leah loved all the flowers. I really got carried away with the color accent feature on our camera. Jeremy and Elliot. We forgot the backpack and had to carry him during all the hikes. Luckily, he's not too heavy!