Kristina (Dunn) and Nate Dubs Wedding

Sunday, October 23, was a gorgeous day for Kristina's wedding at the Collegedale Church. Of the seven attendants on each side, a few were former CA students - Ben Schnell, Justin Jones, Tommy Dunn, Brittany Thayer, and Caleigh (Teasley) Benge.

Kristina was a beautiful bride! Lynne Macias did all of the bouquets and bout arrangements.

Kristina and Nate met working at Cohutta Springs Youth Camp the summer of '06. Her uncle (Rob Laing, the youth director at the camp) told their love story at the first part of the ceremony.

The girls' dresses were all different styles, and alternated between plum and navy.

Nate's dad (a minister in Cleveland, TN) had the main part of the ceremony.

Since they both prefer pie to cake, they had a pie cutting ceremony.

Listening to his brother and her maid of honor, Brittany, give the toasts.

A Sabbath Day's hike, and then some!

Almost there! The folks on top of the rock are at Charlie's Bunion, 4 miles from where we parked at Newfound Gap. We were so shocked to get a parking place, so decided to hike there instead of up by Clingman's Dome.

Ya' just never know who you'll run into on top of Old Smoky!
How nice it was to see Jonathan and Kelly.

The view from Carlie's Bunion is panoramic and breathtaking.

Our lunch was very well earned!

The hike back down was longer it seemed - cause my feet and legs were very weary! Actually it took us as long to go down as it did to get up - 2 hours each way. I needed a few more breaks going down. I told Randy I may have climbed my last mountain!

This trail has LOTS of great views along the way since you're hiking on a ridge a lot.

At Icewater Spring Shelter where lots of the AT hikers spend the night. We saw several with big packs on their back who told us they were staying there Sat. night.

When we started out, we thought we'd probably stop at Sweet Heifer Creek Trail, but were crazy enough to go clear to Charlie's Bunion, something we're both still paying for with sore calf muscles, etc. etc. We'd hiked the trail once before several years ago with our kids, and the first 1.7 miles of it just last fall break.

The trail included rocks and roots here and there and was very strenuous, climbing most of the way there, except for the one drop of about 500 feet, that we got to climb back up coming back. The old knees don't like steady downhill anyhow. The trail was really wet from the snow so was pretty sloppy.

At an overlook along the park road.

Fall Break Visit to Dollywood

As you can see, I did some Christmas shopping on this visit to Dollywood on Friday, Oct. 21.

The Providence Quartet, from Pendleton, SC, was there for a couple of days as part of the Gospel music festival. They were excellent!

The Gem Tones do oldies and it's fun to watch the antics of their comic relief member in the flood pants and taped glasses.

The Kingdom Heirs are always at Dollywood and we enjoy them on every visit!

This cornucopia wasn't there on our last visit. What amazing fall decorations were everywhere!

River Walk Bike Ride with Amy & Jeremy

Sunday evening, October 16

The best part of the ride are parts like this, right along the river.

Made it to the Hunter Art museum balcony, overlooking the bridges and river

Biking over the Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge

Biking over Amnicola Hwy, approaching the Hunter Art Museum

18 miles later and one very sore back side, we're back to the dam where we parked. It was our first time to bike the TN River Walk in months.

Sunday Morning Candids and Souper Salad

Claire slept soundly while we played Ticket to Ride early Sunday morning - she was thinking she had something to say for a minute, but changed her mind and put her hand down ;)

After her breakfast, she watched for awhile and then decided she'd rather nap.

Music appreciation class with Gramps

Funny Aunt Amy

Not too sure what to think of this camping chair yet

It sure was fun having our kids both home at the same time for a nice change.