The Smoky Mountains in Tennessee

We are so excited to be in the Great Smoky Mountains during Christmas time. It's beautiful here. This photo below is a photo of the town of Pigeon Forge with the mountains of the national park in the background.

We drove today to the top of Newfound Gap and found snow!

Newfound Gap elevation: 5036

Sled time!! :)



The campground in Pigeon Forge where we're staying. We're right on the river, awesome!

North Carolina: 20s

Well, if you're looking for our snow photos we didn't get any. Our children were too busy playing in the snow that morning and we left that afternoon to head to our families for birthday and Christmas celebrations. We got about an inch of snow during the night and the Waynesville/Asheville area was expected to get another 1-4 inches that day. It was pouring snow when we left. We traveled the interstate and passed the snow plows plowing the snow off the road. We knew we'd be back soon and that we'll be playing in the snow again and staying longer next time.

Below are photos that Christian took that were not uploaded until later.

North Carolina; Waynesville; Snowing 28 degrees

Last night we put up our $8.00 tree, (Ok, so I'm happy about the price! I love a bargain!)
listened to Christmas music and baked Christmas cookies. Healthy and yummy peanut butter Christmas cookies, that is, made with freshly ground whole wheat and pure maple syrup. :) Everybody loved them.
All last night we listened to the sleet hit the roof and woke to the ground lightly dusted. By noon, however, it had melted, but only to have snow flurries in exchange. It's beautiful. It has been snowing on and off all day. The mountains around us are all covered in the fluffy white stuff. The temperature has now dropped to 27 (yes, it's gone down one degree while writing this) and it is getting heavier and beginning to stick.

Today we came in and made Hot Chocolate. You guessed it, only the healthy kind.
We've had Christmas lights hung in every room (all 4 :) ) and that has been festive.

Tomorrow I hope to add our snow photos.

Waynesville, NC

A few photos of the area. Waynesville is about 30 minutes west of Asheville. We are at 2500 feet and the mountains around us rise to 3500 feet in elevation. Considering the beauty we've already seen, this is a beautiful area. Mountains seem to surround the city that lies in the valley. We arrived 3 days ago and the snow is still covering the mountains. There are some mountains that rise to 6000 feet around western North Carolina.

The forecast here for tomorrow and the next day: snow. The low temperature expected for Monday night: 8 degrees!! Wow! And we thought we left Montana!

So according to the weather, we should have some snow photos to add tomorrow!

I will add that these are all Hunter's photos. He is serious about photography and we think he should be. :) He sells his photos, so if you're interested in seeing more of his photos that he doesn't put on the blog, please send him an email at: HunterStrozier@yahoo.com.

Last photos of Lake Keowee, SC

These photos were actually taken in November before the leaves fell.

These are photos of the moon! Incredible reflection of the sun, isn't it?