Smoky Mountains

I am, by no stretch of the imagination, a photographer. But I still like to take pictures because when you're deliberately taking pictures (especially for something like a blog post), you have to stop and look for the beauty. You're basically forced to enjoy God's Creation and I think that's pretty cool. So here are the pics from our trip to the Smoky Mountains a couple weeks ago.

Sunrise over the mountains

Pancakes for breakfast :)

This was outside the cabin in the picture above -
I thought it was a creative way to warn people :)

A mile is much too far for a four year old's legs.

She posed for me :D

So much snow we got an extra day of snowed in vacation!

An overlook near the cabin

What better way to get down the mountain than sliding on ice?

The pictures really don't do it justice and I'd love to go back. But for now, I can remember. :)

-Kira

Studying

After deciding to lock myself in my room for the next hour and a half to get some midterm studying done, I opened the curtains. That was a huge mistake since I already knew it was snowing. And peaceful snow drifting down in a soft blanket can be quite distracting when you're looking at ancient Greek plays. Sooo I took some pictures. (By the way, the falling snow is kind of hard to see because I took most of them through my bedroom window.)

I just had to add this one because it's making
my whole room smell like gingerbread. :)

All right, break over. Back to those plays ;)

-Kira

Banana Pudding

Marie and I made banana pudding today! I used to help Granny make it when we went to visit and I loved both making it and eating it. The simple combination of vanilla pudding, whipped topping, 'nilla wafers, and bananas has always made me excited and given rise to fond memories of mixing pudding in Granny's kitchen.

So I was really excited today when I got the chance to make this special dessert with my little sister! She loved the "cookies" ('nilla wafers) and tried to lick the spoon before we were done mixing. I loved to see her having fun with it, even though she ditched me before it was done. I guess the attention span of a three-year-old isn't quite banana pudding length. :-)

Caught Red-tongued :-P

-Kira

Smoothie Challenge

So my lovely little brothers wanted to supply me with something to post on here for you, so they took the smoothie challenge. There were eight ingredients for the smoothie - four good, and four less so. They were numbered and the boys had to choose a number at random then they were told what it was and it was added to their lovely creation.

1. mustard
2. chutney (5 years old)
3. peanut butter
4. basil
5. ice cream
6. horseradish
7. whipped topping
8. syrup

They ended up choosing mustard, chutney, peanut butter, ice cream, and syrup, but when we opened the chutney, it had gone bad (go figure). So they re-chose and got horseradish. Then they added ice and milk and I managed to get the reactions on camera.

awaiting their fate

looks appetizing, huh Eric?

the first surprisingly willing volunteer

this one actually liked it, believe it or not

he liked it too which is really surprising - and disappointing
because his disgusted face is the best of the four

the first sip.....were his big brothers lying about it being good?

he actually drank the whole thing

Which was your favorite? I think mine was the face-palm.

-Kira

Catch Up

So today I am finally doing a post summarizing a few of the many things that have happened lately.

The Ball
Daddy took Sara and I to the Heritage Ball at our church about a week and a half ago. There are live musicians and colonial line dances. We stayed out until midnight and were dead tired the next day.

The Walk for Life
The Walk for Life was a huge success!!! Over all, $32,050 was raised for the Pregnancy Resource Center - 107% of their goal!

Camping in Washington DC
We just got back from camping in DC about an hour ago. We got to go to the Air and Space Museum, the American History Museum, and the National Zoo. Marie LOVED the zoo! I mean, how cool is it to actually be able to see those elephants that are on Wild Kratts?

So that's that!

-Kira