Guess what I saw this weekend...

This weekend Kirsten & Co dropped by for a visit on their way north.  While they were here we went on a short little hike.  She's been driving practically daily since they left Nevada over 2 weeks ago (with 3 children) so a good hike was just what they needed.

As we headed toward the park, traffic was stopped. 

We hadn't even gotten into the National Park and already a bear jam.

This was a big ole bruiser.  Remembering of course that I always use a zoom and never get that close, but still he was closer than I felt comfortable.  I snapped a few pictures then hopped in the driver's seat so Kirsten could take some pictures with her super duper camera.

I stole this picture off Jay's facebook, but will share the rest of the pictures from our trip when I get unlazy a chance.

What excitement did you have over the weekend?

Wanna see a bear!

I will never forget the day of my wedding heading in to Cades Cove (in the National Park where the ceremony took place) my dad shouting at the window to cars stopped in the street "If you wanna see a bear go to the d*mn zoo." 

That's one of those family moments that gets funnier with age.

What can I say - we're a family of crankies.

(That's my dad's brother.  We go to his house every Super Bowl.   One year he went on and on about how he hated Cades Cove and would never go back again.  Jay and I just started laughing - while we weren't yet engaged we knew we were headed that direction and had already discussed getting married in the Cove.  Uncle David not only went back to Cades Cove for the wedding, but went a week in advance to get some good video footage of the leaves during peak season.  He was our videographer.)

Moving right along...

Memorial Day weekend had perfect weather for putting the top down in the Jeep and riding around.  Jay was armed in the front seat with his camera, and I in the back with mine.

As always we stopped at "our" church for pictures.

Don't ask me why Jay didn't change out of his church clothes.  We both packed shorts and a t-shirt because we weren't going home after Worship Service.  He told me not to nag him about it, that he was comfortable.  But its weird right?

My mom would probably kill me for posting this picture.  Good thing she doesn't read my blog!!

Our first wildlife spotting of the day.  Jay was afraid that we wouldn't see anything because we were driving the loop in the heat of the day.  Thankfully that wasn't the case.

I love this picture of me.  I look skinny or something.  :P

Could it be??? Is it??  It is - a bear jam!!

As always please note that I used the zoom on my camera.  Getting too close to bears (especially like this mama who's cubs weren't very far away) kills people!

Then it was time to dip our toes in the creek and read the Sunday sale paper.

Yes - he has a shirt that says "I'm bringing Grumpy back."

The family photographer loves playing with the settings on the camera.  Good thing one of us is good at that kinda thing!

Some one's not happy that he's missing his Sunday afternoon nap!

How'd you spend your Memorial Day weekend?

Fun Times Friday

Things have been a bit heavy around here lately, so I thought I'd lighten it up with some pictures from a hike Jay and I took over Martin Luther King Jr. day.

As you can see the trail was snowy/icy, but we didn't let that stop us!  I hadn't been able to hike for several months thanks to all my marathon training, so it was nice to be back enjoying the National Park.

It was really a gorgeous day for it, and because of the weather we pretty much had the whole trail to ourselves.  Coming back we met some people, but on the way out and while we were at the falls we had the place to ourselves. 

My bladder was very thankful that the trail wasn't crowded.  With all the snow and ice, I didn't want to go too far off the trail to do my business.  Since it was just me and my darling love, I didn't have to try to hide.

With the exception of this one, all of the photos were taken by Jay.  He didn't want me getting that close to the falls, since its rated one of the deadliest in the country.  Mostly because people try to climb in the rocks to the left of the falls.  Or else while swimming they get too close to the falls and drown.

I very much have the "if you can do it so I can" attitude about things.  Especially since he's the one with special health considerations. 

I have no special narration for this photo, but I think I look skinny so I'm sharing it.

That's a wrap yo!

PS - We did the hike in just under 2 hours.  Not sure how anyone could take 4 hours to hike it on a clear day.  We had to go slower than we would have liked because of all the snow.

Gifts of the Body Part 2

Now before you go looking for part 1, there isn't one.  At least on my blog any way.  I stumbled upon Faith, Fitness, Fun yesterday afternoon.  I was excited to read her 30 Days of Self love challenge and even more thrilled to see that she is a Christian. 

While faith in Jesus Christ isn't a requirement for the challenge (it doesn't even factor in if you don't want it to) it gave me the assurance that we wouldn't be getting into any self worship. Without Christ I am nothing.  Part of my self esteem issues come from leaving Him out of my life and trying to do things my own way.  My own way = superficial + shallow.

During this challenge she's encouraging us to...well I'll just let her tell you.

We need to shift the qualities with which we define them from aesthetic ones to purposeful ones. Hopefully, after completing 4 rounds of this exercise and having to come up with 12 different parts of ourselves we recognize as a gift, we will grow to love our bodies more and more.

I'm going to give it a try.  I'm not going to be able to get all the rounds in.  Or maybe I'll just spill over into October.

Here goes.

1) My hands/fingers.

I love to read.  Nothing says comfort to my brain like the pages of a warn out old paperback in my hands.  Or the soft leather of my NIV Study Bible, as I turn the thin pages with my fingers.  I need my fingers and hands for all the list making I do.  As well as my blogging.

Not to mention is the perfect perch for my ultimate bling:

If you're new to my blog, please know that the day I said "I do" I got another ring to stack behind that one - complete with 10 more small diamonds.  My husband use to be a Larry Byrd fan and was redneck sweet enough to want me to have 33 diamonds - Byrds jersey number.

2) My arms

These arms are made for hugging.  I'm not sure who gives better hugs, my niece or husband.  Nothing makes me feel more loved then when they wrap their arms around me.  The picture above is a tame hug on her part.  I'd just ran 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 44 minutes.  I was exhausted and wouldn't have been able to hold her had she jumped in my arms like she normally does.

3) My Feet

These feet have carried me lots of miles.  Of course the 13.1 mentioned above.  Plus a 26.2 mile walk.  And countless hikes in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Sure my grandmother sees my long, skinny feat and sees nothing but problems.  I've inherited her feet and she just recently had to undergo foot surgery.  She swears its that they are too skinny to handle all the pressure of carrying her body.   I doubt that's a doctor's diagnosis.  All I can say for sure is that for the past 30 years these feet have served me well.  I pray that they'll continue to do so for the next 50-60 year

4) My Lips

I think from the picture its obvious, I'm a lady who knows how to take charge.  It was I that took the lead and kissed him when he was too shy.  (3 dates ladies - I had to wait until the end of date 3.  And who knows how long it would have taken had I left it up to him!)

I've come to realize in the past few months that my spirtual gift is encouragement.  Sometimes it comes in the forms of the words I say.  Other times its the words I type to my efriends.  (See #1)

I hope you take a moment to reflect on yourself - think about how well your body has served you all these years.  Rejoce!  Try to love the woman in the mirror just a little more each day.

"Hi pot, its the kettle here."

Trust me, I'm working on it!

More Fun with Random Pictures

Thanks for playing along with me yesterday!  I got a wide range of guesses - from Amy thinking I was going to pop out of the basket to surprise Jay...to Debbie's guess that I was going to stuff him in the basket!

Of course the reality of the picture was much more boring.  Jay had to take pictures of that cabin for a client of his and I tagged along for the ride.

The first cabin we visited was much less fun.  It was a vacant cabin with no furniture or air conditioning.  The second cabin on our stop was much more my speed.  I headed straight for the leather couch and made myself comfy.

Being the Nosey Rosey that I am - I went straight for the guest book.  I just love to read about other people's vacations.  I especially love when they over share!  As was the case with Dale and Jennifer.  I got to read all about how they met on eharmony (and just before his subscription was going to expire) and within weeks found themselves at this cabin getting to know one another better.

 

9 months later at Christmas, he surprised her with another visit to "their" cabin.  Perched in front of the blazing fire, he dropped to one knee and asked her to be his wife.  When I first started reading aloud from the book, Jay thought I was making it all up.  Then he asked me to read, while he was recording video for  his client.  Thankfully his client was good humored about it and appreciated my 'radio reader' style commentary.

(Unfortunately the video was 10 minutes of looking at the entire cabin from top to bottom and couldn't figure out how to edit it to share only the brief portion of me reading the 5 page guest book entry.)

Later, we find in the book, Jennifer's daughter and her new husband are given the cabin as a wedding gift from her mother.  Then Jenn and Dale revisit their cabin and reiterate how much they love this cabin and how they are happier than every.  Unfortunately, the cabin didn't provide such good fortune for Jenn's daughter, as she and her husband divorced.

Seriously - the mom felt the need to give us the update in the guest book.  Over share anyone?

As I peered into the lives of those who had traveled that path before me, Jay continued on his work.  Taking a shot of the fireplace and the living room area from the kitchen, he asked me to duck down.  I obliged, then ask him to take a picture of me from the other direction, for blogging purposes of course.

(Please note the shoes, they'll be important later in the story.)

Jay finished up taking pictures and I decide to give his client one final greeting.  What could be better than a cabin where people fell in love, celebrated their love (many anniversaries recorded), and got divorced?

A giant picnic basket of course!!

After I displayed the basket for the camera in true Barker's Beauty fashion, Jay and I packed it up and headed to the real romantic spot - the section of the National Park where he and I married.

I've posted a million blogs about Cades Cove and a billion pictures of it.  It never disappoints.  There is just something about driving back there, rolling the windows down, and being as close to nature as you possibly can be in the comfort of your car.

It was a hot day so the front portion of the 11 mile loop was disappointingly short on wildlife.  Even the turkeys that always greet us at the entrance were noticeably absent. 

Before we came across these two bucks, our wildlife count was a dismal couple of deer.  (We've seen over 50 in one visit before.) Traffic was pretty backed up, so Jay assumed that it was a bear jam.  No such luck - but he still managed to score a few pictures out of the deal.

While these deer are wild, they're also protected by the park from hunting.  They have no reason to fear humans.

While deer sitings are common in the Cove, it is unusual to see two bucks with such big racks together like that.  What you are about to witness is the one and only time I'll let my husband view a sets of racks like this.  Otherwise its eye muffs all the way! ;)

The it was finally the moment Jay had been waiting for - a bear jam!  We pulled over to the side of the road, afraid that the bear had already scampered off, but others already there taking pictures quickly pointed to the bear in the trees.

I'll remind you again that Jay has an excellent zoom on his camera.  This guy was pretty far away.  We were close enough, however, to see him climbing up and down the tree which was pretty cool. 

Remember my shoes from earlier?  I had worn that outfit to church because it was something that I could get by with wearing to service, then wear around our travels.  Slightly casual for church, but over dressed for a lazy afternoon.

As we were headed back to the car from seeing the bear, I commented to Jay about how ridiculous it was I was wearing wedge heels in the National Park.  "If I weren't me, I'd make fun of me."

Less than a minute later, a car passed - the lady in the driver seat hung her head out and said "Nice shoes!"

I sh*t you not.

Jay swears there is no way she could have heard me.  We just couldn't figure if she was being serious or sarcastic.

And that was our Sunday afternoon.  I'll leave off the part about how I got home at 9:45 PM and had to make cupcakes.  More story for another day.