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Secret Keeper

Every time Joshua and I found out that I was pregnant, we decided not to tell anyone until after my first doctor's appointment. Yeah, right. We were NEVER able to do this. Expecting a baby is just way too exciting to keep to yourself. This time We finally did it! Yes, we are expecting Clark kiddo #5! I had my first doctor's appointment today and everything is going as it should. I am a little over 8 weeks and am due on May 28th. What's also cool is that I kept the secret. Even though I was tempted many, many times over the past four weeks to tell someone, I kept the cat in the bag. I feel like a have reached a milestone--I am more deserving now to be called an adult.

Fat Man in a Little Coat

Here's Dan's rendition of Chris Farley's "Fat Man in a Little Coat"

Great Smoky Mountains: Day 4

The highlight of Day four was our trip to Cataloochee.  Cataloochee is a remote valley with a meadow that is frequented by an elk herd and other wildlife.  We drove the 16 miles along the twisty dirt road and it was worth every minute.  See for yourself:

Great Smoky Mountains: Day 3

Wednesday was fun.  The day started with a quick breakfast after a night of drenching rain.  Everyone slept soundly and stayed dry; which is a defininte plus.  By dry, I meant, no one got wet from all the rain that fell during the night.  I guess I should be even more grateful that the kids all stayed dry during the night from all the bodily fluids that could reak havoc to a camping trip.  I'll take water over vomit, urine, diahrea, and blood any day.  All of these have most assuredly been experienced during one or more campouts in the past though, so our dues have been paid.

After breakfast, we headed off to the stables.  Again, it was quite a drive.  I should have looked at the distance to the stables from our camp before making the reservation, because it took us over an hour to drive to the stables from our camp!  When we arrived, we all got to ride in an open air carriage, whcih was pulled by a Percheron Draft horse named "Rob".  Rob was huge.  He was a beautiful animal, though mostly we saw hir rear end.  The carriage fit 8 people (6 in the back with 2 in the front: driver & shotgun).  The ride took us alongside a river.

After the carriage ride, Melissa, Lillian, and Morgan went on a trail ride that ended up going through a river.  Melissa said her horse tripped while crossing the river ans almost dumped her in the water.  She ended up with one foot in the water, but a soggy shoe is better than complete immersion!

Great Smoky Mountains: Day 2

The second day of our trip to the Great Smokies was full of car driving.  It wasn't intentional, I just underestimated the size of the park.  I guess I was used to the national parks in southern Arizona, which are much smaller than the GSMNP.  Oh well, the kiddos did great!  Even Dan and Kate didd pretty good, though we did wish there was some kind of "force-field" that we could have gotten as a dealer-installed option to keep Kate from touching Dan.  He's learned to fight back, which is not a good thing this early.

We started the day with a trip across the park via the Newfound Gap Road.  It is a road that bisects the park and travels in a general North-South direction.  As we traveled about, the views of the mountains covered with deciduous trees in the midst of their fall color change was breath-taking.  Really, it was amazing.  God is most assuredly an artist, as the colors that make up the fall are not something a mortal could come up with.  We got there too early for the peak of fall color, but it was still really nice.  As I look at the picture, I realize that the photo just doesn't do it justice.  It seemed to look much more red, orange, and yellow in real life.  Hmm.

After arriving at the trailhead to the summit of "Clingman's Dome", we all piled out of the car. Dan took his favorite spot in the backpack. I've gotten quite used to the weight of him being in the backpack, which is roughly 40lbs.  It's a good thing I was used to it too, because along the rather steep mile long hike to and from the summit, I ended up carrying Kate in my arms, with her huggin my chest.  I'll admit, I was winded when we arrived at the top.  Oh was it worth it though.  We were above the clouds, like poking our heads out from under a white blanket.  The peak, which stands at 6643 feet, is the third highest peak east of the Mississippi.  It's crazy to think how perspective changes when there isn't a plethora of western-Rockies-type mountains readily accessible.  I thought the mountains were huge, but then I have to temper that thought with what is in the west.  It's true, they don't have the height that the Rockies do, but at least they are covered with trees.

The trail to and from the summit is actually a portion of the Appalachian Trail, so we can truthfully say that we've hiked the Appalachian Trail (or at least a portion of it)  Here's proof!

The way back down was tougher.  The extra weight on my knees was too much, so Melissa had to carry Kate for a portion of the way down.  The extra weight of Kate is a better option than to listen to her whining.  She tends to whine quite a bit.  Even Dan recognizes the fact that Kate's a whiner.  He'll say, "Whining.  Kate.  Whining."  Too funny.

Here's another photo of me with Dan in the pack.  I took the picture myself, so it's a little rough.

In a nutshell, day #2 was also awesome.

Great Smoky Mountains: Day 1

I've decided to blog on our trip last week, one day at a time... so here's the first entry.

The kids had "Fall Break" this past week, so I took the week off and we went camping in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  The park is a HUGE mountainous park that lies along the eastern Tennessee border with North Carolina.  It was lovely.  We departed on our adventure early last Monday, and after a stop a Bass Pro Shops, we were on our way into the park.

The word on the street was that the park can be crowded, so after a little research, we discovered a rather remote camp, called "Big Creek".  Big Creek only had 12 camping sites, and it had no RV capabilities, and it was located along a dirt road that had some single lane bridges, so we figured it was a safe bet.  It was glorious.  We set up camp on Monday morning, and played in the creek.  We fished, though caught nothing.

Native brook trout are much easier to spook and are much more suspicious of unnaturally-appearing objects.  And they have a keen sense of smell, though from what I've read, it's hard to measure precisely how keen.  It has been demonstrated that a salmon with its supernatural sense of smell can detect when a man sticks his hand in the water 100 feet upstream! It has also been said that the olfactory system in fish is several times better than that of a good bird dog. There are differing reports of the actual numbers of olfactory cells in dogs, humans, and fish in what I've read, but suffice it to say that on average, the reports claim dogs have anywhere from 20-40 times more olfactory cells than humans.  Wow.  To dumb it down for myself, I thnk of the following analogous question:  Would you be hesitant to take a bite of a delicious-looking turkey dinner if it smelled like used motor oil? Ugghhh.

Okay, enough with fish biology, I just remember why trout bait is really nasty smelling:  the bait smell has to over power the smell of the human that put it on the hook.  So I had to tell the girls that when they're using flies instead of bait, they've got to be careful not to touch the fly if they can avoid it.

I got a few bites using a brown-colored Elk Hair Caddis fly, but landed nothing.  I gave Lilly fly casting lessons later, hoping that would yield more success.

Monday was Dan's second birthday, so we had baked potatoes covered with Que Bueno nacho cheese sauce (his favorite!) and Dump Cake with Ice Cream!  It was delicious!  I have to say that the gift of 50lbs of Que Bueno nacho cheese sauce that Nana and Papa sent Dan is still yielding meals of delight!  It was funny to see Morgan's reaction after tasting the Dump Cake and Ice Cream.  She exclaimed, "Oh Gosh!" and leaned back in ecstasy.