3/31-4/2/12 - Family Trip to Helen!

Lake Unicoi

Riding Daddy's shoulders around Lake Unicoi 

Last deck on the Lake Loop Trail



The new Babyland General

The birth of twins - Savannah and Bob (hey, the group of kids picked the names!)



Haylee, Mason, and I at the bottom of Dukes Creek Falls



We headed to Helen for a long weekend.  It'll be our last excursion as a family for a while.  We got to the cabin Saturday afternoon.  It was a nice 2 bedroom with a hot tub in Unicoi State Park.  After we got settled in, we went back into town and played mini golf.  Mason was done playing by the 13th hole, but we finished it out.  Afterwards, we went for ice cream at the parlor next door.  We headed back to the cabin for dinner - Adam grilled hamburgers and hotdogs.  We drove up to Anna Ruby Falls only to find out the park for that closes at 5 so we went back to the 'beach area' at Unicoi Lake and walked the Lake Loop Trail that eventually took us back out to the main road.  We finished up the trail (it was about 2 miles) and went back to the cabin.  The kids were exhausted so they got baths and went to bed!

Sunday, we got up early and drove into Cleveland for breakfast.  We went to Ma Gooch's and it was really good!!  After breakfast, we went to Babyland General (Adam was super excited!  Haha!).  We got there just in time to see a delivery of twins, a girl and a boy.  Haylee and I enjoyed ourselves, but Adam and Mason were ready to go before we got there (haha!).  Mason ended up bringing home a Hobby Horse that he named 'Galahad' and Haylee adopted a baby named Trista Bridget.  We drove back into Helen and went to see the bears and snakes at Black Bear Forest.  We fed the bears that were awake but mainly fed the grizzly bear.  He would sit up and wait for us to drop food.  We went into the reptile exhibits and looked at all the snakes, scorpions, and tarantulas.  Some of them were even for sale.  When we walked in, there was a guy holidng one he was interested in buying.  He offered Mason to pet it and he said no!  I really thought he would.  They had some rattlesnakes caged up, too.  Those were creepy!  We parked a little closer to town by the river and walked around.  We shopped at a few of the stores, but mainly people watched and enjoyed Helen.  We headed back to the cabin and relaxed for a couple of hours then headed back to Helen for dinner.  We ate riverside at Cafe International.  They had really good food and the kids enjoyed being able to watch the river as they ate.  We took a spontaneous trip a little farther north to find Dukes Creek Falls.  Haylee and I weren't prepared in our walking attire - she had on flip flops and I had on sandals.  Adam and Mason had on Converse so they weren't much better!  We had to walk a mile on a gravel path down a mountain (and the path would get more narrow as it went down) to get to the falls.  Once we got to the observation decks, the temperature dropped about 15 degrees and it was beautiful!!  Adam carved all 4 of our initials into the wood there to make our mark (haha!).  On the way back up, we noticed a trail off to the side that if we climbed up would take us back to the higher part of the trail (and cut off about a 1/4 mile of our walk).  So we decide to free climb up the side of the mountain about 100 feet in flip flops, sandals, and Converse (and Mason rode on Adam's back most of the way but he did his own share of climbing).  We had such a good time!!!  We were exhausted again and hit the sack early!

Monday was our day to leave :(  We had a great time all hanging out and spending time together.  Haylee and Mason had a blast and loved every minute of it!  Haylee got a headache on Saturday morning but once I got some food and Tylenol in her, she was fine the rest of the day.  She was never affected by the chemo injection and we were so grateful for that!!

We are back inpatient tomorrow at 2:30pm.  Haylee won't start chemo until they get her in a room but since we aren't checking in until the afternoon, we shouldn't have to wait too long.  Wish us luck and I'll keep everyone posted!  Have a great rest of your Monday :)