Day 3 - Outlet Shopping and Hiking

Sunday morning we woke up, had breakfast, and hit up some awesome outlet shopping!  The boys took the kids back to Dollywood, so it was just Pam, Sarah, and I (and sweet little Charli) and we SHOPPED TILL WE DROPPED!  Literally...we got some "lunch" at 3:30 on the way back to the cabin...there was too much good shopping we didn't have time to eat!  HA!  Then we all loaded up and headed for a hike in the Smoky Mountains, followed by a yummy supper in Gatlinburg.  FUN DAY!

Oh my gosh, all trip all we heard was "Charli, Charli, Charli!"  This girl is pretty hung up
over her sweet little cousin.  I feel like Charli probably has Brynn's lips indented on her forehead!

Each day a couple was in charge of breakfast.  Ryan and I did sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits for our
morning...they were pretty yummy!

I don't have any pictures of shopping, but let me tell you...I think it was worth the trip just for the incredible shopping!  My sweet little husband told me "hey, there is a Coach outlet!" I'm like "okay, but why are you telling me that.  You won't want me to buy a purse from there even with outlet pricing!"  When I left he said "have fun, get yourself some good stuff!"  So...first stop...Coach outlet.  I found 2 adorable purses.  I knew I wouldn't buy either one, but I sent Ryan pictures of me with each purse and said "which one do you think?"  He says "oh my gosh, this makes me nervous, but let's go with choice 1."  Well, choice 1 was a beauty, but I wasn't going to spend that kind of money.  Instead, the rest of the shopping trip I thought to myself...if he's okay with me splurging on that purse, just think about all the clothes I could get instead!  HA!  That's probably not the best idea, but it worked for me! Let me tell you, that alone might be the best secret ever...I'm going to start every shopping trip with a trip to the Coach outlet.  Then tell myself how much money I just saved and use it on clothes.  Sidenote - I didn't just shop for myself, I got Ryan and Brynn clothes too!

Scenic overlook in the Smokies!

Yes, she has one shoe off.  She takes her shoes off a LOT in the car, so we just went with it.
We were only out of the car about 3 minutes for this picture.  =)

Then we got to the hiking spot...the weather had cleared up a bit and we decided to brave the Laurel Falls hiking trail.  When we pulled in to park this guy was pulling out...he said "do you guys have young kids?"  When we told him yes, he said "just keep your eyes open, we just saw two bears on our way back down the trail."  AHHHH!  I think I was ready to turn around at that point, but evidently it's fairly common to see them out in the Smokies and you are just supposed to yell really loud and NEVER take food with you.  Unfortunately for Brynn and Ansley, we didn't allow them to take ANY snacks on the hike!  =) While we were hiking, Ryan says "I can already tell you what you are going to write on your blog about this hike...1 - about the man telling us about the bears (check...just told you that) and 2 - that you pushed the stroller up the entire trail (so check...I'm telling you that now.  Yes, I pushed Brynn's jogging stroller up the ENTIRE trail...when I was getting close to the top I was SO TIRED, but I wouldn't let Ryan finish because I wanted to claim that I did it all myself...ha!)

Yep, there I am pushing the stroller...it started out flat.  That lasted about 100 feet!

Finally made it to the top!

Heading back down.
Ansley wanted to ride in the stroller on the way back, and Brynn wanted to walk.

I think she was getting tickled by Daddy.

She is really into leaves and rocks...it took us quite a while to get down because she kept wanting
to pick everything up off the trail!  HA!

Then she started running too fast and face planted on the trail...poor thing!

Spinach and artichoke dip and chips...YUM!

We ended up having dinner at this really cool place in Gatlingburg.  It was SO YUMMY and the perfect place for kids.  Another GREAT day!!!