Happy 2012 and Happy Birthday Sonya

Last night we celebrated the New Year with our friends the Cissnas.  New Year's Eve is Sonya's birthday and over the years, we have had several occasions to ring in the New Year and sing Happy Birthday together (most memorable is a camping trip in Cades Cove - cold, bitter cold, freezing comes to mind).

The festivities were quiet and cozy, snacks, pizza and a competitive game of Hearts. Sonya and Mac are pretty serious about their Hearts, John and I are not.  Some day we will be able to give them a run for their money but last night was not the night.  We lost miserably, 529 to 423.  I attribute our poor performance to the new deck of cards, stiff and difficult to shuffle .... I'm just sayin'.

Sonya and me in her new kitchen.  Mac has been remodeling in between his other activities.  He does the most meticulous work!!

John petting Barkley the Cissna's Weimaraner rescue dog as Mac looks on

Seems like the Smith family is not the only one with a tradition of ice cream birthday cakes.  Mac picked this one up at Baskin Robbins, white cake with vanilla icing.  It was delicious! 

Okay, let the games begin...

John studying his options

Mac doing the same

Sonya trying to decide if she can go "low 50"

Me showing my hand...."see I told you I didn't have anything good"

Today we took it easy, a short walk in the morning and took in a movie midday.  Our pick was "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".  John had read the book, I have not.  We agreed that the movie was a 2 thumbs up , John was  surprised at the graphic depiction of the violent parts.

As our day winds down, we are looking forward to country ham, biscuits and black-eyed peas for dinner.  Southern food at it's best. 
  

Happy New Year from us!

A very special birthday celebration...

Last night a groups of over 25 friends gathered together to celebrate the birthday of one our favorite people and hiking companions, Barbara Allen.  Will Skelton hosted drink, appetizer and dessert affair and I must say, the food was delicious! We last celebrated Barbara's birthday in 2006 (click on link)

http://outandbackblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/can-you-believe-it-our-longtime-friend.html 

with several of the same people.  The 2006 affair was a surprise party.  Unfortunately, we did not think we could pull another one over on Barbara so we didn't try.  

I think I have everyone pictured below.  If not, I apologize, the rest of my photos will be on Picasa soon. 

       Host Will Skelton and the birthday girl.  They have been hiking together over 20 years!

Ron Shrieves arriving at the party, followed by his wife, Ginger and hiker extraordinaire, Steve Harvey

                                                       BJ Perlack and Priscilla Watts

Ron setting up the slide presentation that he and Will had pulled together....20 years of  hiking with Barbara! 

The photos started another round of story telling, which resulted in lots of laughter!  Even the dangerous and risky stuff becomes a funny tale when looking back.

                                From the left:  John, Steve Harvey, Bill Adams, Silke Hecht

                                                       Lighting the candles on the cupcakes

From left:  Ron Shrieves, Robin Ferguson, Kim Robinetter (almost hidden), Will Skelton and Barbara

At this point, the cupcakes are lite and Will is making the first of a number of birthday wishes and toasts to Barbara.  Everyone is keeping one eye on the cupcakes and one eye on the group.  In the back of everyone's mind?  Can we get through the speeches before the cupcakes catch on fire???!!!

From left: Gary Cox, Steve Dyer, Terri Cox, Kim Robinette, Bob Hill, Ron Shrieves, Robin Ferguson

Barbara opening a present with BJ to her left.  Behind them is Bob Perlack. Sitting on the couch between John and Robin is Linda Morrison.

                                                          The Smith-Dunlap family
As I looked over the group in the room last night, all talking, laughing and celebrating, it occurred to me that our lives are forever bound together by so many shared adventures on the trail.  Among this diverse group is a lawyer, a couple of veterinarians, several small business owners, several scientists, a professor, a retired military officer (female no less!), a nutritionist, a retired nurse (early retired :-), a retired school teacher,  a retired engineer, a secretary or two and a couple of stay at home moms  Some of us have traveled around the globe together, even more have traveled to the far reaches of the North American continent together.  All of us have scrambled up mountains or backpacked deep in the forest together and lived to re-hash the stories together, over and over and over...I could have listened all night!   Happy Birthday Barbara!  It is an honor to call you friend.  I hope this year will be your best yet! 

Good-bye September, so long October...

The weather has finally settled into fall and we watch as the days fly by.  One glance at the calendar reminds me that the moments of my life slip by without capture, my blog posts are becoming further and further apart. I am still working out the kinks of being married, working full time and doing all the other stuff I use to do.  I have been mostly successful at the important stuff and mostly unsuccessful at the rest.  You'll have to ask John which is which :-)

The following is the month of October in quick review...




On Sunday, October 3, we took our annual trip to Carver's Apple Barn in Cosby, TN.   It was a cool, grey day.  Low hanging clouds and light rain made for dramatic scenery. 


We have been to Cosby for apples almost every year since we started dating (in 2000). We take a picture at the same pull off every year.  In a few years, we will have a pictorial essay of our aging!  



In the early days, we purchased 1/2 bushels of our favorite apples. I spent days coring, peeling and dehydrating apples to enjoy on various backpacks during the upcoming year. These days we aren't backpacking as much so we sample from the many baskets of apples, choose a few favorites and buy small bags to take home and dehydrate. This year we also picked up some blueberry jam and honey.

Saturday, October 9th found us at the Hola Festival.  Our favorite festival moved from Market Square to the 100 block of Gay Street, which provided all 27 participating countries more space.  

Did I say this is our favorite festival??!!!  Lots of good food and music...



Sunday, October 10, we were still in the festival mood so we headed to Maryville for the Fall Foothills Festival. The usual crafty booths, banjo music, hot dogs and funnel cake stuff left us a little disappointed. Typical East Tennessee festival atmosphere. We have marked this festival off our "must repeat" list!!

Sunday, October 17, we decided to take a walk. We didn't want to do the usual walk around the block so we ended up taking a walking tour of Mead's Quarry and Ijams Nature Center.  The "walk" extended much longer than expected and by the time we walked home, we had logged six miles. Summer flowers were still blooming wildly even amongst the changing autumn leaves.  

Us at Mead's Quarry

The weekend of October 22-24 rolled around pretty quickly and we found ourselves hosting John's sister Laura and her husband Richard for the Tennessee-Alabama game.  They drove their Harley up from Tuscaloosa, AL Friday night  and joined us and John's son Lee for dinner at the new Brazilian restaurant Brazeiros Steakhouse.  It was a bad experience for all, long wait (even with reservations), questionable service etc.  We won't repeat the experience.

Saturday morning the four of us went to Market Square for breakfast at the Market Square Kitchen.  The place was packed with football fans from both teams.  Slow service again but tolerable because we weren't paying the grande bucks.  After breakfast, Laura and Richard  hopped on the motorcycle and headed to the Maryville Harley shop while John and I strolled through the Farmer's Market.  Saturday evening we shuttled Laura and Richard to and from the game. It was a late night for us and we enjoyed sleeping in Sunday morning.

Sunday morning, October 24, we decided to do a Fall 2010 Colors Tour.  The Foothills Parkway, which rolls through the the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains National Parkway is only 35 minutes from the house and is less traveled by leaf peepers which makes it the perfect choice. 

The colors were great, the traffic light and we had a lot of fun driving through the foothills and Happy Valley. 

Beautiful...

October is a special time of year for us because we celebrate my Dad's birthday, 87 years this year.  We had our first celebration on his official birthday, October 26 at Shannondale Nursing Home, so my Mother could participate. Dinner included her favorite food, Kentucky Fried Chicken and cupcakes from The Cupcakery. 

Today, Sunday, October 31, we had our big birthday celebration at my house.  We grilled steak, roasted potatoes and asparagus.  Getting the family together is always a good time though we missed Mother's presence.

Me, Daddy and Carol  (Leslie and Mike were not here yet, John is behind the camera).  Below, the birthday boy!

The last of the summer family celebrations...

My sister celebrated a really BIGGGGGGG birthday today. As she turns over another decade, it reminds me that I am just a few years from the BIGGGGGG birthday myself. How did time slip away so fast!!? Anyway, this is the last of the summer family celebrations. It will probably surprise you to know that we did not take dinner to Shannondale to share with our mother but went out to eat instead. We did take dessert to the nursing home, cupcakes, to be shared by all.

A pic of John and me from the day...

A busy June weekend...

Busy June weekend for us. Mid-Saturday morning, we met my family at Shannondale for a family "group" birthday (read to celebrate Leslie and my birthdays). The Smith family has so many summer celebrations that combining a few here and there works for all of us. We did the usual food, presents and cupcakes. Always a good time with family, we cherish every moment.

Saturday evening our plans included dinner with friends, Will and Kim. Will, a vegetarian, pulled together a dinner of black beans and rice with a middle eastern (sorta) influence. We brought fresh strawberries and blueberries served over cheese cake. Lots of chatter and laughter. As usual, our talk somehow gets around to travel. John and I will have a slow travel year thanks to my new job and other issues but have a couple of plans on the burner for next year! Meanwhile we look forward to hearing about Will's August trip to Colorado and Will and Kim's August trip to Peru.

Will always does a great job in the kitchen, lots of great food thoughtfully prepared.

Happy 86th b'day sweet mother...

Fine birthday celebration today for my Mother. We had all her favorite fixings (none of them healthy), hotdogs, chili, french fries and cupcakes. She was still feeling bad but soldiered through the event with a smile. A few photos from the festivies are below.

A special celebration coming up...

Tomorrow we have the honor of celebrating my Mother's 86th birthday. She hasn't been feeling particularly well this week but hopefully she will be feeling up to a small party. She has only two foods she asks for when we bring food in, Kentucky Fried Chicken and hot dogs. Mother's Day was KFC so tomorrow will be hot dogs, Hardees Hot Dogs with all the fixings. I am going to need to climb off the gravy wagon once this meal is over.

My gifts are small, a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates, my mother loves both. I was a little disappointed with the floral bouquet selections at the store. They appear to be Mom Day's leftovers but maybe they will stay nice and cheery for a few days.



Happy Birthday Mother!