Great Smokey Mountain getaway

We just got home from a quick trip to North Carolina. Brian was invited to attend a day camp at Western Carolina University on Saturday. The camp was for all prospective recruiters that the University has scouted out, and our son was one of the players. We are very proud of that. We left Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m. and registration started at noon. After a brief orientation of the campus and what it takes to receive a scholarship it was time for the boys to hit the field. It really was neat to see your child out there in there stadium and just imagining him playing for a University. The mountains surrounded this campus and the views were absolutely amazing.

I was a little crabby, well maybe a lot crabby, from being up all night before so we went and found a hotel for me to take a little nap. Hunter and I stayed at the hotel and took a nap while Stephen and Austin went back to the campus and watched Brian. Once the camp was over they came to the hotel and Brian told me all about what he learned. There were approximately 100 players at the camp and Brian said that when it was over they gave the guy's an opportunity to look at the clipboard and there were 5 players with star's beside them and Brian's name was one. We do not know what the star's mean, but we can only hope that it is good.

Sunday we ate breakfast at the hotel, packed up and headed for the river to raft. The water was about 55 degrees and freezing, but we were ready for some fun. We rented a raft and a blow up kayak. Brian started off in the kayak and the rest of us were in the raft. Heading down the river was pretty smooth. Austin and I were in the front paddling and Stephen was in the back steering the boat with his paddle. As we are going down the river we were acing all of the rapids and Stephen kept telling Austin and I how good we were doing. Then, we saw two rocks with some swift rapids up ahead. We are paddling as fast as we can to try to avoid the rocks (can you imagine this scene?). It happens... we hit the rocks HARD and Austin and I get knocked to the back, Stephen is holding Hunter, but we all made it with a face full of smiles. We learned our lesson on how to handle the rock situations and we headed back down the river for some more fun. We were looking for a bank where we could pull over and let some of the water out of our raft when we seen a bank where Brian was pulled over. The only problem was the bank was on the left and we had to paddle to avoid these rocks with swift rapids and then quickly paddle back to the left and make it to the bank. Well, we could not avoid the rocks. We hit one rock and you guessed it; man overboard. Austin went over! I was trying to help him back to the boat while worrying if a snake was going to get him and laughing the entire time. He survived with a tiny cut on his hand and we made it the bank. We were able to pose for some pictures in the water, let the water out of our raft, get a drink of gatorade, and we were off again.

Austin climbed into the kayak and Brian was in the raft with us helping me up front paddle. I was concerned about Austin because Brian eventually left us going down the river and I did not want Austin out of my site. He stayed really close to us as he got familiar with how to maneuver the kayak. As we drifted down the river a little more there were some rapids and we got separated. Austin hit a rock and got caught up and could not get off. Us, on the other hand, continued drifting down the river as we watched Austin rock the kayak and try to push himself off of the rock. Hunter was getting upset because he wanted to jump in and swim up river to save his bubbie. Finally, Austin wiggled his way loose. The rest of the ride was smooth for everyone. We had a really good time. It took us 1 1/2 hours to get down the river and by the time that we were finished we all were exhausted and ready for some lunch.

Our next stop is Georgia Southern on June 20Th. Stephen and I would love for Brian to attend Georgia Southern because he will be close to us. However, Brian has already told us that if he goes to N.C. we could just move up there and I could still cook for him. I think I would be all for that because it is gorgeous!