Lions, Tigers and Bears...oh my!

We had a wonderful weekend in Gatlinburg! Here's Kay and Lucy on the ariel tram up to Ober Gatlinburg. Here's a self-photograph of Chris and me.

Here's Chris, Fred, Lucy and Kay watching the bears at Ober Gatlingburg.

Eli wasn't quite sure what to think of the bears or the otters.

Here he is with a much more pleasant look on his face. This is his normal, happy-go-lucky look...such a go-with-the-flow guy...good thing, second child!

My girl and I having a little snuggle.

Here's Lucy outside the aquarium.

Here's Lucy petting a horseshoe crab inside the aquarium. We also saw some LIONfish.

Fred and Kay with Eli and Lucy after our hike.

Family photo

Lucy did a great job on the one-mile hike and didn't "run out of gas" until the very end...Chris was happy to give her a lift!

We watched UT lose to the Auburn TIGERS on Saturday evening. It was a terrible game...Chris said he wants to call UT and ask for four hours of his life back - ha!

A pretty exciting thing happened as we were packing to leave. Chris was loading the car and came running back into the chalet...he said, "Melissa, come here right now." As he was walking back into the chalet, a mother BEAR and her two cubs walked right down our driveway. The cubs actually sat down right next to our stuff and gave Eli's Boppy a few good sniffs. Thankfully, we didn't have any food out there yet...it would have been a long wait. They were awesome to watch...from the deck!

Thanks to Fred and Kay for a fun, relaxing weekend! We had a super time!