29 June 2017

Visit to Lees in California

At the end of June I flew out to California to visit the Lees in Bakersfield. Adri picked me up at the LA airport, and on our way out of town we went to the visitor's center of the LA Temple.


Even though it had been several months since I'd seen him, Carson let me hold him.
This view of the temple was taken from the car as we drove by.
Reading bedtime stories is one of my favorite things to do with the grandchildren.
A picture of Carson because he looks so cute!
Kent flew in to LA a couple of days after I did, and after we picked him up from the airport we went to the La Brea Tar Pits.
One of the workers showing the girls and granddad a saber tooth tiger skull. Granddad was demonstrating the way the jaw worked.
One of the mastodon skeletons pulled from the tar pits. It was a very interesting place.
Sophia found a tree to climb outside of the museum.
Back in Bakersfield, the girls showing Granddad some of the carrots grown in their garden.
One of the main reasons we were there was to celebrate Grace's 3rd birthday. The birthday crown she's wearing is from the card we gave her.
She had a yellow birthday party because she loves yellow (just like her mommy did.)
It was the first time we've been able to celebrate Grace's birthday with her.
I thought this was a sweet pose!
For her birthday I made Grace a yellow dress like Belle's from "Beauty and the Beast"
She  loved it and had fun twirling around in it. Grace is little miss Fancy.
With her birthday balloons.
I liked this picture because Carson is sitting on his blanket from Great Grandma Christensen.
Granddad likes helping out in the yard.
A cute picture of Grace and Carson with Granddad.
The big girls playing with the wooden swords Granddad made.
We always like to get some pictures of us with the grandkids.

Granddad feeding Carson.
Some nice family pictures before we went to church.
We had so much fun spending time with the Lees in California and celebrating Grace's 3rd birthday!

18 June 2017

Southern Virginia and the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee

The sights to see in Virginia seem to be endless. I heard about the town of Bristol, Virginia, where the state line between Virginia and Tennessee ran right through the middle of town.
 We stayed at a hotel in Bristol since it was close to some other places we wanted to see. Besides the awesome sign, there wasn't too much else happening in Bristol, other than a country music museum. We weren't interested in going to it. 
Who knew that Bristol, Viriginia was the birthplace of country music?
There are "LOVE" signs all around Virginia, but this was a unique one, celebrating country music.
Not far from Bristol was another Virginia destination we wanted to see, called Natural Tunnel State Park.
We rode a chair lift to get down to it from the entrance of the park.
As the name suggests, there's a tunnel through the rock that was large enough to build a railroad track through back in the 1800's.
We weren't able to go through the tunnel since it is an active railroad track.
This was a cabin typical of those built in the area in the late 1770's.

At the same state park there was a reproduction of a fort that had been in that area during the Revolutionary War. Every year they stage a reenactment of a battle at this site.

The state park was in the part of the country where Daniel Boone traveled. I always thought he was from Kentucky.
Next we drove into Tennessee to go to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

There were amazing views everywhere we looked.

I thought this photo was a good representation of why they're called the Smoky Mountains.
This is an observation tower in the Great Smoky Mountains National park called Clingman's Dome. It's  built on a hill and was quite a hike to get up to it, but the views were pretty spectacular.
Clingman's Dome is the highest point in the state of Tenessee.
This was taken on top of the tower.
It's said you can see SEVEN states from Clingman's Dome on a clear day. They are: Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi. Crazy, huh?
The Appalachian trail cuts through the Great Smoky Mountains, so we took the occasion to hike along if for a short distance.
Clingman's Dome is located on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee.
One reason we wanted to go was to see the wild rhododendrons in bloom. We were disappointed that there weren't more blooming; we had to look pretty hard to find them.
When we did find them, we learned that in the wild rhododendrons aren't very colorful, but mostly a very pale pink.
This was a waterfall in the park.
The area of Tennessee where we we visiting has another claim to fame--Dollywood. We drove past the entrance to the park several times since it was off of a major highway. I think it's brought lots of jobs and prosperity to the region.