This afternoon's adventure

Can you see the Ada? We took Daddy back to our 2 mile hike to Crabtree Falls this afternoon. The girls were so excited to get him there, since he is the one who can do all the crazy climbing around on rocks with the three of them.. at once. 

My girls. My rough and tumble, mountain, bug and rock loving girls. 

More playing in the water.. and climbing up the rocks on the other side of the water fall. 

View from the little bridge. Then my battery died. So only iPhone pix for the rest of the trip. Guess who forgot the charger.. womp womp. 

We started this hike after Frankie woke up at 4:30.. so we didn't make it back here until almost 7. We dumped our tired, giggly, happy, muddy and damp girls into the giant two person tub in this delightful abode we are renting and they splashed in the warm water and bubbles until dinner was ready. The trail to the waterfall was filled with tiny little trickles of water heading down the mountain to the big falls. The girls call these "fairy showers"and the little puddles they splash into are "fairy bathtubs". They saw so many fairy houses that we lost count and even found fairy treasure map (a design made by wood grubs or bugs under some bark that had fallen off). All the talk of tiny people and their tiny world made them want to watch Arietty while they ate dinner so they are currently snuggled together in jammies under a comforter watching their favorite borrower. 

We are watching the sunset and sipping rye. A day well spent. 

Wildflowers in water glasses

This is the view from our deck this week. We are in Little Switzerland enjoying the mountain air while Stephen attends an artists retreat at Wild Acres. He spends his mornings there, we spend ours exploring, and we pick him up after lunch and spend the afternoons exploring together. Heaven must be like this...

The girls and I took a 2 mile hike down to a hidden waterfall on our first morning alone. 

Frankie hiked on her own for 3/4 of the way and spent small intervals of time on my shoulders resting her baby feet and legs. When she rides on my shoulders her little chubby hands rest on my forehead and she spends the ride kissing my hair. 

We packed our lunch down to the falls but.. the water took precedence.

Truth. Hiking back is always less fun than hiking there. Still 2 plus miles for this little gang.. not too shabby!

We are grilling out for dinner every night on the deck. A hot tub lives out there too and after little folks are in bed.. under the stars.. yes. Dinner hours have been super flexible and we hike right up until we can't go any further. This is  from our trip last night, after which we all had a late supper of burgers and dogs and grilled corn and assorted veggies. 

The girls have been sketching in special sketch books that Stephen got for this trip. 

Ada has decided she prefers the mountains to the beach. As a self proclaimed scientist, she is in her element. 

It seems we are waterfall hunters on this trip. This was our first falls on our first day here. We have since been to 3 other falls with more in our future. 

Lunch al fresco. Every day. 

Our dear friends came for the night. The only thing better than being here, was getting to share 18 hours with them here. 

 Our nightly fireworks show.

Frankie rests, they draw and paint with Daddy. 

Frankie wakes and we pack up and head to our afternoon adventure of choice. 

And there are little girl collected bouquets of wildflowers in water glasses..

..everywhere.