Summer Fun

This is a picture of my grandson Jeremy enjoying a quiet summer evening blowing bubbles.

The last few days have been quite busy so I haven't posted much.Need to get caught up on posting my pedometer readings.We have been staying busy with some summer fun.Went to a family cookout Thursday evening.It was nice to catch up with family news and relax awile.After enjoying the food we were treated to some fireworks that my niece and her husband put off.They live way out in the country where it is so dark that you can really appreciate the fireworks.

Friday evening we went to a local national baseball league farm team game.It was so much fun.Hadn't been to a game in years.The atmosphere was family friendly with between inning games for the children to enjoy.Baseball caps were given out to the first 500 people through the gate.

Last night was our area wide fireworks show.It was held after the baseball game

.Took our grandson to his first upclose fireworks show.He really enjoyed it.

It has warmed up here so my walking has slowed down some.Don't have as much energy when it gets near 90.Believe it went over 90 today.

Friday I accumulated 8,029 steps for 4 miles

Saturday I accumulated 4429 steps for 2 miles

Sunday(today) I accumulated 6982 miles for 3.4 miles

Uh Oh Lizzy Bear

This is granddaughter Mariah's creat a bear that was made in Gatlinburg,TN.I had the spelling wrong the other day.The bear's name is Uh Oh Lizzy Bear.

Reflections...What is in a number...steps and mileage??

This is granddaugter Mariah enjoying a dish of ice cream at McDonald's play area.As you can see she really enjoys ice cream!!

We were invited to a cookout yesterday at my niece's house.She and her family live way out in the country.I was curious as to how far they live from us so I kept an eye on my odometer while driving.Their house is 13 miles from us.Five of those miles are down a narrow curvy country road.

That got me to thinking about my pedometer.I measure my steps daily and use a chart on my computer to convert the steps to miles.I know that it is an average but since I don't want to get bogged down in numbers I am using the average stride of 2,000 steps equaling 1 mile.

Yesterday I had a little over 5,900 steps on my pedometer.It would have been nice to have my reading higher but that is what I walked all day and I accept it.After returning home last night I was thinking about that long curvy country road to my niece's house being 5 miles off of the two lane main road.That is a long way to drive down such a curvy country road especially driving it after dark!!.It dawned on me that 5 miles is a long distance to walk!! I will never again think of 5 miles being just a number or even 3 miles being just a number.It is a great accomplishment getting in that many steps in a day.I will strive for 10,000 but will now realize how well I am doing if I get in 6,000 steps a day.

Yesterday's pedometer reading was 5,946 steps which equals just about 3 miles.

July 4th 2007

This is another picture I found online of the Great Smoky Mountains.I forgot to take my camera the day we rode into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park so found some pictures online.I was amazed at how the trees on some of the mountain tops are bare as this picture shows.We are thinking that it could be from lightening strikes or a tree desease.

I am hearing fireworks outside as I write this.Our town won't be having our fireworks display till Saturday evening.They are held after our minor league baseball team's game as close to the 4th as possible.They aren't at home this year on the 4th so the first that they will have a home game after the fourth is this Saturday the 7th.

I continue to do well with my walking.Didn't post my steps for yesterday.I accumulated 8,752 steps on my pedometer yesterday which is 4.4 miles.Today I accumulated 6,573 steps on my pedometer which is 3.3 miles.

Ugh Oh Lizzy Bear....Gatlinburg TN

This is a picture of "THE CHIMNEYS" in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

I had forgotten to mention that last Thursday we also drove into Gatlinburg and walked around and visited some of the shops.Daughter Kimberly had promised one of her friends that she would pick up a glass blown object that she'd had made and paid for earlier in the year.It was quite interesting since we weren't sure which store we were looking for.All we knew was that it was on the "strip" and it was a blown glass shop.We were walking and passed a blown glass shop so Kimberly went in and it was the correct place.We had passed by another shop on our way to look for parking so we were really heading to the other shop but accidentally found the correct one,lol.

Another stop we made was to a shop where you "build" your own stuffed animal.Kimberly wanted to build a stuffed animal for granddaughter Mariah since we had done the same with Jeremy when he was 2.Mariah picked out a cute teddy bear stuffed animal and had it stuffed then close a cute dress for it.Kimberly asked Mariah what she wanted to name it.Mariah said Ugh Oh so Kimberly named it Ugh Oh Lizzy Bear on the bear's "birth certificate".I picked out Lizzy,Mariah picked our Ugh Oh and Kimberly picked out bear,lol.That was a fun experience.I need to take a picture of Ugh Oh Lizzy Bear and post it here.

Our Vacation To The Smoky Mountains Area

I found this picture on line and fell in love with it.It is such a glorious scene of the sun coming up over the Smoky Mountains.

We had a wonderful vacation.It was too hot for our liking though.The days were in the mid 90's with high humidity.Our air conditioned hotel room and pool came in very handy.We live in the mountains of southern West Virginia where it rarely gets above 90.Last month it went above 90 twice so free lemonade was given out twice the day after the temperature went to 90 or above.We know that if it is 90 or above here in our area it is much hotter most other places.

One of the things we enjoy doing on vacation is getting off the beaten path and find hidden jewels be it either places to see or places to eat.Our first evening there we wanted to find a place to eat where we hadn't eaten before.Another rule on vacation is that we don't like to eat at places that we have here in our rural area.I saw a small bbq restaurant on our way into Pigeon Forge going in the back way.We ate at the restaurant for dinner and loved it.The food was so good.An added bonus was that the owner and his brother played their guitar and banjo while everyone ate.They played Bluegrass music and some old country music tunes.It was such an enjoyable time.That is one restaurant that we will return to on trips back to that area.I would highly recommend it.

Later that evening I persuaded daughter Kimberly to take a walk with me while pushing granddaughter Mariah in her stroller.I had heard so much about going to the Krispy Kreame doughnut store when the hot light was on.So we took a walk down that way and bought a dozen warm doughnuts.Both of us were rather disappointed.The doughnuts tasted way too sweet when warm.They were more to our liking the next morning.Maybe it is just what we are used to but all of us agreed that we enjoyed the doughnuts much more the next morning.

The next day was the day set aside for Dollywood.It was a very warm and humid day.The temperature was in the mid 90's and the park was crowded.All of the walking that I've been doing for the last two months really paid off in Dollywood.I never got tired in the heat and enjoyed the walking.Wasn't tired and sore the next day which is what usually happens after a day at an amusement park.We were able to ride the water raft ride together although granddaughter Mariah was too short for the ride.They have a parent swap policy so Kimberly waited with Mariah while I rode the ride.When it came back around I got off and Kimberly got on and everyone else got to ride again.

Granddaughter Mariah who is 2 1/2 loved the Merry Go Round.I rode it three times with her.It was a great way to cool off with the breeze cooling you off as you go round and round,lol.

By 5:30 we were quite tired and heard thunder in the distance.Having heard the thunder we decided that it was a good time to leave.Only got as far as the exit when a down burst came.We all got drenched waiting for the tram ride to take us to the parking area where our car was parked.Glad we left then.Lots of people were leaving but it would have been much worse if we had waited a little longer to leave.The rain let up by the time we got to our car .There was a beautiful rainbow in the sky.I showed it to my grandson Jeremy.He was in awe of it like I was:)

Thursday was the day that we were going to have a picnic in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.Since the weater was so hot we decided that a picnic wasn't such a great idea after all.We took off to explore a town that was new to us.We drove down a country road looking for the town.We were planning on eating lunch in that town.We were all hungry since we didn't make it to the motel's continental breakfast.Never did make it to the town since we saw a restaurant that looked good for lunch.They served a country cooking lunch buffet.The fried chicken was some of the best that I have ever eaten.Wish we could find some that good in our area.We rode into the Great Smoky Mountain park and took in the scenery and enjoyed a nice ride.

Got back to the motel in plenty of time to take in some pool time.Later that evening we attended the live show at Memories Theatre.It is a Legends Show with different impersonators appearing nightly.Our show consisted of Barney Fife,Tim McGraw,The Blues Brothers and Elvis.It was a very enjoyable evening.The highlight was when grandson Jeremy went on stage with other children to help "Tim McGraw" with the Fly Away song.They offered DVDs of the show for sale so I ordered one and picked it up after the show.Jeremy has been having a blast watching himself on DVD.It is keeping him entertained,lol.

Friday was spent at some of the outlet stores then we left for home around 2.Got home safely after such an enjoyable time away.

Saturday we took our grandson to see the movie Ratatouille.We all enjoyed it very much.

Catching Up After Vacation

Been busy since getting home from vacation.Haven't written here in awhile but that doesn't mean that I haven't been walking.I continue to walk and get in lots of movement every day.

This picture was taken of hubby Ken in the hotel pool with our two grandchildren Mariah and Jeremy.We had a very nice vacation but didn't care for the hot weather and high humidity.

I wore my pedometer while on vacation.I walked a total of 43,106 steps which equals 21.6 miles.It was easier for me to keep a step total since I have a step to miles conversion on my computer.I converted the total of steps to miles on my return home.

I must admit that all of the walking I have been doing up till vacation really trained me for all of the walking we did at Dollywood.I didn't mind the walking and wasn't one bit sore the following day.We walked about 7 miles at Dollywood.

The step tally I stated earlier included Saturday.Yesterday I walked 6,156 steps which equals 3.1 miles.Today I walked 8,069 steps which equals 4.0 miles.

I walked 125 miles in the month of June.