First Hike of the Year!

Last Sunday, we packed up the girls to head down to the mountains for our first hike of the year.  Last spring while I was pregnant with Anna, I bought a "hiking backpack" (for lack of a better term) and I've been dying to use it.  I got it for $6 and it was in perfect shape which of course made me want to use it even more.....LOVE a good deal!!
We picked a spot in Cades Cove, had a picnic, and a mini photo shoot.  This was our first time going through Cades Cove since the road was paved and it was SOOOO much better than it used to be!  We were used to driving over enormous pot holes and now it's smooth sailin'!
After getting some pics, I got the girls in their "hiking" attire and we were off to find a good spot to hike and do a little mushroom hunting.  Matt seems to think that people mushroom hunt down here, but I've never heard of the like.
While we didn't find any mushroom, we did spot something exciting........A BEAR!!!  Ok, so we were in our car, but we still saw it!  He was just a little fella', but enough of a reason to NEVER want to go camping!  Especially when we would have two nice little bit-sized treats along with us........NO THANK YOU!!!

We planned to do some horseback riding on our way out of the mountains, but Grace was beat so we decided the next best thing to do was get some ice cream......of course!!
Fingers are crossed for a mild summer so we can have many more weekends like this!!