little update

wanted to keep you guys in the loop. the newest development has been a new job for me (scott). i have taken a interim youth pastor position at osage hills. it is the church that we have been a part of since we got here. i am 3 wednesday nights and a couple outside events seasoned now. it has been fun, and extremely stretching already. the timeline is not really sure. i was hired along with another guy to keep the boat afloat while the search team looks for a permanent hire. i might be there for 5 months or just a couple more weeks. only god knows. 

www.ontheledge.org

that is the website for the youth group. it is fairly recent (8 days) so there isn't much there yet, but if you keep checking back you will see a bit more of what is happening in the youth group.

so there you have it. 

smoky mountains

the following pictures are from our vacation to tennessee in the great smoky mountain national park. we made three different hikes for a total of 13.9 miles. every foot of the trails were beautiful. the smokys are like no place i have ever been before. 

wednesday night

we got into the park with enough daylight to make some supper set up our tent and fall asleep to the sounds of the river. we had a site that was 10 feet from the river. extremely peaceful. great way to fall asleep. even better than a fan. 

thursday

this is the view of the chimney top from the road

this was our first full day at the smoky mountains. we got up and out of the campground at about 11. we spent a little time at the welcome center and then headed up the new found gap road to find our trailhead. on the way up we decided to climb the chimney tops. it was a really cool trail that crossed 3 rivers. at the top, as you can see, there was a rock face that you had to climb to get the view from the peak. tessa and i took turns making the trek and the other stayed with the kids at the bottom of the rock face. on the way back down then we spent time playing in the river and jumping from some of the rocks.  

friday

on friday we hiked out to the hen wallow falls after our night at the cosby campground. then we went back to the river by the chimney tops and swam for an hour or two. after swimming in the frigid water we drove up to clingmans dome. it is the highest point in tennessee. it was a great view from the top. from there we drove down the back side of the pass and camped at the smokemont campground. you can see ellen helping me put up the tent. she was in charge of staking out the corners. 

saturday

these are some pictures from the alum cave bluff trail. it starts down by one of the many rivers and climbs about 2,000 feet up to the bluff. on the way up you also get to climb through a hole in a rock. the water washed out a tunnel and the trail goes right up through it. it was awesome. we couldn't get a good pic because of the darkness.