Chimney Rock, North Carolina

We love living so close to Taylor's side of the family in Salt Lake, but my family is really scattered across the country. There's a brother in New York, a brother in Cleveland, sister in southern Illinois, parents in Chicago, sister in Washington State, a brother in Provo, and then aunts/uncles/cousins/etc in almost every other state that exists. Every year we look forward to getting together with my siblings and their families but this year my mom planned an extra large family reunion and got together everyone on her side that could make it (her 2 parents who are both 80 + 4 of her siblings and their kids and grandkids- can you say a LOT of people). She found this great little resort community in the mountains of North Carolina so we all flew/drove in and had a great time.
Thursday morning we got up bright and early to hike up to Chimney Rock. This is where the final scenes of Last of the Mohicans was filmed if you've seen that so it was very dramatic.
Ethan and Isaac were very enthusiastic in their climb up these initial 20 steps (not so much for the following 500+). Enthusiastic enough that they even climbed the rocks.
Where of course the view was much better.
And the backdrops were gorgeous.
Taylor was a trooper and carried Miles the whole was up in the backpack/stroller thing plus all our water and snacks. It was 87 degrees when we started with full southern humidity. We were dripping just standing in the parking lot at 8am. Yuck!
Nice view though huh? Actually I have to be honest. You just take an elevator up to the point with the flag (+ 20 steps or so). Then the hike up to the real top begins but if you're a wimp like me you can at least get this high.
All the non-wimp people who made it to the very top.
Miles riding in style and comfort. You know it's hot when even the baby is sweating just sitting in his carrier.
A short break along the way to explore some caves. You know a 2 year old couldn't resist climbing on rocks even after climbing so many stairs.
Of course he got carried most of the way down though. Grandpa's a sucker for that cute face!
Apparently the climb was exhausting for Miles as well as the rest of us and he passed out in the stroller.
Great-grandpa treated all the kids to ice cream. I love Isaac's "are you kidding, you think I'm really going to smile for you after all those stairs" face.
After the first hike everyone decided to do another hike down to Hickory Nut Falls. I stayed with sleeping Miles and enjoyed the AC in the ice cream parlor. Sometimes it's really tough to be the mom. :) Ethan and Isaac enjoyed splashing in the water I hear though and they all came back cooled off and very muddy.