Wildlife on our front door screen

 When we got up this morning we saw this Praying Mantis on our front door screen.  He stayed there all day, even though we went in and out of the door many times.  This looks like a baby, since they are usually much bigger when fully grown.  It was very neat to watch him/her slowly make it 's way up to the top of the door. 

  This is looking on top of the Praying Mantis.                                       

 
 

 This is a view from inside looking out.                  

Fun in Gatlinburg

We had a lot of fun times in Gatlinburg.  The cabin was beautiful, with a great porch we made use of reading books while listening to the rain on the trees.  Yes, it did rain off and on, but it was still nice, and the rain stopped at helpful times.  I took a picture of the resident porch spider, it may be a bit hard to make out. 

 

 

  
  Some views from our porch.

  Morgan taking a bath in the kitchen sink the first night.  She fit well.

Casey loved going up and down the stairs and running through the house.

Morgan liked chewing on the plastic tub, and crawling all around the floor. 

We had some nice family moments.  One at a restaurant on our last night there. 

Art and I went into the town of Gatlinburg for the day and had a great time.  Art rode the sky-lift up    the mountain while I stayed safely with my feet on the ground and took pictures. 

We got thirsty while we were walking in town so we stopped in at a restaurant to get a cold drink.  We met this really nice waitress from the Ukraine, her name was Maryna.  She spent about 40 minutes total talking to us about her experience here in the U.S.  She came on a student visa, and wants to stay longer to travel throughout the country.  She finds Americans friendly and generally happy.  She says this is not the norm in her country, everyone has a sort of downcast face.  We really had a good time talking to her.  We hope her application for a  tourist visa comes through. 

                             Other family pics.

Here are some pictures of the mountains in the town.

And lastly, here is the reason they call them the Smokey Mountains.  Art took me back to this spot after we had passed it by on the way home.  Anyone who knows Art, knows he hates to lose time by stopping to take pics or backtracking.  He was so nice to go back to this outlook, he knew I hadn't taken a good picture of the mountains  from this high up.  

Goodbye Gatlinburg, we will return sometime soon I hope.