Montgomery/Cecil

Cousin's Luncheon 

The Governor's Mansion 

Now that's a " sock monkey"!!!!
someone had some pretty BIG feet
with those socks!

A fun " vine chair"

The Capitol 

Fountain...downtown Montgomery

The moss lined road to Gene and George's

Every month there is a " cousin luncheon" in Montgomery with Melanie and Gene's cousin's.  It's like having a party once a month with your family.  How lucky they are to have so many cousin's and a great family.  There were 13 children in Gene/Melanie's Dad's family.  That's how they got so many cousins!!!  Genavive and I were invited to " cousin luncheon" for July.  While we were in Montgomery, we visited as many places as we could think of to show Genavive.  After all, it is the Capitol of Alabama.  On the list was the Governor's Mansion.  Across the street from the mansion is the " Mansion Gift shop" where you can buy just about anything you want to have to do with Alabama.  A really fun place to shop when you love Alabama as much as I do.  They even gave us a big discount since Lady Melanie was the " Nanny" to the grandchildren of the former Governor.  Genavive went home with lots of " Alabama stuff"!  Next stop was a picture in front of the Capitol.  There wasn't time to go inside, this trip.  Another stop....the beautiful fountain, downtown.  I have a picture of Michelle at this fountain about the same age as Genavive.  We had spent the night at Gene and George's in Cecil and Genavive got to see how fun it is to go to their house with it being just like ours.  Plus, it's out in the country and she has heard stories about it all, her whole life.  She got to spend some time with " Mimmie"...Gene's Mom and meet Jacob.  Now she knows why they are all a  part of our family and us their's.  Another memory was made!

Carmichael Hall

Carmichael Hall

Genavive with Birmingham
in the background

Lady Melanie and Genavive

The ceiling of the gazebo by Lady Melanie's house.

After our days in the mountains, Genavive and I were invited to come spend a few days at Carmichael Hall with Lady Melanie.  It's always a wonderful experience to go to Birmingham and stay at the Hall.  After our first " dinner out" the day we got there, we stopped on top of the mountain and walked up to the pretty white gazebo close to Melanie's house.  The view was breathtaking!

Sevierville, Dolly Parton's Home Town

Genavive meets Dolly 

Beautiful Court House in Sevierville 

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" The Cherry Pit" quilt shop

Buying " bear patterns" for a quilt

The second day we were in the mountains, we loaded up the explorer with all the camping gear and took off for Sevierville.  There was a quilt shop that I wanted to visit there
.  It's called " The Cherry Pit".  A lot of my follow quilters in the quilt guild have been there and said it was " the one to go too".  I wasn't disappointed.  The ladies who worked there were so, so , so nice.  Since Genavive had started working on her quilt before we left for the mountains, she was interested in seeing all the quilts and patterns in the store also.  I bought several little patterns of bears and that is when we decided that I should make a summer quilt called " The Seven Bear Summer".  Now, what summer I will get it done, I can't tell ya...but it's going to be a fun quilt to have for our memories of the summer of 2015.
   Sevierville just happens to be Dolly Parton's home town.   It's a cute little town with a beautiful Courthouse.  We enjoyed seeing the small quaint little town instead of all the " tourist traps" in Pigeon Forge. Gatlinburg was even worse.  It's not at all what it was 45 years ago when we were on our honeymoon.  It's nothing that I would want to go back to any more.....but I'm glad we went.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Two deer at the side of the road on the loop 

We went in the gift shop in the middle of the loop .
Just had to buy Genavive a little stuffed black bear
to help her remember her fun time in the mountains.

Tossing a penny for a wish come true
in the water to the water wheel. 

Aunt Becky's house 

I know...you can't really see them BUT....
there was a mother bear and four cubs along the side
of the road in the loop.  

There were several places to visit in the loop.  In the middle, there were several old buildings, a water wheel, an old house and a gift shop.  A fun place to visit.  Of course we had to get our souvenir's from the Smokey's National Park.  Genavive got a little stuff black bear and I got a plate to go on my new walking stick.  As we were driving along the loop, the cars in front of us kept stopping.  People were getting out of their cars and lining up along the edge of the woods.  Genavive and I jumped out to see what they were looking at.  To our surprise, it was a bear in a tree!  (bear number two)  It was too hard to get a picture of it without getting right under the tree.  Not a good idea!  So, we got back in the explorer and rode a little father before another traffic jam with people standing on the side of the road.  We jumped out again and this time....it was a Mama bear with four cubs!!!  We couldn't believe that we had seen seven bears along with two deer just taking their time, eating along the side of the road.  We might have only spent a few hours in the park but it sure was fun and one that we will remember forever!!!

First Bear

First bear we saw, walking the path that we had just walked up.  

We have a picture of the two of us standing
in front of this cabin on our honeymoon.....45 years ago.
 How did we get so dang old?  

Baptist church from the 1800's.

Preacher Genavive....

After we set up camp in the camp ground, we took off in the explorer to explore the loop around Cades Cove.  What an adventure that was!!!  Our first stop was at one of the old cabins  where Chuck and I had taken a picture of the two of us on our Honeymoon, 45 years ago.  Just as we had walked up the path to the cabin, someone said " look a bear"!  Sure enough.  A bear was walking across the path that we had just walked up.  How exciting that was!!! As it ran into the woods next to the path, two deer came running out.  After that excitement, we got back in the explorer and continued on the loop.....not knowing that we would end up seeing six more bears and two more deer.  What a fun afternoon we had!!!! The start of our " seven bear summer".

Mountain Camping

Side by side tents.....

First time sleeping in a tent. 

We had to keep all our food in the explorer because there
had been bear sightings in the camp grounds recently. 

Rained soaked everything......

It's never going to dry!

Genavive had never been to the " real mountains" so we decided a small camping trip to the Smoky's would be fun.  Chuck and I had not been back to Gatlinburg were we spent our honeymoon in 40's some years.  We thought it would be fun to show Genavive, Gatlinburg and combine a " first time camping in a tent" adventure all in one.  Well, it was all fun and games until it was time to go to bed the first night and around midnight, it started storming.  Lightening and thundering, pouring down rain!  Chuck got up and threw a tarp over the tents but it was to late for our tent to be saved.  Not only were we laying in puddles but Genavive had gotten sick earlier in the evening and then again at midnight.  All over everything in the tent!!  Wet and puked on...everything!!  There were no showers at the camp grounds so I took Genavive to the bathroom and cleaned her up in the sink and she changed her clothes.  Meantime, Chuck cleaned up the tent as much as he could and put the seats down in the explorer for Genavive and I to spend the rest of the night in it.  It was a lonnnnnng night!.  In the morning, we decided since the chance of rain was going to be over 50% again that night, we would just pack everything up, spend the day in Gatlinburg and then head for home.  We really did  still have  a nice time and have many mountain stories to tell.  We think Genavive had a 24 hour bug because she was fine after the midnight ordeal.

Happy July 4th!

Dinner on the front porch 

All American hamburgers, potato salad, deviled eggs, black bean salad and
tomato/cheese salad.  

Little Miss 4th of July 

Mama and Vivi decked out for
July 4th 

Making homemade peach ice cream..
a Peterson tradition 

Everyone enjoyed the homemade ice cream ..

Fire works off the front porch 

I know....this was over a month ago, but life has been crazy this summer at Brambly Pines.  We had a great July 4th though.  Michelle and Vivi came home to help celebrate.  We had an all American dinner on the front porch because of the rain.  We needed the rain so badly, so it wasn't a bad thing.  We made our tradition of homemade peach ice cream, with us girls doing all of the turning.  Chuck has three compressed disks in his back and it has slowed him down some.  As Michelle said " Ice Cream! Girl Power!!  We got her done and it tasted wonderful!!  Our fire works existed from hanging over the railing of the porch but it was still fun.  A bit smokey though.  Miss Vivienne was dressed pretty in her red/white/blue head band for her first July 4th.