A day of Baptisms and hiking in God's country

Last Sunday was such a beautiful day!! We started the day at church with a bunch of family members and got to witness my nephew(and 2 others) get baptized. He has been through some tough times but has come to the point in his life where he wanted to follow through with believer's baptism.


Way to go Bradley! We are proud of your decision and pray that you will always remember this day. You had a lot of family there to support you too!!

After church, we rushed out and a large group of us headed to the house to change clothes and head to Trey Mtn in North Georgia for some hiking. I must tell you that the Fall leaves were at there absolute prettiest. It amazes me how many different colors that the leaves can be. And oh so beautiful to look at!! We saw God's handiwork at some of its best today. Trey Mtn is right above Helen but you have to go on a dirt mountain road for about 30 minutes to get to the mountain. Tony was following us and fell in a ditch at one point, but we made it up safely. Then the group started hiking up the mountain. The kids did really well with climbing this 4430 ft mountain to the top.

Pictures do not begin to do justice to the Beautiful views we had that day. Included in our hiking group were Bradley, Justin, Jason,Matthew,Nick, David, Jennifer, Dale, Tony and myself. The pictures you see in front of a hut structure is called a lean-to. About 25 years ago, Dale, his brother Tony, and their Uncle David hiked the Appalachian Trail for 3 days. They remember sleeping in this particular lean-to one evening and hiking Trey Mtn the next morning. It is always a treat for Dale to be in the mountains hiking, but he especially loves the Appalachian Trail. So, we had to find this place for the kids to see and the big kids to remember. Personally, the ground seemed like it would be softer to sleep on than the wood, but I am sure the shelter is nice. The picture of the 3 of them in front of the lean-to 25 years later is pretty neat. They are going to try to plan a long weekend to go hiking again next year sometime.
At one point when we are at the lean-to, some went down to the water which was a short hike. Jason decided to show off his monkey skills and climbed a big tree. We came up with a plan to act like we couldn't find him. So, when the others came back, we asked where he was and they assumed he went back down the mountain. Then we "found" his stick laying at the bottom of the tree and thought that would worry everyone, but they assumed he walked off and left it. They never had a clue that he was right over everyone's heads and our kids were dying trying to hold in their laughter. It was funny. Finally, Jason had to shake a branch to get them to look up.
We finished the day by going to Ryan's which is the kid's favorite restaurant but we don't have any more near us, so it is a special treat for them to go there. Overall, it was a beautiful day. We could not have asked for better weather or better views or a better way to spend a Sunday.