fall creek falls 2011

 get ready for the post of a million pictures.
this was my fourth year at fall creek falls (how is that possible?! time flies!) but it was the first time i ever made an effort to take pictures. i was always worried my camera was going to get jacked and i hate being that annoying person always stopping to snap a picture, but it is worth it in the end. thanks iphone camera, don't know what i'd do without you.

after a late start (because of a late night for brett the night before. he stayed up till 4 getting together a final folder for his second rotation. two down! woo!) we made it to tenn around 6 on friday.

julie, chad, and his girlfriend liz got there right after us so brett helped set up their tent (then sliced his finger trying to punch another hole in his belt). brett and i got to share a pop up camper with brett's dad and juile this year. hello ac, goodbye nasty dampness of a tent!

we had s'mores every night and of course lots of famous bill rudder stories around the fire. on sunday he started out with bible trivia and ended up giving us an overview of the old testament from abraham to solomon. ha.

one friend who comes actually does an astronomy class for the park so he gave us our own turn with his fancy telescope. that saturn is pretty cool.

saturday we went to the snake show.

brett found a friend at the nature center.

the top of the cable trail. it's a pretty vertical drop down to the base of a waterfall. it's called the cable trail because you're supposed to hold onto the cable running down the length of it to be safe (except at a few parts the cable is 3 feet away from where you're trying to rock climb down, that's a whole lot of help).

towards the bottom.

time for a swim after the work of climbing down.

you can see brett and ryan on a log out there.

it felt soo nice and cool.

camping = lots of rook and euchre playing and lots of snacking/eating.
camping also means lots of rain so the blue tarp canopy is essential. they've got tarp set up down to an art.

softball was a let down this year. it was mostly punky middle schoolers.

on sunday julie, liz, and i walked down to see fall creek falls. looks like they need more rain.

on monday while the boys were playing golf the girls hung out at the pool. that's one sweet looking hotel huh? ha. we met up at the golf course for some of their cheese burgers. best cheese burgers ever.

 we had a washers tournament too. i remember being better at that game.

what a pro.

 after washers brett and i went on a blitz of some things i had wanted to see that we hadn't had a chance to yet. here we are at the overlook for fall creek falls.

 we found a foot rock on the way to another waterfall. (disregard the crazy eyes, they're beyond fixing.)

 this sucker was soo loud. then we made our way to the suspension bridge that's upstream from that waterfall.

soo pretty, and a little freaky. i was especially careful taking pictures with the phone. you come off the rock face and it goes into a hike in the woods.

 brett's so crazy he was bouncing that thing up and down. haven't you ever seen indiana jones?! or emperor's new groove?! be careful on bridges man! ha.

tuesday we helped take down camp and headed home. we hit some nasty rain, and i might have gotten a little crunk trying to fight off the sleepiness :)
i felt like i took a lot more pictures, but i guess i just captured that stuff with the flip video (like all the wildlife we saw). so get pumped for a highlight reel to make you feel like you were there.

now accepting recruits for fall creek falls 2012.