It’s been a long week, with Jon on a business trip and all kinds of shenanigans in his absence, but Friday is here, he’s almost home, and I’m going to take a few minutes to post a handful of photos from our family trip to the Smoky Mountains last weekend. These trips have become such a highlight for our family. It was unusually cold, but we did some hiking, anyway. We also ate like pigs and enjoyed each other greatly for a few too-short days of vacation.

(Sorry, Veronica, the exposure on this one just wasn’t working!)

And a blurry cell phone group photo from a Gatlinburg shopping plaza already decked out for Christmas. That crazy town certainly has its many faults, but we forgive much in the place where so many traditions are rooted and memories made. (Also, if you want to know the good Gatlinburg spots, ask a Geary or a Sharp.)