I don’t think it could have been a warmer, January mountain trip than it was this past weekend.

Friday morning we set out with the Woods and Westerholds for Gatlinburg and the Murphy’s joined us that evening. We stayed in the River Rock lodge of Chalet Village. It ended up being a really cool place save the fact that the walls were so thin I think all of the couples had to make good use of their pillows or socks at some points if you know what I mean. We pretty much spent the whole time doing one of the following things: reading, playing chess/ pool/ video games, making and eating delicious food, drinking adult beverages, smoking, relaxing in the hot tub, climbing the two story river rock fireplace in the living room, looking for hidden treasure, and dancing in the kitchen to hippity hop music. I actually have video of the entire group doing a drunken version of the chicken dance from arrested development. Yes…..

It was a fantastic time, and as usual I learned a couple things I didn’t know. In no particular order, here they go: sometimes my directional skills are somewhat lacking and I have a hard time deciphering between Highway 411 and 441, apparently it is a good idea to bring at least one set of summer clothes on a mountain trip in January as it may be 70 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, Abby Westerhold is way better than me at chess, my husband cannot scale a two story river rock fireplace without the help of some friends pulling his ass over the rail at the top, and last but not least Brian T. Murphy is a pool shark. I don’t care what anybody says, he may seem like all he’s good for is tickling the ivories, eating babies, and sporting green and yellow plaid shirts, but no, he is a damn fine pool player much to my dismay.

Oh, and how could I forget: the meaning of the term hand***. Ha.

To see some more digital photographs of this weekend and others, visit my flickr.