adventuring on the fourth.

austin's family came to visit for the fourth of july weekend, and its never a hatch family vacation without a load of adventures packed in there. to start we drove up to north georgia in the blue ridge mountains and went white water rafting down the chattooga river. it was a rainy downpour day, which made for a high water level and awesome rapids. at one point we hit a  good size rapid and sitting in the front austin almost fell out, but luckily i caught him in time (he may or may not have a different account of the event). we rafted for a good portion of the day, and by the end were wiped out and headed back to a cute little mountain inn we were staying at. with a little bit better weather the next day, we went mountain biking, following beautiful scenic routes along the blue ridge mountains. the trail proved to be a little bit more difficult than expected and seemed to be mainly uphill, and after 4 miles part of our group decided to turn around. if anyone knows my biking skills, this would have been the best option for me, however after some pushing and pleading, austin convinced me that it would we well worth it to continue along the journey since it was only 4 more miles until the end for a total of 8 miles. well...mile 8 came and went, and then 9, and 10...and the trail was soon turning into the never ending story. with much coaching and encouragement from austin and my awesome mother-in-law, i survived to the end of the actual 13 mile trail (apparently the park rangers need to seriously update the map), with a beautiful waterfall destination. after recovering from the biking adventure, we visited the awe-inspiring tallulah falls where we got to hike and climb through the 1,000 foot gorge. the only unfortunate part of the whole trip was we were having too much fun to stop and take pictures but we did get one after our biking feat

and if these adventures weren't enough, we met back up in destin, florida the following week for a beach front weekend filled with snorkeling and sand-dollar diving on the sandy white beaches. again, too much fun for pictures, but we'll always have our memories of some serious fun adventures- thanks hatchs, we had a blast!