Remember the time we went to Greer and I took 600 pictures?

Well, I do.  Seeing as how it just happened last week.  And I just spent hours sorting and (kind of) editing the most beloved of the pics. Prepare yourself: there are about 100 pictures in this post. 

The Merrill traveling circus (meaning, of course, us) journeyed up to the magical, green paradise known as Greer.  Lucky enough to accompany us were my sister, Whit, and her ever-entertaining hubby, Chris.

It was so nice to escape from the broiling heat of Phoenix, and to just breath in some fresh mountain air.  We stayed at the Greer Lodge Resort.  The cabin was stinking awesome (173, 'cause I know you were wondering).

Check in wasn't until 4 o'clock, but because Whitney are eternally Buckway, we wanted to get there early.  We figured that we could find something to do until we could get into our room.

So, after a four hour drive (and a Mr. Wyatt who was very angry about being strapped down that long), we arrived in Greer at 2 o'clock.  And we then had two hours to kill.  So we went on a hike.

We also played a little game of Hot Potato with Wyatt.

The kid weighs 'round about a ton these days.

Why are Whitney, Chris, and Adi so far behind the rest of us?

Because Whitney and Chris felt the desire to actually keep Adi's shoes tied.  OP and I gave up on this insurmountable task a long time ago.

Silly, silly people.

Whitney wore the world's best hiking shoes

I made everyone pose for pictures, because that's what I do.

When we checked in, there was a small mix-up on our cabin.  Apparently they let the people who had it before us keep it longer and forgot to tell us.  Meaning they gave us the key and we walked in on them.  It was pretty awesome.  We did, however, get upgraded to a bigger, nicer, and much better-placed cabin (even though the manager was a horrible, awful meanie over it).  But hey, all's well that ends well.

We made hobo dinners that night, and Whit was very hungry.  She ate three plates full.  Oink, oink.

The kiddos took a bath in the ginormous tub and we learned the hard way that hot water was pretty sparse up there.

We warmed up by the fireplace,

and then settled into a game of good, old fashioned Monopoly.

This game never ends.  I realized that all over again.

And yes, Dad- the phrase "before my turn" was declared about a million times during the game.

The kiddos snuggled down into their bed for the night (actually, there were two queen-sized beds in their room, but they all ended up in the same one).

Us adults made ourselves comfortable in front of the fire for a few hours.

The next day, after soaking up the crisp mountain morning,

we headed out to take full advantage of all the activities the lodge had to offer.

First up: kayaking.

Porter was pretty upset that he wasn't old enough to kayak.

So he used a piece of rope that he had found as a make-shift fishing pole.

Those fish just weren't falling for it.

OP finally let Porter go for a ride on his lap.

And then Wyatt got a turn.  He didn't really like it.  In fact, he started shaking and crying after two minutes out on the water.

While I snapped pictures, Whitney recorded them (this trip won't be forgotten for a long time). 

She also helped me wrangle the uncontrollable Wyatt.

This is a little girl that loved kayaking.  She is also one who threw a fit because she had to share a vest and paddle with her sister.

This is a guy that tried to back-in his kayak to dock it.  It didn't end up too good.

He's dripping wet in the pic, if you can't tell.

In order to save his wet iPhone, we decided to get some bikes from the activity center and ride them to the nearest little store- which was only two miles away- for a bag of rice.  For future reference: two miles on a bike is not far.  Two miles on a bike in high elevation and on steep mountain roads is very, very far.

In fact, our family didn't make it all of the way.

I'm getting ahead of myself in the story.  After we checked out our bikes, we rode down to our cabin to pick up Mr. Porter Pot's bike (never leave home without it!).  As we were riding down a rocky hill, Piper wiped out.

She was hurt and nursing her left wrist.  Crap.  If anyone knows Piper, then you know how tough she is.  And if she says that she's hurt, then she is hurt.

We were thinking that maybe she just sprained it (since she didn't even cry very hard), so we set off on the bike ride.

It didn't go all that well.

Let's just say Orrin had to come rescue the rest of us with his truck (although I am sure I totally could have done it if I didn't have to keep stopping for the kiddos).

I just digitally winked at you. 

We had planned on hiking that afternoon and having a lunch in the wilderness.  Instead we collapsed back at the cabin, put Wyatt down for a nap, and ate on the deck.

Poor little Pipes.  Can you see the swelling?

After we all got the full use of our legs back, we headed out to go fly fishing.

Well, some of us got to go fishing, and some of us got to chase the crazy toddler.  Guess which one I did?

To be fair, I wasn't the only one (again, Whitney- you rock).  Orrin also took his turn when he wasn't helping to reel in the slimy fish and unhook them.  Catch and release, baby.  And yes, Orrin had fish guts all over his hand.

We have some expert fishermen in our family.  Each of 'em caught a fishy.

When we returned the gear, we asked the activity dude where the best hike was locally.  He told us that there was a gorgeous one just right up the road that followed a river.  But he warned us that it wasn't an easy one and not to go on it in the dark.  Yeah, 'cause I totally love night hiking.

We filled our back packs with survival gear (I've been watching a lot of I Shouldn't Be Alive and I wanted to be prepared for pretty much anything), Chris made a make-shift sling for Pipes,

put Wy-fi into the good ole backpack thing, and we were off.

Yeah, Wyatt just wanted to run around and didn't appreciate being strapped onto Daddy's back.

The hike was completely beautiful, as promised.

But it was also a little tricky.  And by "a little tricky" I mean extremely dirty and an ankle-twisting in the making.

And yes, there was Pipes, hurt wrist and all, in the lead for most of the climb.  Have I mentioned that she is tough?

Everyone had a walking stick to help keep them sturdy on the rocky and muddy terrain.

Well, everyone, that is, except for me.  I am xylophobic and chose rather to constantly trip and sink.  Ridiculous, I know.

We munched on Handi-Snacks while relaxing on some boulders,

and tried to get a half-way decent family picture.

*sigh*.  I will get one someday.

The threat of not hiking this specific trail after the sun goes down was ringing in my ears.  I was picturing bears, mountain lions, and even cougars coming to feast on us as the sun slowly made it's way to the horizon.  Orrin sensed my nervousness (by "sensed" I mean he finally got sick of seeing me twitch at every sound) and turned us around.

We all made it out with every limb in tact and some extra dirt on our shoes.

After our steak dinner, and once Wyatt was safely tucked away in bed, we broke out the s'more making stuff.

PG just wanted the untoasted 'mallows.

I think I found Ethan Hawke's doppelganger down in Greer.

After another awesome night's sleep, we packed up all of our stuff early in the AM so we could get some more playtime in before check out.

We trudged our way back to the activity center to borrow some more gear (Porter took advantage of poor old Aunt Whit). 

 We stopped for a photo shoot of Pipe's on what we dubbed "Pipe-out Hill".

Adi insisted on kayaking again.  She now has added "professional kayaker" to her list of things she wants to be when she grows up.

 And even more fishing...

The fly fishing instructor was impressed with our little Porter's cast.  He told Orrin that he needs to get PG into cast competitions.

 Porter just loved the fishing.  He ended up catching three more (the girlies each caught one too).

I love this picture.  It looks like OP and Wyatt are having a serious conversation about paddling.

On our way out, we stopped at the 373 Grill that is attached to the lodge where we stayed.  The atmosphere was fun, but we probably wouldn't eat there again.

All-in-all, the trip was pretty darn awesome.  Yeah, Pipe's ended up breaking her wrist (more on that later), Whitney got bitten no less than five times by some unknown bug, Wyatt's nose ran non-stop, and we had to deal with some rotten steak meat- but I would do it again in a heartbeat!  Hopefully we will be back there next year...

I feel a new Merrill and Lish family tradition coming on.