MY GIRL

Jocy posing next to the first waterfall we came to on Sunday morning. What a trooper!

  To a 10 year old, 5:00am is tremendously early on a Sunday morning. On Saturday, when I was talking to Tim Owens about meeting up and going into the Smoky Mountains, however, my daughter Jocelyn asked if she could go with us knowing it would be an early start. When I told her we would be up at 5:00am, she knew it and was still willing to come along.

  Now, there have been times when I started to get her up early and she refused to go along, Sunday was not that way. I woke her up and told her to dress warm and she was up and ready in no time. After stopping to grab breakfast and meeting Tim, we were off to the mountains.
  We came up to Middle Prong Trail just after daylight was breaking and headed up the trail. It was an easy trail. Very wide and no rocks or tree roots to climb over.
  When we came to our first cascade and had to climb down the bank to the river, Jocy didn't hesitate and climbed down with us. She didn't have an issue with sliding down on her backside in spots that were steep and was very patient with our photography. I asked her to jump up on a rock to pose for me and she wasted no time getting in position and stood very still for a 2 second exposure.
  Where ever we stopped I tried to get a shot of her to both include her and record it for her to see when she grows up and I show it to her and she can remember the day. I even got in a shot with her that was borderline over exposed  but I still love it because it was us.
  Jocy never complained the entire 4 hours we were on the trail until I mentioned being hungry. She then said she was hungry as well and wanted to go back to the car. Fortunately, even though we had no idea what time it was, it was around 11:00am and the midday sun was washing out everything with harsh light so we headed back to the car.
  I really enjoy the fact that Jocy is willing to come with me on these photo excursions. It means a lot to me. Someday, when she gets older, she will lose that interest and hanging out with Dad won't be "cool" anymore so I need to take advantage of it while I can.
 I love you Jocy. Thanks for making your old man feel important.

Jocy and me