Thanksgiving 2016

We had another wonderful Thanksgiving this year on a warm but beautiful day.  We have a lot of be thankful this year - as always.  We were surrounded by family and enjoyed a delicious meal together.  Daddy and Papa fried up another turkey breast and everyone else helped by bringing a couple side dishes to go with our main course.  

This year we even had a special yard decoration: a blowup turkey!

 Showing off their Thanksgiving hats they made at school:

The kids (young and old) had fun playing before we ate lunch. 

Sweet cousins. 

 We loved the pilgrim hats Gigi brought!

 The chefs.

  Kate and Nanny took a walk and did some exploring before lunch.

 Our little pilgrims.

 Cutest little pilgrim.

 And it's not a Thanksgiving without some family pictures:

 Happy Thanksgiving!

Fun Weekend and My 34th Birthday!

This past weekend full of fun and family.  On Saturday, Gigi and I took the kids to Bradley's Fun Day.  We hadn't been in several years so it was fun to shop and let the kids play in the kids area.  It was chilly that morning but quickly heated up by the time we left.  We arrived early (9:00am) and left a before lunchtime.  

 After shopping, we went across the street to the petting zoo.  Kate was very excited to pet the baby goats and Mason was excited about the rabbits.

 Petting one of the rabbits.  Needless to say we used lots of baby wipes and hand sanitizer when we were done.

 After the petting zoo, look who we ran into!

We couldn't leave without riding the train!

 Sweet Cooper.

After Bradley's, we went over to the church's Fall Festival out at the church property.  There were bounce houses, games, hayrides and more! We enjoyed lunch and good company for the afternoon before heading back home (exhausted).

On Sunday, we had lunch together to celebrate my birthday a couple days early. 

 The boys helping me blow out candles. Kate chose to stay in the other room - not sure why.

 Being sweet to Cooper.

 And of course, when it's my birthday lunch there's always pictures! 

 A family picture for my parent's Christmas card. :)

 My handsome guy!

 So blessed!

On Monday night, I had a girl's night party with dinner at Outback and then a game at Breakout Tallahassee (brand new).  It was SO MUCH FUN.  I highly recommend going.  The escape games are real life scenarios where up to 8 people have an hour to break out of a room by cracking codes, solving riddles, piecing together puzzles and finding clues.  We succeeded and "broke out" in only 46 minutes and 34 seconds.  It meant so much to me that everyone was able to get together and help me celebrate!

From left to right: Katie, Angela, Marleni, Me, Jillian, Kim and Tracy

Today was my birthday!  

This is what I woke up to - my sweet kiddos exited to help me up wrap my gifts.  Kate picked out pink glitter nail polish, Mason picked out a round hairbrush, and Justin bought me my requested Swiffer Vac and Dustbuster (my how my birthday requests have changed over the years).

It was a workday birthday but I didn't mind since I work with such great people.  My co-worker, Jillian, brought bagels, my boss brought me a cupcake (yummy!) and my family met me for lunch!  I couldn't ask for more!   

I am one lucky birthday girl to be showered with so much love!

Our Belated Anniversary Trip

Once upon a time, I had grand plans for our tenth anniversary trip...something big and expensive.  Fast forward to the present when money and time off of work is tight. Such is life!  Justin and I decided to plan a long weekend in the North Georgia Mountains for a shorter and cheaper anniversary trip.  Neither one of us had stayed in the area so we rented a cabin south of Helen, Ga.  It was fun to try something new together and explore new surroundings.  The kids stayed with my parents and I was told they were very well behaved (thank goodness!).  

We left last Thursday night after work and drove back on Monday, in plenty of time to pick up the kids from school.  Thursday night we stayed in Duluth, Ga (north of Atlanta) and got up Friday morning to drive the rest of the way to Helen - approximately an hour or so. There wasn't much going on in Helen that day so we stopped at the visitor's center to get a few maps of the area.  We walked around Helen, did some shopping and then ate an early dinner at the Nacoochee Village Tavern and Pizzeria. It was delicious and since we were early, we beat the crowd.  We took our leftovers and went to the cabin to check in.  Justin picked a one room cabin about 10 minutes south of Helen called Allure.  It was the perfect place since it was just the two of us.  

 The creek that runs through Helen - so peaceful.

Our Cabin: 

 Inside view:

On Saturday, we spent all day outdoors.  That morning we went to Anna Ruby Falls - one of the popular waterfalls north of Helen.  We arrived around 10:00 and there were already a crowd of people.  It was a paved path and nothing too strenuous but it was still a good workout. This might have been one of my favorite spots during our trip.  

 At the top of the falls!

Another picture at the top of the falls. 

On our hike back down, the crowds had arrived.  I was so glad we had gotten there early.  We drove back into Helen and could tell the weekend guests had arrived.  The weather was perfect and the leaves were all changing colors so it was a gorgeous weekend to be in the mountains. We ate lunch at a great little BBQ place called North Georgia BBQ and then we headed west of Helen to do some more sightseeing. We went to a vineyard (another new thing for both of us) and stopped by another waterfall hiking trail that afternoon. 

Views from the Cottage Vineyard and Winery in Cleveland, GA: 

 Our hike that afternoon was down into a gorge...another new experience for me.  There were "bathrooms" there which did not consist of neither plumping or running water.  I was roughing it!

Sunday was our last full day in Helen.  Justin requested we hike up Mount Yonah - yikes!  I was really nervous because I wasn't sure what to expect but once we got out there I relaxed.  There were a handful of people on the trail going up and several hiking down to the parking lot after camping overnight. 

The view of the mountain from the parking lot:

 Getting started...

  Not the clear path I expected to see.

 Along the way, Justin saw some survey boundaries...always the surveyor.

Back at it.... 

 I was huffing and puffing at some points along the trail.  Whew.

 We made it to the top!  The view was well worth the effort.

Mountain top selfie.

It took us about three hours to hike up and down the mountain.  We went to Helen that afternoon for a little bit before heading to our cabin to relax the rest of the day. We had a wonderful weekend together and it was a nice break from our daily routine.  We really appreciate my parents for keeping the kids - I'm not sure they missed us. :)