Cool Summer Weekends

Is it just me or are the weekends getting shorter? Seriously, they just fly by faster and faster.

Friday night, Scott and I headed out to pick up our race packets, new running shoes for me and then dinner. It was a much welcomed date night. 

We had our second race in the summer series on Saturday, so it was an early (and slightly humid) morning. I broke in my new shoes on the course and loved every minute of it. I finished the course in 35:58 and Scott was not far behind me at 39:19. 

I cannot even fully express how proud of Scott I am. He set his mind to this fitness journey back in January and is just killing it on the course. He said at one point he was coming over a hill and saw me in the distance and was trying to will me into a walk break so he could pass me.

 I know the day is coming soon when he will be running right next to me and then in front of me. I am so looking forward to the day we cross side by side. 

We each were able to take the kiddos on a lunch date and then spent a good chunk of the afternoon in the pool. It was the perfect ending to a pretty awesome day.

Sunday, Jillian had the bright idea to go to Disney. Originally, she wanted to go to Magic Kingdom, but I was definitely not in the mood for the crowds, so we agreed upon Hollywood Studios. I had completely forgotten about the Frozen Summer party that they had going on. It was perfect.

We were able to see the parade with all of the characters and then we headed over to Wandering Oakens Trading Post to check out the ice skating. 

The kiddos loved all of the Frozen activities! I have to admit, we did, too. We even indulged in an Olaf cupcake.

We spent a good chunk of our day there and as soon as the weather alert went off on Scott's phone (perk of having an EM as a husband), we booked it out of there. 

I'm wishing we had another day to just relax, but it was an awesome weekend. I'm already looking forward to the upcoming weekend :)

Smoky Mountain Vacation - Part 3

Welcome to day 3 of our vacation!

Remember how I said it was cold? Well...when we woke up on Tuesday morning there was definitely snow.

Jillian thought that Elsa from Frozen had paid us a visit and that's why there was snow on the ground. I let her go with that (see what I did there?). They even asked if they could build a snowman (okay, seriously, last Frozen reference).

We definitely took our time getting ready that morning because we wanted it to warm up before we headed into town.

Our first order of business was the super delicious cinnamon bread from the Donut Friar. Remember how I mentioned them yesterday? Oh my word, they are delicious!

The cinnamon bread is this crazy combination of traditional cinnamon bread, monkey bread and a cinnamon roll. Yeah, sit on that for a minute.  We consumed the entire loaf that week and bought another one for home. In case you were wondering, they ship. That was a bit of information I did not need to know.

After it warmed up a little bit, and I really mean a little bit, we headed into town and went mini golfing. Our plan was to go to Hillbilly Golf, but it was closed, so we headed over to Firehouse Golf. Aaron was in heaven with all of the fire trucks and fire fighter themed holes.

It was a very chilly 18 holes and I'm pretty sure my finger tips were frozen by the end of it. The kiddos had a great time though, so it was worth the battling the bitter cold.

My genius plan after this was to shop, you know so we could warm up. We found a great popcorn place that had...wait for it...Butterfinger popcorn.

God bless America, y'all.

The kiddos also had a chance to try something truly Southern at the popcorn shop...Moon Pies. Aaron naturally had the chocolate and Jillian (who doesn't like chocolate and is somehow my daughter) opted for the banana.

Not surprisingly, Jillian did not finish hers and Aaron ate all but one bit of his. I made the sacrifice that only a mother can make and ate the last bite of his Moon Pie so it would not go to waste.

After some relaxing time, we headed out for the big surprise of the day, Dixie Stampede!

I got the idea for this outing from my assistant, Amy. She told me that when she was kid her family went to Pigeon Forge and this was her best memory of the trip. Specifically, she loved drinking out of the beautiful plastic boot. I knew we had to do it.

The kiddos were sold the moment we walked in. The boots were a hit (and you bet you I had a Shirley Temple in mine) and so were the flags. The kids barely ate during the show because they were too busy watching all of the horses and riders.

Naturally, they had to have their own cowboy hats after the show. Jillian's, in true Miss Dolly fashion, has a rhinestone tiara and lights up.

We even had a chance to get an up close look at the horses that were used in the show. Aaron especially loved Joker, so we had to snap a photo with him.

The kids did not stop talking the entire ride home and even reenacted the whole show once we got back to the cabin. I would guess that our trip there was a success!

Check back on Friday for more fun from our vacation!

Coming in with a Bang...Literally.

New Year's Day came in with a bang, quite literally. Apparently a transformer or something blew in front of our neighborhood and the pole caught fire. Now that I have power I can say it was funny.

When my jeans were in the washer, it was not. When the power came back on for like 30 minutes and then was out again when I had to dry my hair, it was not funny.

Thankfully, we were having lunch with Mimi and PawPaw, who had power, so I was able to dry both my hair and jeans at their house.

It took a while for the power to finally turn back on and believe me, I'm thankful we didn't have to sit home waiting for it. I'm also thankful it was a colder day and not August. I think I would have died.

After lunch, we finally went to see Frozen. Major kudos to my hubby for a) skipping the bowl games and b) seeing this movie on like 4 hours of sleep. It was a great family date!

The movie was packed to the point that the manager came in during previews, paused them and asked everyone to move over. Apparently everyone has the same idea on New Year's Day.

Aside from the way the day started, I have to say the new year is starting out pretty amazing. I cannot wait to see what 2014 has in store for us.

Wishing all of you the very best in this new year!