Happy Friday!

I love my Fridays! More so when I know I get to see these funny girls all weekend!

Gatlinburg Getaway for V-day

For Valentines Day, we decided to celebrate by going with a few of our church friends to Gatlinburg. A city surrounded by beautiful mountains. Gatlinburg is one of those places that I love going to because it's close, yet far enough away to just get out and feel like you're somewhat vacationing.

The weekend turned out fabulous! 50-60 degree weather. It was short and sweet. We left Friday around lunch and got there around 5pm. Just in time for dinner. We were there all day Saturday and then drove back on Sunday. So really, we were there for one full day. But it was still fun regardless and we did what we like best, hanging out with friends. Robert and I went without the girls, so that was nice too. We needed some time together.

Here's the inside of our cabin. It was so huge! Altogether there were 6 bedrooms, with a loft included and a single twin bed room along with pullout couches. It also had two kitchens. Perfect for a huge group. We went with 5 other couples. Of course, it isn't a cabin without fooseball, a pool table and a hot tub right?!

This was the downstairs/den area. The upstairs kitchen looking down from the loft.

The huge dining room table. Perfect for a huge group.

The main living area.
Our bedroom. Most of the rooms looked like this one. Saturday morning we decided to drive up the mountain to do a little bit of hiking and do a little exploring.

The group we traveled with
I absolutely love hiking. One of my favorite things. Really. Well after seeing this sign and knowing it was going to be a hard hike, I knew I was on the right trail. :) I really didn't dress for it because we didn't know we'd be doing a hard trail, but it worked out regardless because it was well worth it for me. At the end of the 3 mile trail, we came upon this beautiful waterfall.

We actually witnessed a guy falling into the water, not down the fall, thank God. It was sad though because it was an older man (probably in his late 60's) who stepped back a little too far to take a picture and he got soaked! I really hope he had a change of clothing in the car. The water was extremely cold and I just know he was going to get sick. Luckily one of the guys with us came to the rescue and pulled him out of the water. He was having a hard time.

After our hike and checking out the beautiful mountains, we went on down to the Gatlinburg Strip and stayed there for a good while. This is one of the things I enjoy doing the most whenever I go. I love walking in and out of the shops while people watching. So fun.

Afterwards we came back to the cabin and hung out. We ate a late dinner, had a little marriage study, played games, got in the hot tub and had some fun and interesting conversations.

We played a game of pool, which a totally suck at....

and what better way to end the night then to play board games!!

Sunday morning before heading home we ate at the pancake pantry and then we did some shopping at the famous tanger outlets.

All together, we didn't really do all that much, but we still had a fun time away.

Warm weather, hurry up and get here already!

Two weekends ago when Robert got home we made sure to spend quality family time together. Especially since we had nice weather. Really. I wore a light jacket and geesh, Robert wore shorts and a short sleeved shirt!

So obviously, I'm not a teacher so I can't wish for snow days, because if it snows I still have to work. It doesn't matter how bad the roads are, I'm required to work. I've had enough snow days. Really! When it snows or it looks like it's going to snow that means TRAFFIC. It normally means that it's going to take me well over an hour to get home from work. People are just too dramatic. Really. It also means that my 10 minute walk from my car to my work building is going to be painful. Because I work downtown, the wind seems so much stronger. It hits my face so hard and it hurts. I wish I could afford to park in the garage, but I can't fork up $10 for one day. It's just too much. Even if it's below zero degrees, I won't do it. I'm too cheap. I rather spend that money on something else.

So anyways, that weekend we had some decent doable weather. We loved it and decided to take girls on a walk and to the park. We had a great time and really enjoyed ourselves.

Arianna loves the park and Avonlea loves the swing. She cried everytime we tried taking her out.

Avonlea trying the slides. She loved it!

We walked through the streets of a neighborhood and Robert and I had the best talk while the girls enjoyed the wagon ride.

So nice weather....we really want you now. We've had too many snow days. I'm ready to see them come to an end.

My Betty Crocker

Robert's been gone for 2 weeks (with the exception of seeing him for less than a full day last weekend) and is finally home for a while. Meaning no traveling outside the state for a while. He'll be working ridiculous hours, but at least he'll be coming home at nights. I have to admit it was wierd not having him next to me in bed to keep me company. I like knowing he's right there. Not having him at home was lonely.

Well not only did I miss him, but Arianna really really missed him. She is a big daddy's girl. Really! She would ask about him every. single. day. So Thursday night came and as usual she'd ask and I'd say the same thing, but this time I told her the word 'tomorrow'. This excited her and she told me she wanted to do something for him. I suggested brownies since we all know Robert loves brownies. She was ecstatic and wanted to do most of the baking by herself because she's a big girl now she says.

Washing hands is very important. I teach Arianna that anytime we do anything in the kitchen we are required to wash our hands. We decided to make betty crocker's hershey's triple chunk brownies (so one thing about me is that I do most everything out of a box-nothing from scratch-sad I know).

Arianna was so excited! Isn't she so big? We decided to make cupcake brownies rather than the regular pan brownies. Here she is putting in the little baking paper cups. She's so focused! And look at her. She was thrilled with the help she was able to contribute. She loves helping her mommy.
Daddy of course enjoyed the brownies and was excited to be home Friday night. He thanked his baby girl for the delicious treats. We're happy to have him back.